Improving Productivity, Profitability and Sustainability of Degraded Grasslands Through Tree-Based Land Use Systems in the Philippines - Smallholder Tree Growing for Rural Development and Environmental Services - page 297

the analysis was based on the assumptions of tenure security and effective fire
control.
The following policy implications and recommendations were drawn based on
the findings of the study:

●

Tree-based land use systems provide greater environmental and economic bene-
fits to smallholders and the society than current farming practice. This implies
that wide promotion and adoption of these technologies in a large number of
areas in the Philippines with similar settings as the study site will help reduce
poverty among smallholders and sustainable resource management in the
uplands.

●

Since tree-based systems are associated with high-income risk, there is a need to
assist farmers in price risk management. One way of doing this is to provide
farmers access to timely and accurate price information of relevant products.
The possibility of providing smallholder tree growers with price risk insurance
is also warranted.

●

To encourage smallholders to improve their present farm management practices,
particularly those that provide environmental services like carbon sequestration,
a policy that will provide payments for said environmental services is warranted.
The implementation of the “Clean Development Mechanism” identified in the
Kyoto protocol for carbon offset is one such mechanism for effecting environ-
mental services payment.

Acknowledgements We would like to thank the Economy and Environment Program for
Southeast Asia (EEPSEA), for providing financial support; the World Agroforestry Center
(ICRAF), for providing logistic support during the fieldwork of the study. We wish also to
acknowledge the following individuals: Dr. Nancy Olewiler, Dr. Jack Ruitenbeek, Dr. David
Glover, Dr. Percy Sajie, Dr. Agnes Rola, Dr. Nicomedes Briones, Dr. Ken Menz, Mr. Agustin
Mercado, Jr. and Mr. Manuel Bertomeu, for their technical inputs, invaluable comments and sug-
gestions that help improved the quality of this work. The comments and suggestions of the anony-
mous reviewers are also highly appreciated. However, any shortcomings found in this study are
responsibility of the authors. The authors are also grateful to the survey enumerators and the
farmer-respondents, for their support and cooperation during the field survey.

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