The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR and World Agroforestry (ICRAF) joined forces in 2019, leveraging a combined 65 years’ experience in research on the role of forests and trees in solving critical global challenges.
Forests are open systems where products and by-products freely flow in and out. Without proper intervention, this may lead to the further depletion of ecosystem services.
Open systems are where materials and energy naturally flow from, and to, their external environments through geological and biological cycles. Humans are dependent on the natural environment for ecosystem services related to provision of raw materials and waste assimilation.
Forest ecosystems are interconnected with urban and agricultural ecosystems through both natural and anthropogenic transboundary flows. Natural transboundary flows include provision of water supply and flood regulation. Examples of anthropogenic transboundary flows, on the other hand, are extraction of forest products and use of forest land. This is why recent forest management strategies integrate ridge-to-reef ecosystems in a watershed approach. This encompasses the ecological, economic and socio-cultural characteristics of environments from the top of mountains to the bottom of the sea.
While forests have beneficial flows for societies and economies, activities that exceed production and assimilative capacities have detrimental effects on the environment, such as leaching, erosion and sedimentation. Such problems occur when trees are over-logged or when too much commercial fertilizers are used on agricultural land. The impacts of upland degradation also trickle down to lowland communities. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to completely avoid these impacts, which makes maintaining the continuous flow of ecosystem services from uplands to lowlands within a watershed challenging.
The challenge of maintaining forest conditions in Cordillera
When it comes to property rights, many Philippine forests are open access. This means that they are available to the general public for free. Utilization reduces availability for others yet it is not feasible to exclude others from use. This system usually leads to over-extraction and pollution, considering increasing pressure from a growing population moving to the uplands looking for better agricultural opportunities.
The Cordillera Administrative Region is one of many places in the Philippines with conflicting property rights on forest lands owing to overlapping national and customary laws. While it boasts exemplary traditional farming practices, some areas in the region are faced with continuous expansion and intensification of agriculture into forest land, resulting in degradation. For instance, people in Buguias, Mountain Province have mentioned a noticeable rise in temperatures in the area, which they attribute to changes in the landscape from pine forests to vegetable gardens. At least the community recognizes the importance of forests to climate regulation. Results of workshops conducted by ICRAF in the area in November 2019 showed that the farmers expressed high willingness to integrate trees into their farms to help improve ecosystem services.
Partners in the private sector have also shown their support for undertakings related to natural resources management, particularly, those that affect their business operations. The Chico Upper River Basin in Cordillera Region is a source of water for many domestic and hydropower users. During a workshop held by ICRAF in Baguio City in October 2019, hydropower companies recognized the threats posed by decreasing water supply and increasing sedimentation to their operations, which they attributed to decreasing forest cover. In turn, these companies implemented initiatives — such as tree planting and community livelihoods’ activities — to increase forest cover and prevent further deforestation, as well as to help improve farmers’ economic conditions.
The Chico Upper River Basin is one of the sites of the Integrated Natural Resources and Environmental Management Project (INREMP), which aims to ‘reduce and reverse degradation of watersheds and associated environmental services caused by forest denudation and unsustainable farming practices and to provide incentives to local communities, local government units and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources for improving natural resource management by generating sufficient and tangible economic benefits’.
Payments for ecosystem services to maintain forest conditions
Recognizing the influence of upland communities on forest ecosystem conditions and vice versa, providing them with incentives for improving their natural resources management through payments for ecosystem services is one of the objectives of INREMP. This is a voluntary transaction wherein rewards are given by beneficiaries (or ‘buyers’) of a defined ecosystem service to individuals or communities (or ‘sellers’) that help secure them. It is a ‘plowback’ mechanism for financial flows from the environment.
Incentives are based on the opportunity costs incurred by the providers of the ecosystem services for not performing environmentally destructive activities, such as the costs of shifting to organic or climate-smart agricultural practices. It can also be based on the added cost of their efforts to prevent further destruction, such as conservation of soil and water. Because of ecosystems’ complexities, incentives are directed towards activities that help achieve conditions leading to the generation of the ecosystem service.
As part of its technical assistance to INREMP, World Agroforestry (ICRAF) is exploring the feasibility of a payments for ecosystem services’ scheme in the headwater area of the Chico, particularly, in Mount Data. The area has a high risk of degradation and is valuable to many private and institutional water users. INREMP promotes sustainable forest management options, such as agroforestry and conservation farming. Willing institutions can fund the extra effort that farmers will need to expend in exchange for the potential enhancement of water services, which is important to their operations. Through this arrangement, both upland farmers and downstream water users benefit from the enhancement and maintenance of the forests. Being partners in sustainable forest management, conservation becomes more attractive.
This kind of approach not only is able to maintain or improve the open system of forest lands by ensuring the flowing in, and out, of products and by-products but also the communities gain partners in government and the larger private sector.
The workshops were conducted as part of ICRAF’s involvement with INREMP, a seven-year project funded by the Asian Development Bank being implemented by the Philippine Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
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United Nations, European Union, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, International Monetary Fund, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, The World Bank. 2014. System of Environmental-Economic Accounting 2012: central framework. New York NY, USA: United Nations; Brussels, Belgium: European Union; Rome, Italy: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; Washington DC, USA: International Monetary Fund; Paris, France: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development; Washington DC, USA: The World Bank.
World Agroforestry (ICRAF) is a centre of scientific and development excellence that harnesses the benefits of trees for people and the environment. Knowledge produced by ICRAF enables governments, development agencies and farmers to utilize the power of trees to make farming and livelihoods more environmentally, socially and economically sustainable at multiple scales. ICRAF is one of the 15 members of the CGIAR, a global research partnership for a food-secure future. We thank all donors who support research in development through their contributions to the CGIAR Fund.
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