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ANDY WHITE and Alejandra Martin, in their paper, “Strategies and
Strengthening of Community Property Rights over Forests,” list
five key elements needed to achieve community security tenure. These
are effective internal institutions in the community; legal recognition
and support for community rights; presence of independent judicial
arbitration systems; effective regulatory mechanisms and
institutions; and a supporting political constituency. Among these
elements, only effective internal institutions should always be
present while others may vary as to the place and degree.
A case in point is Nueva Vizcaya where conflict
erupted between migrant settlers and Pasture Lease Agreement (PLAs)
holders. Migrant settlers in Kurasay, Bagabag, occupied land that
was part of grazing lands covered by (PLAs) who had security of
tenure over large blocks of land for 25 years and renewable for
another 25 years. When the PLAs and timber license agreements (TLAs)
in the province were cancelled or expired during the early 80s,
there was no clear policy formulated to determine the appropriate
management regime to be applied to affected areas reaching at
least 160,000 hectares. Many PLA holders were still operating using
cancelled or expired permits that angered migrant settlers and led
to different groups claiming available space and natural resource.
With the decline in employment and increasing
tenure insecurity, poverty incidence in the province reached 52
percent. Productivity of the natural resources was deeply impaired
because of the destructive farming practices employed by upland
communities making these communities more vulnerable. It did not
help that “archaic policies” govern land use and ownership
practices that left “many forest communities with limited access
to secure land rights.” The paper also drew attention to the fact
that as a 4th-class municipality, “the limited budget and
worsening insurgency provided very limited options for
development.” Thus, many disaffected people sought remedy from the
political left. By 1988, the CPP-NDF heavily occupied much of the
upland areas and poverty provided a natural recruitment mechanism to
their cause. Further account shows that “peace and order
deteriorated as insurgent activity and militarization swept the
countryside.” Thus, the economic development of the province
was halted, adding more pressure on the forests.
Lynch in 2002 documented the Moronene experience
in Indonesia. In 1970, fruit gardens tended for generations by the
Moronene village of Laea Hukea was declared a game park, and was
closed to the villagers to protect wildlife hunted by local elites.
It was converted to a national park in 1983 with the area expanded
to 105,000 hectares. Local people sought help from park officials to
return to the village appealing to the governor and the vice
president of Indonesia calling for their community-based property
rights to be recognized, but were ignored. They returned to Laea
Hukaea despite the order and found their gardens destroyed and their
ancestral gravesites desecrated.
They discovered that rampant illegal logging and
wildlife poaching took place with the consent of park officials. By
December 1997, the district government allowed the return of the
Moronene to the park through an oral agreement but were quickly
driven out once more by security forces led by district officials
who attacked the village and burned down their homes. The villagers
were forced to move to a transmigration-style resettlement site in a
700 ha. area with each family given 2-ha. plots for survival. The
relocation of the Moronene was made because the area was to be
developed into an Integrated Economic Development Zone and it became
necessary to provide investors uninterrupted access to park
resources and generate investments for their administration.
The first case study shows that the weak
institutional capacity of local communities to lobby their interests
failed to uphold their property rights as de-facto stakeholders in
the forests of Nueva Vizcaya. Existing policies simply did not
provide any leeway for any tenure security to be recognized.
Further, weak enforcement created an open-access condition that led
to further marginalization of vulnerable groups. On the other
hand, the second case study shows that while the Moronene were organized,
legal recognition of their rights was clearly absent. The absence of
an independent judicial arbitration system hurt their issues
especially in light of the lack of support from a political
constituency.
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