Financial resource utilization of selected community forestry projects in Region 11 [Southern Mindanao, Philippines].

The total contract cost awarded to NGOs [non governmental organization] ranged from P2,225,000 to P2,973,000. The actual cost incurred ranged from P1,801,987 to P2,215,165 lower than the approved contract cost. This was due to the non-implementation of some planned activities which resulted in low levels of accomplishments. The project, in terms of income distribution, has little impact on the community. The vertical distribution of income was found highly inequitable wherein the community obtained only 12.4 percent share of the total realized income. This resulted from a low level of accomplishment and limited extent of community involvement in activities which could have provided immediate cash income due to the high rate of exploitative rents which ranged from 0.38 to 0.56. The amount of unpaid living labor is the surplus value which is appropriated for rent payments involving NGO services. The unspent portion of the total contract cost, however, accrued to DENR [Department of Environment and Natural Resources] as savings which ranged from 4 percent to 25 percent of total contract cost. The profit margin was found inversely proportional to the level of performance attained. The overall rate of rent seeking indicated that the project was heavily biased towards a more facilitative but less productive activities. The three CFPs [Community Forestry Programs] however, gave an exploitative rate of rent-seeking which means that the rent payments made were beyond the legality, necessity and just compensation requirements. It was found more exploitative in CFP with a very low level of accomplishment. With a high rate of exploitative rent-seeking, it was concluded that the 3-year project implementation failed to address income equity. The appropriateness of the strategy of too much facilitation in attaining the overall objectives of the CFP was seriously doubted.