Part II Community-Based Forest Management Program - ppmrn

SOUND IMPLEMENTATION AND MAINTENANCE STRATEGIES/ACTIVITIES
In Dumayop Watershed Subproject, a CBFMA covering 3,780.056
hectares was awarded to DMADAI on March 18, 2002. This is the
same PO that implemented the CSD from July 3, 1997 to March 2002.
The Chief, CBFM Unit, however, did not endorse the issuance of
CBFMA to DMADAI due to:
• Although the CSD implementation was substantially funded from establishment
to protection and maintenance, the DMADAI experienced difficulty in carrying
out this responsibility.
• The DENR does not have enough competent people to be assigned in the
communities to assist the single CBFMA holder who is tasked to manage a vast
and sporadic tract of land.
• The geographical attributes of the proposed CBFMA do not guarantee effective
management by a single and wavering local entity;
• The PO has not yet reached the ideal maturity to handle such big responsibility
and accountability despite the very long and expensive empowerment processes
it has gone through;
• The PO president is not open to criticism for improvement particularly on
handling finances of the projects;
• The declining participation of the small number of participating community
members as project implementation progresses.
He then recommended that each sitio should have individual CBFMA
and that a sweeping change in the leadership of the PO Federation be
undertaken. Despite such observations and recommendation, a CBFMA
dated February 22, 2002 covering the entire area of 3,780.056 hectares
was awarded to DMADAI.
The awarding of the entire area to one PO may have been due to the
absence of policy defining the standard area that can be effectively
managed and sustained by a PO taking into consideration the project
location, POs membership and level of management skills. It was
noted that the need to consider the number, capabilities and availability
of field implementer in awarding the project area was already
recognized in the handbook on community profiling for people-oriented
forestry projects. However, the methods and criteria for setting the
project limit that can be effectively and sustainably managed by a
household/PO member under a given condition were not defined.
As observed, the capability of the DMADAI to manage the entire area
was indeed questionable. It failed to sustain the 59.34% average
survival rate attained upon CSD termination. Inspection by the team in
November and December 2005 revealed that the survival rate went
down to about 35%, as presented in the next page:
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