SANREM CRSP SEA -- Introduction

INTRODUCTION

Our Goal

The goal of the SANREM-Southeast Asia project is to assist in the creation and successful application of decision-support tools for natural resource management and planning (NRM) at both a community and a watershed scale. By decision support tools we mean materials, including research findings and simulation models, that enable the formulation and answering of questions that link economic and social development goals with the long-term viability of the environmental and natural resource base. These tools are essential to the achievement of the Agenda 21 target of sustainable development. Some examples of NRM questions faced by local decision-makers are:

What are the economic and environmental causes and consequences of sedimentation in dams and waterways?

What interventions will best help preserve acceptable water quality across a watershed?

What are the socially acceptable rates of deforestation or soil erosion in a watershed, what will it cost to achieve them, and how will the costs and benefits be distributed?

What are the local economic and environmental implications of price changes caused by national or international market trends or policy reforms?

Our Approach

The SANREM research approach is built upon the cornerstones of participation, interdisciplinary collaboration, inter-sectoral (or multi-stakeholder) cooperation, and research at a landscape scale. The project brings together experts from US and Southeast Asian universities; local and national government officials; regional and international agricultural research centers; and US and Southeast Asian NGO groups.

Conditions that Shape Our Work in Southeast Asia

SANREM has been active at its Philippine research site in Lantapan municipality, Bukidnon province, since 1993. However, the project's methodologies and findings are much more broadly applicable in the Philippines, elsewhere in Southeast Asia and beyond. Among Southeast Asian countries, similarities are defined not merely by geography, but by common experiences that have helped shape trends in natural resource use and the logic of local NRM strategies. These experiences include rapid economic growth; market development enhancing commercial opportunities for upland farmers; and rapid or impending decentralization and devolution of NRM responsibility and authority from central to local governments, NGOs and community groups. The recessions experienced by many Asian economies in 1997-99 have generated another set of common policy challenges for regional NRM planners.

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Opportunities and Challenges of Participatory Natural Resource Management Research

Successful NRM in a specific locality depends critically on the commitment and participation of its residents--the primary resource managers--and of community-level organizations, both formal (government and non-government groups) and informal. With the support of key provincial and national agencies, SANREM's partners have devoted considerable effort to education, information exchange and forms of participatory research intended to promote environmental awareness and an appreciation of links between environmental and other phenomena in Lantapan. Activities in this domain include community-based water quality monitoring, farmer-managed crop and technology trials, continuous feedback and consultation through community meetings and seminars, and project-level participation in the design of a municipal natural resource management and development plan (NRMDP) and municipal land use plan.

NRM is also heavily influenced by conditions in a much broader economic and policy context. Locally-based NRM strategies cannot be sustained if national markets and policies send contradictory signals. An important component of our strategy is thus to engage in information exchange and capacity building not merely locally, but also among national and even regional research and policy institutions. At these levels our goal is to promote the design and adoption of development and environment policies that are consistent with the needs and aspirations of primary resource managers such as farmers and local planners, and of the communities in which they reside.

Through Asian regional networks and the parent SANREM CRSP program we also engage in information exchange with other projects and policy makers addressing similar problems in countries beyond the Southeast Asia region and at the global level.

Institutional Partners

SANREM-Southeast Asia is managed by the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD). Our work in the region is a product of unique inter-institutional partnerships between the Municipality of Lantapan, the Province of Bukidnon, Tigbantay Wahig Inc., the SEAMEO Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA), the University of the Philippines at Los Baños; Central Mindanao University, the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction (IIRR), Heifer Project International, Auburn University, Purdue University, Central Queensland University, and the International Center for Research in Agroforestry.

Contacts

For more information about SANREM CRSP-Southeast Asia contact the program managers or the site coordination office.

Program Manager: Dr. Ian Coxhead

	Dept. Agricultural and Applied Economics
	University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
	Telephone: + 608-262-639
	Email: coxhead@facstaff.wisc.edu

Co-Program Manager: Dr. Rogelio Serrano

	Acting Director, Forest and Environment Research Division
	Phil. Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resource Research and Development (PCARRD)
	Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines
	Telephone: + 63-49-536-0014~20
	Email: sanrem@ultra.pcarrd.dost.gov.ph

Site Coordinator: Dr. Vel Suminguit

	SANREM Site Coordination Office, Malaybalay, Bukidnon, Philippines
	Telephone + 63-88-813-3229
	Email: sanrem@cdo.philcom.com.ph

SANREM-Southeast Asia is a component of the global SANREM Collaborative Research Support Program (CRSP), a project funded by the United States Agency for International Development and administered by a consortium led by the University of Georgia.