GLA - Philippines 3 forested landscapes

Forests in the Philippines have been in steady decline, which has a tremendous impact on millions of people who depend on these forests and the vital ecosystem services they provide. The program focuses on three landscapes: Sierra Madre Mountain Range (Luzon), CDO-Tagoloan river basins landscape continuum and part of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). These landscapes not only serve as homes to many communities - including indigenous peoples - who depend on them for their daily subsistence, but are also critical for the adjacent provinces and regions. All three landscapes are subjected to forest and habitat degradation, which threatens the sustainability of livelihoods, food security, water provisioning and biodiversity. The landscapes face multiple sources of threats, such as uncontrolled resource extraction, unsustainable and overlapping land use and militarization/conflict. Overcoming these threats is hampered by limited opportunities of local communities to influence decision making on sustainable governance. Policy makers are often detached from the ground and are thus unable to formulate effective policy reforms for sustainable development.