Sustainability analysis of the Upland Stabilization Program in Palawan, Philippines

Results showed that as a whole the USP [upland stabilization program] passed sustainability with an average SI [sustainability index] of 6.30 which is not so high. The sustainability varied per site with Site 1 garnering the highest SI of 7.46, followed by Site 3 (6.08), and lastly, site 2 (5.53). By dimension, SIs arranged in descending order were as follows: political acceptability (8.36), ecological soundness (7.62), financial viability (7.42), technological appropriateness (6.58), cultural sensitiveness (6.58), managerial effectiveness (6.55), social equitability (4.55) and economic viability (3.18). Based on the findings, the study recommends the following: organization of farmer's cooperative as product of farmers' need; modification of CSC [Certificate of Stewardship Contract] to be acceptable as a collateral in bank loans; continuity in supporting the farmers even after the project terminated either by NGO, LGU, or DENR [non governmental organizations; local government units, or Department of Environment and Natural Resources]; giving technology not for direct adoption but for the farmers to decide their choice combinations with respect to their favored species and methods; revision of methods on measuring quality of life could be revised based on the values and aspirations of the beneficiaries and not on the ones set by other people; follow-up study regarding the ecology and economics of fallowed stewardship area in Site 1 and conduct of in-depth study related to the indigenous technology on fallow farming as retained by some respondents. Furthermore, the method of analyzing sustainability as presented by the author can be a good tool in finding the level of sustainability if the evaluation wanted all the dimensions to be placed at equal footing. Analyzing sustainability through the use of sustainability indices and matrix was a systematic way of consolidating the results on various sustainability dimensions, and looking at the overall result of sustainability, comparing one project with another