Suchergebnisse

This study reviews and assesses nongovernment reforestation in the Philippines vis-à-vis government and total reforestation using primary and secondary data. The objective is to identify issues and problems related to nongovernment reforestation and recommend actions that can be undertaken to address them. This study finds that government reforestation dominates total reforestation, while nongovernment reforestation only has a relatively small contribution in recent years. During the first three years of implementing the National Greening Program, the growth of nongovernment reforestation had been erratic, increasing in 2011 but decreasing in 2012 and 2013. This study asserts that private reforestation—or reforestation conducted by the private sector under no agreement with the government—has been the main driver of nongovernment reforestation at present. However, its full development as an industry has been hindered by various institutional, production, and marketing issues and problems. This study recommends ways to address these problems and issues to move nongovernment reforestation forward.

Years of rapid and indiscriminate logging of Philippine forests coupled with little reforestation has led to more frequent, widespread, and damaging natural disasters such as floods, landslides, and other environmental damages. With strong political will and noble intentions, President Benigno S. Aquino III issued Executive Order 23 (EO 23) in 2011. This order sought to protect the country's natural forests by imposing a total ban over logging activities and imposing stronger measures against illegal cutting. Unfortunately, EO 23 intensified the rent-seeking behavior among the regulating agencies and has led to damaging unintended economic and social consequences without accomplishing much of its avowed objectives. Moreover, there are other potentially more effective ways of protecting Philippine forests. On this score, would it possible to achieve a win-win strategy where natural forests are effectively protected without paralyzing the wood industry that provides incomes and jobs?

The study reviewed and assessed nongovernment reforestation in the Philippines vis-a-vis government and total reforestation using primary and secondary data. The end purpose was to identify issues and problems related to nongovernment reforestation and recommend actions that can be undertaken to address them. The study found that government reforestation dominated total reforestation while nongovernment reforestation only has a relatively small contribution in recent years. During the first three years of implementation of the National Greening Program, in particular, nongovernment reforestation had been erratic, increasing in 2011 but decreasing in 2012 and 2013. The study asserted that private reforestation, or reforestation conducted by the private sector under no agreement with the government, has been the main driver of nongovernment reforestation at present. However, its full development as an industry has been hindered by various institutional, production, and marketing issues and problems. The study recommended ways to address these problems and issues and move nongovernment reforestation forward.

This study assessed the likely economic, distributional, and fisheries resource impacts of a potential free trade agreement (FTA) between the Philippines and European Union (EU) on the fisheries sector of the former. The study used secondary data from institutional sources and results and findings of past studies. Among others, the study found that a) the elimination of tariffs will likely increase fisheries outputs and exports as well as help reduce poverty in the fisheries sector and the general population; b) the elimination of tariffs will likely diversify the currently limited country destinations and number of exported fisheries products of the Philippines to the EU; c) other than tariffs, there are nontariff measures (NTMs) that significantly impede freer flow of fisheries products from the Philippines to the EU that need to be considered; d) some participants in the Philippine fisheries sector will gain from an FTA while others will lose but the net benefits to the sector and economy is not known; and e) increase in fisheries exports due to the FTA will likely worsen fisheries resource overexploitation although the inflow of cheaper imported fish will tend to reduce the overexploitation.The study concludes, among others, that if a Philippines-EU FTA materializes it should not only reduce or eliminate tariffs in fisheries products but also the NTMs. It also argued that the government should provide safety nets for the fisheries participants who are going to be disadvantaged by the FTA and implement the needed resource and environmental management that will allow sustainable exploitation of fisheries resources even with increased trade.

