WATERSHED MANAGEMENT
The allocation of timberlands could either make or break the future of an LGU as most of these resources are part of upper watersheds, food and fiber production areas, ecotourism and biodiversity sites, and buffers for many kinds of pests and natural disasters.
how the allocation of forests and forest lands could best serve the destiny of their constituents. It can be said that the allocation of timberlands could either make or break the future of an LGU as most of these resources are part of upper watersheds, food and fiber production areas, ecotourism and biodiversity sites, and buffers for many kinds of pests and natural disasters. LGUs should take special interest in public forests and forest lands that have not been “allocated”or areas already “allocated”but “abandoned”as they are a major source of “headaches” as far as management of forests and forest lands is concerned. These areas are considered “open access” — anybody can just get in and out -- as there is no one owning the responsibility of properly “guarding” or managing these resources. LGUs should take special interest in public forests and forest lands that have not been “allocated”or areas already “allocated”but “abandoned”as they are a major source of “headaches” as far as management of forests and forest lands is concerned.
In the case of “abandoned” areas, this means that the “current holders of allocation instruments3“ have no long-term desire to “exercise” their management rights or claims over the public forests and forestlands. This situation invites forests and forest lands “intruders” and encourages mercenary behavior --illegal cutting of remaining forest stands, collusions, conversion of forested areas into slash-and-burn farms, and other environmentally-destructive activities. With increasing demand for employment, arable land, food, timber and other forest products, the tendency to overexploit the forests and forest lands to serve personal ends without regard for the needs of the society will definitely intensify in an open-access condition.
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S E RV I C E D E L I V E R Y W I T H I M P A C T: R E S O U R C E B O O K S F O R L O C A L G O V E R N M E N T