Marvin Joseph F. Montefrio

Global–Local Tensions in Contract Farming of Biofuel Crops Involving Indigenous Communities in the Philippines

Farming of biofuel crops by local communities under contract with parastatal and private firms is being established in the Philippines and elsewhere. This study explores tensions in integrating indigenous peoples into the global biofuels network. Drawing from critical perspectives on contract farming and from the environmental sociology of networks and flows, we examine production relations associated with contract farming of Jatropha on indigenous lands in the Philippines. In on-site observations and interviews, we found that while some indigenous groups grow Jatropha in polyculture, shifting-cultivation systems as part of biofuel contracts, these smallholder production systems are being phased out or transformed by the global biofuels network. In contract farming relationships involving biofuel crops, there seems to be a greater tendency for indigenous peoples to adapt to, or be left outside of, global production networks than for the latter to include indigenous peoples in socially and ecologically sustainable ways.

The Green Economy and Land Conflict

Many studies on the nexus between global climate change and conflict have focused on how the physical and socioeconomic consequences of the former result in political instability, armed conflict, and violence. Research is also underway to explore the potential of climate change mitigation and adaptation in contributing to peacebuilding. International and national governments are now designing and implementing unified solutions to simultaneously address climate change and conflict issues. These solutions are also being integrated in the green economy concept, where the objective is for economies to be low-carbon, resource efficient, and socially inclusive. There are growing concerns, however, that even climate change solutions or green economy projects (or those that claim to be) are not effectively assuaging conflict in affected areas. In fact, some of these solutions have created new and exacerbated old conflicts. In this essay, the argument is that green economy projects can be associated with increasing conflict and violence in the rural areas of the Philippines and that there is a need for further research on this matter. Based on two case studies, I posit that green economy projects that involve rural development may include conflict issues associated with land access, exclusion, and displacement. The conflict varies in magnitude, but the larger the development areas, the greater the land that has to be converted and enclosed, and the more households and communities affected. Hence, instead of creating peace, green economy projects may instigate division of and exacerbate already existing disputes among ethnic groups, communities, and families. Most importantly, large-scale green economy projects in rural areas can also involve violence and militarization, feeding on long-standing conflicts between the Philippine government and the communist party.

Understanding the resilience of swidden agroecosystems interacting with rubber and oil palm production regimes in the Philippines.

Currently, smallholder farmers in the Philippines and elsewhere are being engaged in the production of rubber and oil palm for global consumption. Among these smallholder farmers are indigenous peoples who continue to practice traditional forms of swidden agriculture. There is then a propensity for emerging agro-industrial production regimes to increasingly interact with and affect traditional swidden agroecosystems. In this article, we endeavor to explore the application of the resilience concept in analyzing and comparing the persistence of swidden agroecosystems enmeshed in globally integrated agro-industrial production in the province of Palawan, the Philippines. Drawing from six months of ethnography, we compare the resilience of swidden agroecosystems interacting with rubber and oil palm production regimes using indicators developed specifically to evaluate the social and ecological resilience of agroecosystems. Our findings suggest that swidden agroecosystems interacting with rubber production indicate greater resilience as compared to those with oil palm. This difference can be attributed to the greater tolerance of the rubber production regime to swidden agriculture, as well as the regimes more flexible production management systems. However, we caution that any plans of the rubber production regime to follow the oil palm contract model may result in the decline of resilience of swidden agroecosystems in rubber-producing communities.

Inducing Development: Social Remittances and the Expansion of Oil Palm

This paper investigates the relationship between social remittances and land-use change in the context of South–South migration. Focusing on the cyclical movement of Filipino oil palm workers between the Philippine province of Palawan and the Malaysian State of Sabah, we show how migrants transmit social remittances, such as ideas of prosperity associated with oil palm development and knowledge of production practices and land impacts of oil palm plantations. These social remittances affect farmers’ decisions to engage in oil palm development within the migrants’ home province, possibly transforming subsistence agricultural systems into large-scale, monocrop plantations. We argue that such land development outcomes are an understudied aspect of how migration affects developing countries, especially in the context of South–South migration. Research findings also suggest how migrants’ social remittances are transmitted, diffused, and utilized at broader social and political units, beyond return migrants’ households and immediate communities in Palawan. Decision outcomes, however, are variable, with households and communities either engaging in or opposing oil palm development, depending on how social remittances are interpreted.

Land control dynamics and social-ecological transformations in upland Philippines

Recent scholarship on land grabs has begun exploring the complexity of local dynamics of land control, with emphasis on the concepts of access and exclusion and the social processes that influence these two. In this paper, I emphasize that a nuanced examination of broader social-ecological transformations would enrich our understanding of land control and exclusion. Drawing from field research in the Philippine province of Palawan, this paper examines how the combined effects of the practices of conservation enclosures, the uneven land accumulation brought about by oil palm expansion, and the use of legitimizing upland discourses all contribute to social-ecological transformations in swidden and the exclusion of indigenous smallholders from benefiting from integral forms of swidden agriculture. These practices of land control and the associated social-ecological transformations are not just interconnected, but also characterized by feedback mechanisms. The more smallholders decide to alter (or abandon) swidden practices, participate in oil palm contract farming, and/or sell their land to oil palm growers, the greater the tendency for land to accumulate among migrant settlers and absentee landowners. This, in turn, may lead to further reduction in the availability of fallow land and exclusion of more indigenous smallholders over time.