The Effect of the Implementation of the National Greening Program on the Socioeconomic Status of Smallholders in Caibiran, Biliran, Philippines

The Philippine Government launched in 2011 the National Greening Program (NGP), a massive forest restoration program that aimed to plant 1.5 billion trees in 1.5 million ha by 2016 to regain ecological integrity of denuded forest landscapes and improve the socioeconomic status of the participating farmers. While the main environmental and economic benefits of the NGP can be realized in the long run the program could potentially provide short-term socioeconomic benefits through capacity-building initiatives and payment for labour in implementing the restoration activities. This study compared the socioeconomic status (SES) of members of the Community-based Forestry Project Beneficiaries Association (CFPBA) in Caibiran, Biliran Province who implemented the NGP with community members who were not involved in the program. The Mann-Whitney U test showed that the two groups had the same SES scores in the 2014 baseline survey and the 2016 endline survey. This means that participation in the NGP did not result in significant difference between the socio-economic status of CFPBA-member households and non-member households from 2014 to 2016. However, the Wilcoxon Signed Rank test showed a significant increase in CFPBA-member households' 2016 SES over 2014. Nonetheless, CFPBA-member respondents' testimonies indicated that they did not feel the improvement. In spite of this, they acknowledged some benefits from their participation that included improvement of their occupational knowledge and skills through trainings and advisory services. They unanimously suggested the presence of a sustainable livelihood component, participation in planning and strong extension service to strengthen NGP implementation. The study demonstrates the advantage of using mixed-methods research strategy, the need to conduct process evaluation at the formative stages of the program and the efficacy an impact evaluation that combines before-and-after and with-without comparisons.