Philippines

Forest ecosystem services at landscape level – Why forest transition matters?

Background

Forest transition theory describes patterns of forest decline and recovery. This theory explains what services change as forested landscapes shift in the three stages of recovery. This model covers both forest-type gradients (diversity and usage) and landscape gradients (connectivity and coverage). It is not yet understood how these forest transition stages influence the quantity and quality of ecosystem services.

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Green economy, oil palm development, and the exclusion of Indigenous swidden cultivators in the Philippines

Background

Green economy programs involve agro-industrial development in land frontiers for activities that are considered low-carbon or as seen as supporting greenhouse gas reduction. In the Philippines, as in many parts of South-East Asia, oil palm plantations are promoted as a form of green growth, contributing to food security and biofuels while meeting reforestation goals on lands that are often classified as idle, or waste, but may not be in practice. The paper explores the implications of oil palm development on land tenure security of smallholder swidden cultivators from indigenous communities.

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Fairly efficient, efficiently fair: Lessons from designing and testing payment schemes for ecosystem services in Asia

Background

Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) is defined as a market-based approach yet the authors argue that it cannot be generalized or implements and often suffers due to the commoditization of these services.

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Addressing Slow Onset Disasters: Lessons from the 2015-2016 El Niño in the Philippines

BACKGROUND

The Philippines as an archipelagic country is prone to climate-induced extreme weather events. However, it is also one of the countries in Asia and in the tropical Pacific Ocean that experiences the effects of the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), a slow onset event. The current disaster risk reduction (DRR) system is focused on rapid onset events such as typhoons and storm surges. This chapter discusses the impacts of ENSO on farmers and fisher folks and how the gaps in disaster risk reduction governance for slow onset events has exposed the need to develop new protocols to address these slow onset disasters.

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Microhabitats reduce animal’s exposure to climate extremes

Background

The Scheffers et al. (2014) paper discusses the effect of microhabitats and their corresponding microclimates on ectotherm species in a warming macroclimate. 

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Leaders in Action: Success Stories from the Tropics

Background

The Environmental Leadership and Training Initiative (ELTI) seeks to seeks to train and support people to restore and conserve tropical forest landscapes. Since 2006, the organizations has engaged with thousands of people both through their in-person and online training platforms and through follow-up support and mentorship. This paper highlights select inspirational stories from ELTI alum. These stories come from the Neotropics, including Panama, Colombia, and Brazil, and Asia, including Indonesia, Singapore, and the Phillipines.  

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Rainforestation Case Study: The Cienda-San Vicente Farmers Association Experience

Background

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Patterns of local wood use and cutting of Philippine mangrove forests

Background

Harvesting for wood in mangroves is a common practice yet there has been limited studies. This paper takes a unique approach through integrating ecological and ethnographic methods in order to study local wood use and cutting of mangrove forests in two areas of the Philippines. 

Goals & Methods

The author conducted a series of 202 household interviews to determine how villagers used mangrove resources in North and South Bais Bay and Bindoy,  Negros Oriental, and on Banacon Island, Bohol.

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Social Capital in Biodiversity Conservation and Management

Background

The article begins with a description of the opposing views of the roles of smallholders in conservation strategies.  On the one hand they directly use resources that external agencies attempt to protect, on the other hand these people have intimate knowledge of these systems.  Thus leading to the question, “Could local people play a greater role in biodiversity conservation and management?” (Pretty, 2004).

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Biodiversity–productivity relationships in small-scale mixed-species plantations using native species in Leyte province, Philippines

Background

The authors of this study identified environmental and biodiversity factors to explain variation in productivity at Rainforestation sites across the Philippine islands.

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