Institutional Issues and Political Challenges in Scaling Up Agroforestry: The Case of Landcare in the Philippines

Institutional Issues and Political Challenges in Scaling Up Agroforestry: The Case of Landcare in the Philippines

background

This paper presents the results of case studies of four municipalities in the Philippines participating in the Landcare agroforestry program which benefited from differing levels of institutional, technical, and government support. The paper assesses how effectively the Landcare program was able to scale up based on differing levels of support.

Research Goals & Methods

Three principal scaling-up activities were implemented to varying degrees in the four municipalities: 1) ICRAF staff member engaged directly with farmers to influence institutional partners, 2) ICRAF staff member worked with farmers and local government to train technicians to continue as facilitators of the program, and 3) training sessions and farm visits were organized to influence partners to organize their own activities.

Conclusions & Takeaways

The merits of institution and partnership building and the promotion of appropriate technologies as factors in the success of the Landcare program are described, as well as other factors identified at the individual, group and community levels. Three challenges to scaling up are identified: inadequate institutional capacity of the local government, inadequate national level support for agroforestry, and the influence of local politics. The author recommends developing clear policy which allows for complementary natural resource management programs be, as well as making natural resource management into a mainstream development activity in the policy agenda and increasing the capacity building of agricultural extension employees and pertinent government officials.

 

Reference: 

Catacutan, D.C. and Tejada, E. 2006. "Institutional issues and political challenges in scaling up agroforestry: The case of Landcare in the Philippines". World Agroforestry Center - ICRAF, Lantapan, Bukidnon, Philippines.

Affiliation: 

  • World Agroforestry Center, ICRAF