Power relationships: Their effect on the governance of community forestry in the Philippines

This paper examines the impact of unequal power relationships on the governance of community forestry groups (CFGs) in the Philippines. Devolution of power has long been considered to be a ‘magic bullet’ in the governance of CFGs. However, poor governance which involves unequal power relationships between state agencies, forest user groups and rural people, produces unequal access in decision-making, sharing of authority and responsibility. This engenders local resistance from those who feel excluded and marginalised in the process. Drawing on Bourdieu’s notion of ‘symbolic violence’, we examine how unequal power relationships between State and local agencies have facilitated destruction of mature and newly planted timber plantations. Studies of a harvesting and a reforestation project found that the adverse effects of poor governance occurred at two tiers, first at an upper level between the government and CFGs, and second, at a lower level between CFG’s and local people. Poor governance at upper levels has triggered both symbolic and physical violence on and from people who remained marginal to the benefits of harvesting and reforestation. We conclude that a key requirement for sustainable community-managed forests is to expand benefit sharing to non-CFG local people. Our findings highlight the importance of lower-tier levels of governance within CFGs and between CFGs and local people.