Abstract
Since it was proclaimed as a watershed reserve in 1923, the Maasin Watershed in Central Panay, Philippines has been a site of conflict and negotiation for issues such as environmental protection, development and the survival of residents. When a government rehabilitation program was carried out in 1997, more than 60 percent of the area was cultivated land. Through the implementation of community-based forest management under the larger framework of sustainable development, the Maasin Watershed Rehabilitation Program was held up as one of the success stories of the country. The area is now covered in green, the residents are organized, and the social enterprise of non-timber forest products is flourishing. An ethnographic study, however, reveals its downside on the community level: loss of farms and food production, the failed ideal of social equity and the possibility of impoverishment. This study examines the project from the people's viewpoint, and scrutinizes the problems in recontextualization in relation to the dominant framework of community participation, the existing customary ownership of the land and resources, and community governance on local bamboo production.
