Project enters new phase with an exciting new partnership with the Landcare Foundation of the Philippines Inc (LFPI)

In July 2007, the Philippines-Australia Landcare Project entered an exciting new two-year phase with an expanded partnership and revised objectives. This followed an external review of the project by the funders (ACIAR and AusAID), which recommended that greater emphasis be placed on the institutionalisation of Landcare coupled with continuing community level Landcare activities consistent with the Australian Government’s new Development Assistance Strategy for the Philippines.

The Landcare institutionalisation objective is being pursued through partnering with the Landcare Foundation of the Philippines Inc (LFPI) to help it evolve and take on the roles and responsibilities for the broader development of Landcare in the Southern Philippines. LFPI was considered the most appropriate agency to take on these roles and responsibilities for a number of reasons: its status as a formally registered and legal entity, its broad Landcare mission, its experience as an independent Landcare support organisation including sourcing and implementing Landcare projects, its experience with the Landcare Trust Fund, and its broad-based ownership of the Landcare ethos through its member organisations and Board of Trustees (BoT). The project team warmly welcomes LFPI as a new project partner, and its staff and BoT as team members and associates within the project.

The project will analyse existing institutional issues for the development of Philippines Landcare as a precursor to implementing an institutional development plan for LFPI; implement an institutional development plan for LFPI, including a plan for engagement with National Government Agencies (NGAs); and monitor and evaluate the performance of LFPI in developing Landcare.

The second objective involves continuing to implement community-level Landcare activities, but with a stronger focus on economic growth and human security outcomes. This will involve studying existing and new Landcare activities in Mindanao and the Visayas for their broader economic and other benefits, in addition to the environmental and social benefits that have been previously well documented. The community-level activities will be managed through a network of Landcare Coordinators and Facilitators located in three regions of the Southern Philippines – Northern Mindanao, Southern Mindanao and the Visayas.

To help strengthen the institutional capacity of LFPI, the project plans to transition its seven field staff (three Landcare Coordinators, three Landcare Facilitators and a Project Management Associate) to LFPI by January 2008. However, the existing project partners of Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries, University of Queensland, World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), SEAMEO-SEARCA, CRS and UPLB will continue to provide technical support, project management services and institutional development advice for the remainder of the project phase.

The Project Leader, Noel Vock, right discusses the new project with Ma Aurora Laotoco (Executive Director of LFPI) and Ben Aspera (an institutional development consultant).