Camiguin… +10,000 points if you’ve heard of it before. Camiguin, as it turns out, is a small tropical island towards the southern edge of the Philippine Archipelago, and Camiguin is where I shall be doing my thesis fieldwork.

My official degree title here is Masters of Science in International Cooperation Policy. My unofficial degree title, based upon my chosen specialization, is Masters of Science in Environmental Policy and Administration. To delve further, my thesis theme is community-based forestry management policy within Southeast Asia.

Community-based Forestry Management(CBFM) is a relatively new offshoot from the more general and established field of Forestry Management. CBFM operates on the principle that in general, central governments haven’t the time or the resources to tailor management plans to the needs of individual communities. Bear in mind that we are operating in a different reality over here. I would wager that very few American towns depend directly upon their neighboring forests for daily sustenance, fuel wood, and other assorted products — we have Walmart for that. In the Philippines though, and in many other SE Asian countries, there are still scores of villages in which the quality of life is directly tied to the quality of the adjacent forest lands, and their access to those lands. Because of this, the traditional preservation structure of “identify, isolate, and manage” is nonviable. Adjacent communities need access to those lands to survive, and the government simply does not have the time or the money to directly customize conservation efforts on a case by case basis.

The proposed solution then to these problems has been CBFM. In a theoretical CBFM program, the government and/or NGOs fund the installation of a low-use conservation area, or in many cases a mitigation project to rejuvenate a degraded ecosystem, and then educates the local community on how best to manage those assets for the long term prosperity of both the people and the environment. The logic goes that because the community’s livelihood is directly tied into the quality of the environment, if they are taught the consequences for poor use, and alternative sustainable development practices, they will choose what’s in the best interest for the forest because it is in the best interest for them as well.

It is an aggressive proposition, and one that has become quite trendy lately in conservation circles, but because mitigation and restoration take time, especially when you’re dealing with a forest that may take 30 years to recover, there has been a lot of CBFM action taken recently with very little analysis of results.

Back to Camiguin – from 1994 to 1997 a CBFM project was undertaken by a local NGO called PRRM – Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement – with financing by several international NGOs and the Philippine Government. The Camiguin project reforested 300 hectares of intensively depleted lands in the hills of the island and sought to educate the 4 nearby villages, containing approximately 300 separate households, in the proper long term management of the resource.

My thesis, therefore, will be an effectiveness study and will focus on the initial policy documents and motives in place for the Camiguin restoration, the actual work that was done from 1994 to 1997, and I will visit the island to do on-site fieldwork in order to document the project area firsthand from a ’10 years later’ perspective.

The tentative schedule has me completing my research proposal in mid-January, and then accompanying Prof. Fellizar back to the Philippines in the first week of February. We will then travel to an island proximal to Camiguin, where he knows some academic types, to establish a base of operations for my research. From about Feb 8th or so he’ll head back to his home and I’ll hop a ferry and be on my own in Camiguin. While my classmates are enjoying their 2 month winter vacation from February through the end of March, I will be at Camiguin for approximately 6 weeks doing detailed biological surveys of the restoration area and interviewing the participating households.

While I would have enjoyed taking that vacation from academia along with them, I’m by no means traveling to a barren and dismal locale for my fieldwork. The island itself is 238sq kms(92sq miles) and features 7 separate volcanoes. The web page for the local government describes Camiguin as “a tiny island of lush forests, volcanic splendor, eternal hot and cold natural springs, pristine patches of black and white beaches, majestic waterfalls, exotic marine life, blue-ridge mountains, serene surroundings, [and an] idyllic lifestyle.” An interesting list of places to see in Camiguin can be found here.

That’s about all I have to say. I’m excited about the strong possibility that February may find me sitting on the beach of a tropical island watching the waves roll in off the South China Sea. I can’t think of a better way to mark the beginning of my 23rd year, that’s for sure…