The Agricultural Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (ACEF) is an ongoing loan and grant program in the Philippines for agriculture and fisheries. From the start of its actual implementation in 2000 up to the present, it has been plagued by numerous problems which significantly derailed the attainment of its objectives. Because of this, its implementation was suspended in 2011 and an evaluation was conducted in line with the zero-based budgeting (ZBB) approach of the national government. As the output of the evaluation, this study reviewed the ACEF program, identified and analyzed the fund management and other pressing problems and issues it is facing, and provided options as well as specific recommendations for effectively addressing them. The study concluded that since ACEF is a big public expenditure item, it is imperative for the national government to immediately act on its numerous problems by implementing positive changes. It argued that without meaningful reforms, ACEF may just go down as one of the greatest national program failures in recent memory.

The paper reviewed national industrialization as a long-term strategy of mining development in the Philippines. The end purpose was to suggest immediate actions that can be undertaken for the promotion of national industrialization. The paper used secondary data and information from institutional sources and available relevant literature as well as primary data and information from institutional key informants.The paper found that the knowledge base of the country required to pursue the national industrialization strategy is poor. The following studies therefore were suggested: a) value chain analysis for the mining sector and its subsectors, including but not limited to the copper, nickel, gold, and chromite industries; b) development of community-based small and medium-scale operations in mining including the technology, financial, institutional, and other forms of government support that could be provided to them; c) analysis of resource rents in the mining sector and its subsectors that will determine, among others, how much royalty tax should be imposed on them; and d) evaluation of the appropriated export restrictions that may be imposed on the mining sector taking into consideration their economic, social, and other impacts. In addition to the aforementioned research activities, the paper supports the institutional improvements that have been suggested by previous works. These include the strengthening of the organizational, legal, monitoring and enforcement, other aspects of governance performed by government mining agencies.

This paper presents some of the preliminary results and findings of an ongoing study jointly conducted by the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center (SEAFDEC AQD) and Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), which assesses the current state of aquaculture in Laguna de Bay. The study uses primary and secondary data. The primary data were gathered through interviews with key informants and a cross-section survey of fishpen and fishcage operators and their operations in Laguna de Bay conducted in 2007. The secondary data were gathered from the published statistical indices of institutional sources and other relevant literature. The results of the study indicate that aquaculture in Laguna de Bay is a vibrant industry that includes not only fishpen and fishcage operators but also various participants in its input and product markets. Furthermore, they show that aquaculture contributes significantly to fish production in the lake as well as to national aquaculture and fisheries production. The results of the study also indicate that while aquaculture in Laguna de Bay has been an important economic contributor locally and nationally, it has been facing numerous problems over time that constrain its development. Of these, environment-related problems, lack of access to cheap capital, obstruction of navigational lanes by fishpens, existence of illegal fishpens, poaching, and overall limited support from the government were considered very serious by aquaculture operators. These problems, therefore, may be the ones needing the most attention.

The persistence of serious natural resource depletion and environmental degradation means that much remains to be done years into the implementation of Philippine Agenda 21 (PA 21). With this background, the paper reviewed the past experiences and discussed the future challenges faced in the natural resource and environment sector, concentrating on the most important issues still to be addressed in light of PA 21, including those that have policy implications. The purpose was to highlight the issues and promote a more focused discussion. The paper reviewed the natural resource and environmental problems across ecosystems, per ecosystem and per critical resource. Then, it presented a history of natural resources and environmental laws and policies, with PA 21 highlighted, and discussed some of the important gaps and issues. In conclusion, the paper argued that while the implementation of PA 21 may be behind schedule, a determined effort to address the most pressing issues will hasten the attainment of a more sustainable form of development for the country.

This paper looks into the national R&D program for the production of hatchery-bred milkfish fry and the fledgling industry it has spawned with the end purpose of recommending courses of actions that the national government can pursue for their furtherance. The study concludes that hatchery-bred fry is necessary for milkfish culture to attain sustainable growth and international competitiveness in the coming years. Therefore, the government should continue to strongly support the R&D program and industry by exerting concrete measures to address the various technical, market, institutional and other problems which hinder them from fully becoming a vehicle of growth in the fisheries sector.

