GLA-ToC Inclusive and sustainable forest management to safeguard International Public Goods in 3 forested landscapes the Philippines - Sierra Madre Mountain Range

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. The Long-term goal of the program is to safeguard the International Public Goods (climate, water, food security and biodiversity) of forest-dependent and indigenous communities in the target communities. This would be possible if these forest landscapes are conserved and restored, and the different stakeholders agree to manage the resources in a sustainable way including respecting the tenure and resource use rights of forest dependent communities. The program aims to achieve this by strengthening the lobby and advocacy capacity of civil society organisations as well as forest-dependent and indigenous communities. Forest dependent communities and civil society have an opportunity to influence existing policies and practice through thorough and consistent lobby work at the local and national level. Where relevant, the programme will also develop a proof of concept by creating pilot-models of sustainable landscape management which would benefit forest dependent communities.