Investing in the land: agricultural transition towards sustainable land
use in the Philippines forest fringe
Romero, M.R.
Citation
Romero, M. R. (2006, March 29). Investing in the land: agricultural transition towards
sustainable land use in the Philippines forest fringe. CML Institute of Environmental Sciences,
Leiden. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/1887/4352
Version:
Not Applicable (or Unknown)
License:
Licence agreement concerning inclusion of doctoral thesis in the
Institutional Repository of the University of Leiden
Downloaded from:
https://hdl.handle.net/1887/4352
Stellingen behorende bij Marino R. Romero: Investing in the land.
1. Contrary to traditional ideas that households in forest fringe areas are ignorant and interested only in short-term benefits, households invest in sustainable land use as soon as they can and contexts allow. (this thesis).
2. Swidden agriculture (kaingin) in frontier situations is not a land use system in its own right but rather the cutting edge of systems of permanent agriculture expanding into the forest. (this thesis).
3. Economic attractiveness of sustainable land use system is an important but not the only determinant of their adoption; factors such as initial costs, cultural appropriateness, the desire to leave a viable farm to the children, endorsement by media and politicians and village-level processes also play a role. This calls for a multi-disciplinary analysis. (this thesis).
4. Although considered as necessary by the households, security of land tenure is not a pre-condition for investments in sustainable land use. Rather, investments in the land are looked upon as a means to acquire this security. (this thesis).
5. The transition to sustainable land use in the Philippines forest fringe is triggered by many factors but these do not include population density or land scarcity. The transition, therefore, is not ‘Boserupian’ at all.
6. On the “means-and-ends” spectrum of sustainable development, government
interventions in natural resources management should be limited to the prescription of goals, leaving to the households the freedom to use their knowledge and efficiency strategies to attain the prescribed end.
7. In a context of basic motivation of farmers to stay where settled and sufficient market opportunities to do so, the most cost-effective policy options to stimulate transition to sustainable land use are to emphasize the farmers’ tenure motivation for investment and their investment capacity, e.g. through knowledge provision and income security. 8. Cost-benefit analysis of agricultural options strongly captures one motivational factor (profitability) of agricultural change; econometric analysis weakly captures a broader range, that includes capacity constraints. Potentially, integrated modeling could combine the strengths of both approaches.
