November 20 - Non-Timber Forest Products Exchange Programme

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16Non-Timber Forest Products TaskForce (NTFP-TF) and partnershave been busy in recent years,testing a new, cost-effective toolfor sustainable NTFP managementin the Philippines.This tool is called ParticipatoryResource Monitoring or PRM.‘Resource Monitoring’ isthe systematic gathering ofinformation about managedresources in order to determinewhether there has been anychange over time. The informationmust be collected at regularintervals in a manner that is costefficient,not overly burdensomeand appropriate for supportingmanagement objectives. Thisinformation is then analyzed, andthe results are evaluated and usedfor decision-making about futuremanagement.‘Participatory ResourceMonitoring’ means that localcommunities who are involvedin managing these resourcesare fully involved in planning,implementing, evaluatingPARTICIPATORYRESOURCEMONITORINGWritten by: Mary Stockdale and Katherine Mana-Galidoand responding to resourcemonitoring.In the past decade, awarenessof the importance and role ofparticipatory resource monitoring(PRM) has grown significantly. Arecent review (Guariguata andEvans, 2008) of participatorymonitoring in tropical forestmanagement, conducted for theCentre for International ForestryResearch (CIFOR), has foundthat this type of monitoring isincreasingly assuming a centralrole in sustainable tropical forestmanagement, by encouraginglocal people to record informationabout their forest, reflect uponit, and take management actionin response to what they havelearned. The CIFOR review hasfound that monitoring is now beingused in dozens of tropical countries,and for a variety of objectives,including biodiversity conservationand wildlife management, humanwellbeing, political processes andinstitutions, ecosystem services,and non-timber forest product(NTFP) management.Some of the observed benefitsof PRM, when it is properlyconducted, include: integratinglocal knowledge into scientificmonitoring, empowering localpeople, strengthening localinstitutions, and facilitatingdecision-making. However thereare also some potential problems:PRM may not always be easy forcommunities to implement, itmay not always gather sufficientlyreliable information, and if toocostly or difficult, it may not proveto be sustainable once externalsupport is removed.The Department of theEnvironment and Natural Resources(DENR) of the Philippines has beena pioneer in exploring the potentialof participatory monitoring fornational programs. Park staff fromthe Protected Areas and WildlifeBureau (PAWB) have workedtogether with local communitiesfor a number of years to monitorthe biodiversity of 35 ProtectedAreas (PAs), 25 of which wereland-based and 10 of which weremarine. Much has been achieved,and much learned from thisinnovative program.Presently, the DENR’s ForestManagement Bureau (FMB)is working together with theUniversity of Philippines - LosBanos Forestry DevelopmentCenter (UPLB-FDC) and the NTFPTask Force (NTFP-TF) to examinewhether PRM can be used as atool for sustainable managementof NTFPs in forests that are undercommunity management tenures,such as Ancestral Domains (CADC,CADT) or Community-BasedForest Management Agreement(CBFMA) areas.This project has been initiated inresponse to concerns expressedby local communities and theirsupporters over the approachpresently required by the DENR:namely, the use of resourceinventory and the calculation ofa Sustained Yield Cut (SYC) asthe basis for management. Therehas been considerable pressurefor a practical, affordable, andcommunity-friendly alternative.Two possibilities are beingexamined in this project: theSimplified NTFP Inventory System(SNIS) and Participatory ResourceMonitoring (PRM).Starting in 2009,these partners have worked with
17local communities to test SNIS andPRM, as well as the current DENRrequiredinventoryin two pilotproject sites in Puerto PrincesaCity,Palawan and Impasugong,Bukidnon. The NTFPs that arebeing focused on for this study are:rattan, wild honey and almacigaresin.NTFP-TF has been tasked withleading the testing of PRM, anda number of exciting results havealready been found.Firstly, PRM is an intrinsic partof the ‘adaptive management’cycle of: plan the managementactivities, monitor, and evaluatethe results in order to plan the nextround of management activities.A community therefore mustdevelop a plan for managing theirNTFP resources before they canplan how to monitor them. This isone of the most interesting aspectsof PRM – that it must operatehand-in-hand with managementplanning that looks not only atgood NTFP harvesting practices,but also at how to promoteadequate regeneration for futureharvests, and how to manage theforest environment in general tosupport healthy NTFP resourcepopulations.When it comes to developing aplan for monitoring whether thismanagement plan is effective, thecommunities then hold meetingsto decide upon a set of criteriaand indicators to monitor each ofthese resources as well as suitablemethods for monitoring them.In both pilot communities, thecriteria, or the broad categoriesof information that are to bemonitored year after year in orderto assess trends in NTFP resourcesustainability, include categorieslike:• NTFP abundance, regenerationand health,• the existence of favorableenvironmental conditions forthe NTFP resource, and• whether identified ‘goodharvesting/other managementpractices’ were or were notapplied.The specific indicators thatmeasure each of the above criteriavary with the NTFP resource,and also in some cases betweencommunities. The favored methodsfor measuring these indicatorsseem to be records taken at thetime of harvest, formal forestpatrols/informal forest walks, andpermanent plots that measurethe annual regeneration of NTFPseedlings.Once this project is completed,PRM will be compared to the presentDENR inventory requirements,as well as the SNIS. However,PRM is quite different from thesetwo inventory methods in thatit is not a means of quantitativeassessment, but a far broaderapproach to NTFP managementby communities. PRM and thesetwo inventory methods are thusnot directly comparable, nor arethey necessarily incompatible witheach other. For example, for somecommunities, or for some NTFPresources, PRM may include theuse of some form of inventory. Themain issue to resolve at the momentis what approach or combination ofapproaches, is affordable, simple,reliable, appropriate for communitymembers and appropriate forsustainable management ofNTFPs.The step that should naturallyfollow this is to push for a nationalNTFP resource management policythat reflects the lessons learned.
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November 20 - Non-Timber Forest Products Exchange Programme

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