Philippines National Consortium

ASB-Philippines National Consortium

The Philippines consists of more than 7000 islands, with a population of about 76 million people and an inhabitable area of about 30 million hectares. Five million of these hectares are unproductive due to environmental degradation. The upland watershed areas, where about one-third of the population lives, are those that are the most affected by the adverse affects of agricultural development.

The ASB-Philippines National Consortium works in the Philippines at the benchmark sites of Claveria and Lantapan on the island of Mindanao.

The Claveria site, established in 1993, is in the province of Misamis Oriental, in northern Mindanao. Claveria has a total land area of about 82,500 hectares, 57% of which is forested. Landlocked, Claveria is a major watershed area for 12 low-lying coastal municipalities. Its forests are covered under the Philippine government's Community-Based Forest Management Programme. The Claveria research site covers primarily Imperata grassland and sloping farmland. Research is directed at the development of practical, low-cost methods and technologies suited to small-scale farmers situated on sloping farming land, along with natural resource protection.

Lantapan is a landlocked plateau with an average elevation of 600 m.a.s.l situated between the Kalatungan and Kitanglad mountain ranges. Numerous waterways traverse the area, which covers 31,820 hectares. Sixty-one percent of the land has an incline greater than 40%. A variety of agroecological zones exist within Lantapan.

Landcare in the Philippines: enhancing farmer adoption of simple conservation practices

Policy and institutional innovations

Training and capacity building

ASB's National Consortium in the Philippines is led by National Facilitator, Dr. Romulo Aggangan, of the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD).