Comanagement in practice : the challenges and complexities of implementation in the Northern Sierra Madre mountain region / edited by Denyse J. Snelder and Eileen C. Bernardo.

Published in cooperation with the Cagayan Valley programme on environment and development (CVPED), the partnership institution of Isabela State University and Leiden University.

This book summarizes the lessons learned from previous studies and project activities in the northern Sierra Madre Mountain Region in order to draw conclussions on various aspects of comanagement. One ofthe main challenges is how to arrive at, and maintain, a fruitful partnership between government institutions and individual, or collective, resource users sharing power, responsibilities, and benefit over natural resources. Changes in organizational culture and social norms may be essential to createlong-term sustainability in natural resource management. Such transformation will not happen overnight for they demand social learning, deliberation, collective actions with sufficient scope for flexibility, and adaption in an environment subject to social, political, and biophysical changes. Yet with the increasing recognition of the crucial role of local and indigenous communities-within the Philippines and the international community in general-the future perspective of comanagement remains promising. This is particularly true for areas serving multiple functions at local and supra-local levels.