Trade Liberalization and the Environment: A Country Studies Project

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Economic Instruments for the Mt Makiling Forest
Reserve, Philippines
OUR GAINS

• Economic instruments implemented

• Entrance fees to the Makiling Botanic Gardens
  (MBG) were increased
• Entrance fees to the Reserve were imposed
• Prices of non-timber forest products were upgraded

Mt. Makiling is famous among backpackers
mountaineers because of this 90 degrees part of
the climb.
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Economic Instruments for the Mt Makiling Forest
Reserve, Philippines
Impacts of Implementing EI for Forest Recreation
YEAR MBG MBG MFR MFR
No. of Visitors Income (PhP/year) No. of Visitors Income (PhP/year)
1997a 100,002 572,616 No data 0
1998a 102,381 579,229 No data 0
1999b 105,185 781,495 19,726 118,002
2000b 112,804 1,670,105 27,561 144,373
2001b 100,757 1,084,924 23,762 109,253
a For MBG, Entrance PhP3 (UP), PhP5 (non-UP)
Swimming PhP15 (UP), PhP50 (non-UP) For MFR
PhP0 entrance fee b For MBG, Entrance PhP6
(UP), PhP10 (non-UP) Swimming PhP30 (UP), PhP
(non-UP) For MFR PhP2 (UP), PhP5 (non-UP)
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OUR GAINS
Economic Instruments for the Mt Makiling Forest
Reserve, Philippines

• Linkages with stakeholders

• The Calamba Water District approved the proposal
  to rehabilitate a portion of the Tigbi Watershed

Landscape view of the Tigbi watershed showing the
extensively forested headwaters

• The Tourism Association of Laguna has pledged to
  provide contributions in kind

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OUR GAINS
Economic Instruments for the Mt Makiling Forest
Reserve, Philippines

• Involvement of communities

• Potential partners in managing the Reserve
• About 1,000 families that reside and/or have
  farms in the Reserve

To ensure maximum participation, the project is
explained to them in community assemblies

• The farmers are willing to pay their share of
  the watershed conservation and protection fee in
  kind

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OUR WEAKNESSES
Economic Instruments for the Mt Makiling Forest
Reserve, Philippines

• Lack of a clear mandate to collect water user fees

• Steps taken
• In 2002, MCME organized the National Forum on
  the Legal Basis of Collecting Water User Fees for
  Philippine Watersheds

• Linkage with the Presidential Task Force on Water
  Resources Development and Management for the
  creation of the National Steering Committee on
  Economic Pricing of Raw Water

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Economic Instruments for the Mt Makiling Forest
Reserve, Philippines
OUR WEAKNESSES

• Costly and time consuming process

• Arriving at a consensus was difficult because the
  stakeholders had their own interests that did not
  coincide with the University

• Revenues not fully plowed back to the
  source/resource

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THREATS
Economic Instruments for the Mt Makiling Forest
Reserve, Philippines

• General resistance to any new fee
• Changes in leadership
• Leakages in accessing the resource

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STEPS FORWARD
Economic Instruments for the Mt Makiling Forest
Reserve, Philippines

• Conduct a follow-up study regarding the
  appropriateness of the entrance fees to the
  forest recreation and ecotourism areas
• Aggressively market indigenous tree planting
  materials
• Establish the Universitys legal basis to collect
  water user fees

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STEPS FORWARD
Economic Instruments for the Mt Makiling Forest
Reserve, Philippines

• Evaluate options of how the water usage of
  different user groups can be monitored
• Study the price structure that will be adopted
• Pursue the creation of the National Steering
  Committee on the Economic Pricing of Raw water

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REPLICATION
Economic Instruments for the Mt Makiling Forest
Reserve, Philippines
The project chose

• Palawan Flora, Fauna and Watershed Reserve in
  Puerto Princesa City, Palawan

Palawan Flora, Fauna, Watershed Reserve

Palawan Island
Puerto Princesa City
8,000 ha 60-1,098 m
Area Elevation
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REPLICATION
Economic Instruments for the Mt Makiling Forest
Reserve, Philippines
And

• Mt. Isarog Natural Park in Camarines Norte

Mt Isarog National Park

450 km southeast of Manila
10,112 ha 1,196 m
Area Elevation
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REPLICATION
Economic Instruments for the Mt Makiling Forest
Reserve, Philippines

• Conducted orientation-seminars for the
  stakeholders about the importance of economic
  instruments in managing and conserving the
  watersheds
• Favorable response from both the agencies
  managing the watersheds and the other
  stakeholders

Orientation-Seminar on  ECONOMIC INSTRUMENTS
FOR THE PALAWAN FLORA, FAUNA, AND WATERHED
RESERVE 20 October 2000 PTFPP Training Hall,
Puerto Princesa City
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CONCLUSION
Economic Instruments for the Mt Makiling Forest
Reserve, Philippines
Economic instrument for forest recreation and
ecotourism implemented with a fair degree of
success because

• we control the entry points of the visitors
• our efforts to counteract the negative effect of
  higher entrance fees on visitation rates with
  more aggressive marketing

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CONCLUSION
Economic Instruments for the Mt Makiling Forest
Reserve, Philippines
We were not as successful in implementing the
economic instrument for water mainly because

• the University does not have a clear mandate to
  charge water user fees.
• The University is not yet capable of monitoring
  water usage
• We need to build up our technical and
  administrative capability to implement EI for
  water

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Economic Instruments for the Mt Makiling Forest
Reserve, Philippines
Thank You!!!