| This research addresses key questions about the potential role of ecological science and public participation in ecosystem management using the case of water resources management in Metro Cebu, Philippines. Over the past decade, urban growth and aquifer salinization in Metro Cebu has heightened local conflict over water supply and watershed management. The three participatory ecosystem management (PEM) initiatives that currently drive the policy debate over water resources management resemble many approaches worldwide in their emphasis on stakeholder participation and consensus decision making to reach ecologically-sound resource policy.; To identify and critique the technical and political assumptions behind PEM in Metro Cebu, I analyzed primary data from stakeholder interviews, community consultations, and field observations, along with historical, policy, and ecological secondary data. Using an analytical framework derived from theories about power, discourse, and resource control, I assess the historical development of natural resource management in the central Cebu uplands and the contemporary political configurations surrounding watershed and water resources management.; Coalitions that favor either the “protection” or the “controlled development” of central Cebu's three inland watersheds dominate the conflict over water resources policy. The opposing policy narratives share fundamental presuppositions about ecological change and resource policy that are framed by concerns over deforestation and water crisis, and structure the application of ecological knowledge and the outcomes of public participation. Prevailing views of upland degradation lack strong empirical support, and are based on misinterpretations of ecological theory and upland land use. These local environmental narratives legitimize a state-led culture of resource control that perpetuates inequality around resource access and policy making. In addition to undermining the material interests of watershed residents and fueling a culture of rural resistance, the reforestation and watershed protection do not directly address the principal causes of Metro Cebu's water crisis. Moreover, within the rationale and structure of stakeholder participation watershed residents have little room for maneuver in the formation, articulation, and legitimization of their interests. The knotting of deforestation, water crisis, and watershed management discourses has produced a politically unequal and technically imbalanced approach to solving Metro Cebu's water crisis. |
