| This dissertation involves the pursuit of a primary goal: to draw lessons from the formulation and implementation of coastal resource management programs in the Philippines that would be useful in informing a sustained implementation of these programs and in formulating and implementing other coastal resource management programs in the Philippines and elsewhere. An attempt was made to extensively study a community-based resource management project to determine whether it is prepared to achieve its objectives. The findings of the study indicate that the lack of an effective strategy in achieving intermediate objectives such as capability-building of local government units and communities has jeopardized the accomplishment of the project's primary goal of environmental rehabilitation and poverty alleviation. Despite such a major constraint, a common recognition of a crisis in environmental degradation and natural resources depletion has motivated a dedicated effort to achieve the project objectives by management staff and local government clients. Formal and informal adaptive strategies at various levels in the implementing structure were adopted to address constraints and problems of implementation, albeit suboptimally due to delays in the implementation of a monitoring and evaluation system developed for the project. However, there is an apparent neglect of lessons learned from past coastal resources management projects, including: (1) there is no phasing of activities that could have allowed ample room for preparation, learning and adjustments; and (2) subprojects are not given sufficient time to demonstrate measurable impacts of project implementation. |