Years of rapid and indiscriminate logging of Philippine forests, coupled with little reforestation, have led to more frequent, widespread, and damaging natural disasters, such as floods, landslides, and other environmental damages. With strong political will and noble intentions, President Benigno S. Aquino III issued Executive Order 23 (EO 23) in 2011. This order sought to protect the country's natural forests by imposing a total ban over logging activities and imposing stronger measures against illegal cutting. Unfortunately, EO 23 intensified the rent-seeking behavior among the regulating agencies and has led to damaging unintended economic and social consequences without accomplishing much of its avowed objectives. Moreover, there are other potentially more effective ways of protecting Philippine forests. On this score, would it possible to achieve a win-win strategy where natural forests are effectively protected without paralyzing the wood industry that provides incomes and jobs?

Economic growth in the Philippines has not been accompanied by significant improvements in employment. Government thus implemented Active Labor Market Programs or ALMPs as one of the strategies to improve the chances of getting jobs of those in disadvantaged sectors. The programs specifically targeted skilled, semi-skilled, and low-skilled workers in the community through the infrastructure and non-infrastructure projects of national government agencies, local government units, government-owned and -controlled corporations, government financial institutions, and public-private partnerships in the national, regional, provincial, city, and municipal levels. Overall, ALMPs have been primarily adopted as stop-gap measures to address adverse effects of economic crises on employment.The employment performance of these programs appears transitory and short term. Although some programs exceeded the employment targets, it is not clear how these numbers are translated at the macro level. The programs are apparently intended to address other social issues such as poverty and social/human development or community development rather than making an impact on net employment. These inferences however need to be validated through in-depth impact analysis of specific programs, which was not possible under this study. To provide effective evaluation of these studies, there is a need to create convergence and agreements among key departments as regards the methodology and definitions in identifying and counting of jobs. The absence of a central monitoring and evaluation office in each department has also created difficulty in identifying and integrating information and data.

This paper reviews the Philippine aquaculture sector in light of the Bangkok Declaration and Strategy for Aquaculture Development Beyond 2000, an internationally produced document that strongly encourages the incorporation of key strategy elements into the national aquaculture development programs. The purpose of the paper is to identify constraints to the full incorporation of the key strategy elements into the local aquaculture program and recommend measures for addressing them. The paper found that the various key strategies mentioned in the Bangkok Declaration have already been implemented in the aquaculture sector to a significant extent. While so, however, much remains to be done to hasten the implementation of the strategies. In general, they will be better pursued if the Philippine Fisheries Code and the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act are fully implemented. Adequate funding for the two laws must be provided to allow the establishment and operations of the different aquaculture institutions, programs, projects and activities they envisioned. Review of the contentious provisions of the two laws must also be conducted and amendments made at the appropriate time, if necessary. Streamlining of the different government institutions and functions involved in fisheries and aquaculture should be pursued to effect coordinated operations. Furthermore, increased support for training and extension is needed. In particular, the strengthening of regional offices of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources and the offices of the Local Government Units involved in extension must be given priority.

Wood processing is an important downstream activity of the Philippine forestry sector because it adds economic value to logs, diversifies the products that can be produced from it, and increases the incomes and employment of involved communities. Despite its many economic contributions, however, the wood processing industry has been on the decline for many years now. This study analyzes the wood processing industry concentrating on its value chain, the major issues and problems it is facing, and recommends actions to address these problems and issues. Among others, the study finds that the wood processing industry is constrained by various technical, financial, economic, marketing, environmental, institutional, and research-related problems and issues. To address these individually, specific recommendations are forwarded. In terms of research, in particular, the study suggests the gathering of more detailed and complete data and information on the wood processing sector by relevant government agencies, and the conduct of relevant studies not just on the whole processing sector but also on specific wood processing activities.

In the context of sustainable development, environmentally preferable products (EPPs) are desirable because they leave no unwelcome impacts on natural resources and environment. This study has found that though several EPPs can be produced, consumed and traded by the Philippine government, there are several problems that need to be addressed. This also identifies the gaps on EPPs research that might be useful if the government is to pursue its future use.