Land Ownership and Sustainable Resource Management: Lessons from the Protected Area Management of Mount Pulag National Park, Philippines
6 Pages Posted: 30 Mar 2012
Date Written: March 29, 2012
Abstract
Mt. Pulag National Park is the second highest mountain in the Philippines rising to 2,922 meters above sea level and covering a total area of 11,500 hectares, deemed as the watershed cradle of Northern Philippines; it supplies irrigation to the main rice producing provinces of the country. Furthermore, Mt. Pulag is hailed as the last frontier of mossy forest in the Philippines. It is also the home of two groups of indigenous peoples called the Ibaloi and Kalanguya.
In 1992, the implementation of the National Integrated and Protected Areas System (NIPAS) Act provided for the establishment and management of protected areas in the Philippines. This law served as the legal basis for in situ conservation of biological diversity through the appropriate management of ecologically important areas for conservation and sustainable development.
Unfortunately, in the area around Mt. Pulag National Park, the enactment of NIPAS renewed the resentment of the indigenous residents to the state, which dates way back to the colonial times. According to the local people, the state merely treated the place as a resource base without any regard to the peoples’ sentiments. The initial declaration of Mt. Pulag as a national park itself, in 1989, was deemed prejudiced by the local inhabitants of the area. Thus, re-affirming its status as a protected area thru the NIPAS act was like pouring salt to an open wound.
This paper centers on the effects of the establishment of Mt. Pulag as a national park and afterwards the enactment of the NIPAS law to the way the local people managed the forest resources. Through the comparison of the peoples’ behavior before and after the protected area status, this paper aims to draw lessons on how to better manage national parks in order to achieve sustainability of resources without withholding development opportunities for the locals living within and around the protected area.
Keywords: indigenous people, national park, protected area management, sustainable development, sustainable resource management
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