Significant outcomes of the first phase of the project are listed below. Note that more detail on these can be found in Publications including the Landcare book Philippines Landcare - Stories of people and places, and the Project Evaluation Reports Landcare in South Cotabato, and Landcare in Bukidnon. The complete copy of these publications can be downloaded from linked sites under Publications.

Major outcomes

• rapid formation of more than 400 Landcare groups;
• over 4000 households (25 to 35% of farming households across the three sites) involved as members of Landcare groups;
• adoption of conservation technologies including natural vegetative strips and agroforestry by 35% to 65% of farmers across the three sites;
• protection with conservation measures of 15 to 25% of the total farm area across the three sites (note that this represents a much larger proportion of the cultivated and steeper vulnerable land);
• establishment of more than 300 individual and communal tree nurseries with an output of more than 500,000 fruit and timber tree seedlings;
• active involvement of 45 local institutions including local government units (LGUs), national government agencies (NGAs), NGOs and private agribusiness in the Landcare program;
• a significant increase in the knowledge and skills of farmers through the training provided and a significant increase in social capital related to membership of or association with Landcare groups;
• a significant spillover effect with many non-Landcare groups and non-Landcare members benefiting from direct group to group and farmer to farmer contact.

Interestingly, the project also showed that although Landcare technologies were understandably the primary focus for farmer involvement in Landcare, many farmers became involved because of the opportunity to access potential livelihood improvements such as fruit and timber trees, high value vegetable crops and collective marketing and purchasing schemes, implemented through the Landcare process. Although the impact of this on farm incomes is still being fully evaluated, extrapolations using previous modelling work indicate that it has been significant.

Across all of the actual and potential achievements, a pleasing and inspiring outcome has been a re-shaping of the attitudes and aspirations not only of farmers at the project sites but also of some of the key local government and other institutions, which have previously employed predominantly ‘dole-out’ and ‘top-down’ extension approaches. For local institutions, the adoption of a Landcare ethos, where activities and projects are identified and planned by farmers rather than imposed on them, is a positive indicator of the possible potential for Landcare in improving local governance.