Adaptive collaborative management of community forests in Asia ...

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184 • Herlina Hartanto The increased awareness of the importance of communication to participation from their members prompted the board of directors to hold meetings at least once every month (instead of semiannually). The PO also found several other ways to communicate their community forest activities to wider audience, such as involving teachers and out-of-school youth, establishing linkages with local government units, and making use of the local radio program, Radyo ng Bayan. These actions produced immediate results: more people began visiting the PO office seeking information. Some sought clarification on the information they had seen in the newsletters or the bulletin boards; others asked about training and other activities. The newsletter proved useful not only for the board of directors but also for its members and the local DENR. It gave members opportunity to share their observations, voice their opinions and improve their communication skills. DENR learned about illegal extraction of almaciga resin from a newsletter article and began an investigation—evidence that the newsletter was considered a reliable source of information. Despite these successes, the group still needs to undertake a more structured survey of the effectiveness of different communication media as the starting point for making future improvements. Indigenous knowledge of herbal medicine In the ACM Bukidnon site, the people’s organisation and representatives of local stakeholders identified several health problems for Basac villagers. The most pressing was the unavailability of both traditional and modern medicines. The action learning group that decided to address the unavailability of medicines in Basac was composed of eight barangay health workers and one barangay resident. The group was occasionally joined by the barangay captain (a woman) and one male barangay officer. In the past, a botica sa barangay, a store that sold Western medicine, had operated with the support from the municipal government, but it had closed: the idea of establishing the store had come from outsiders who apparently had not taken into consideration the economic conditions of the barangay residents. They could not afford the medicine, and the store had been poorly managed. Based on the insights into past efforts, the group decided to revive the use of herbal medicine, which had always been a part of their culture. The strategy
Chapter 6: Facilitating Change from the Inside in the Philippines • 185 was to establish a garden of local medicinal plants. An herb garden had been attempted in the past but succumbed to the El Niño drought of 1997- 1998 and had to be abandoned in any case when the landowner reasserted rights to the plot. The group decided it would be better to locate the garden on public land within the village territory. The land next to the health center was ideal because, being heath workers, the group members knew that there was no plan to use the land for other purposes. They requested and received permission from the barangay captain to make use of a 400- square-meter plot. The ACM team facilitated a meeting in which the members discussed what herbs to grow. All the plants that were frequently and commonly used, in demand and considered effective were listed. Initially, the group came up with 34 herb species: 24 lowland or introduced species and 10 forest species. The women then listed the sources of these species (their own plots at home, immediate neighbours, adjacent villages, the forest), and allocated the responsibility of collecting these species amongst themselves. Lowland species included tree species, such as madre de cacao (Gliridia sepium) and Eucalyptus, and herbs such as lagundi (Vitex negundo), hilbas (Artemesia vulgaris), luy-a (Zingiber officinale), and angelica (Bryophyllum pinnatum). Those who were assigned to collect forest species had to gather information about their whereabouts. Because some of those species grew deep in the forests and could not be easily collected, the group decided to plant the garden with the 24 lowland species only. Preparation for the garden was done collectively by the women and their family members. Their husbands constructed a bamboo fence around the plot, and their children helped water the plants afterward. In addition herbs, they also planted food crops like beans, pechay (Brassica chinensis), patola (Luffa acutangula), gourds and cutting flowers. To ensure that they could water the herb garden regularly, the group lobbied the barangay officers for a water faucet installed near the clinic. This water faucet proved crucial for maintaining the garden during the dry season. Once the herb garden was established, the group considered the needs of community members who lived on the other side of the village and could not easily get to the health center. They decided to establish another herb garden and obtained permission from the the Basac association president to set one up within the community forest. This garden was much larger— 1,000 square meters—and planted not only with herbs but also with vegetables and root crops, such as sweet potato, cassava and gabi (taro).
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Copyright © 2007 by Center for Int
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iv • Contents Chapter 5. Muddling
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vi • Foreword problem solving. Th
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viii • About the Contributors God
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Acknowledgements In early 1999, two
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Chapter 1. Introduction: People, Fo
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Chapter 1: Introduction: People, Fo
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Chapter 2: Adaptive Collaborative M
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Chapter 4: Improving Forest Quality
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