Contribution of Forestry to Poverty Alleviation - APFNet

viable spheres of production for small industry with credit linked to self-employment programs and
affordable technology development and distribution. Specialized credit institutions and marketing
networks in the field of agriculture and private-land forestry are provided by the government. In the
Republic of Korea, rural industrialization policy is considered as an important income policy for small
farmers and businessmen and an instrument to disperse economic activity and control concentration.
The gradual and steady increase in rural income in turn, has helped the country in providing markets
for the development of large and complex industries. These lessons and other successful poverty
eradication policies can be put into good use by the Philippine government in curbing poverty problems
in the uplands as well as the lowlands.
It is important to consider how forests can help people and how people can help forests under conditions
of long lasting stewardship. Both the capability to manage forests as well as the capability of forests to
absorb human activities must be well-studied. There is always a limit on what the forests can provide.
Any plan on forest management/development must consider the eventual saturation of its carrying
capacity, hence, the need for some radical population management strategies that must be enshrined in
the national forestry programs.
Conclusions
The magnitude of continuous and widespread forest destruction is now being felt adversely in many
areas. Aggravated by erratic rainfall pattern, landslides, and flash floods are now common occurrences
many upland areas. These calamities aggravate massive poverty of people in the uplands because of their
inherent vulnerability to these calamities. It was already established that environmental degradation
and poverty in the uplands are intricately related, both of which perpetuate each other in a vicious cycle.
Widespread poverty and inadequate livelihood opportunities in the uplands/forest communities have
continued to worsen for the last 20 years. These arise due to increasing numbers of people competing
for limited and shrinking natural resources. More than 24 million Filipinos are living in upland
communities, more than half of whom are fully dependent on the forest for their livelihood. As they
posed problems for the forests, they also provide opportunities for solving these same problems.
It is observed that in areas where forests are still substantial and forest resources abound, poverty
incidence is higher. Family income in these areas usually falls below the poverty thresholds as forests
can only provide subsistence/backstop livelihoods, especially in isolated areas. Many families have
lived there for generations, traditionally practicing long-rotation swidden agriculture called kaingin.
But because of rapid upland population growth and the diminishing area available for cultivation,
fallowing which is sustainable as practiced before, is rarely being observed now. Recent migrants have
introduced more intensive cultivation and cropping systems that significantly improved production over
the short term. However, natural population growth and additional in-migration among the migrants
have exerted so much pressure on the forest resources rendering them unsustainable.
Aside from farming, extraction of forest products in the forests substantially contributes to the
subsistence of many people. However, the points of view of people dependent on the forests are poles
apart from those who want the forests preserved in view of environmental protection. The seemingly
indecisiveness of the government in providing a conducive and stable policy environment supportive
of sustainable forest management (that is logically pro-poor) continuously provides impetus for unrest
and forces the people to pursue more destructive activities in the forests.
Poverty reduction is always a key concern of every government in the country. There is some headway
on this respect as the country continued to experience decrease in poverty incidence among families,
from 28.3% in 1991 to 20.9% in 2009. However, this improvement in the poverty situation was not felt
in the uplands. Still, the regions with high forest cover with high upland populations are still the poorest
regions as shown by data on poverty incidence among families. Under the 2011-2016 MTPDP, the
government aims to reduce poverty incidence in the Philippines by 10% annually until the President’s
term ends in 2016.
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