The resource user's knowledge, the neglected input in land resource management : the case of the Kankanaey farmers in Benguet, Philippines

Sustainable land management means the utilisation of the land and its resources to meet the present needs while maintaining its productive capacity for future use. In the past, often, resource users were not considered important actors in the sustainable management of resources. Their practical activities were usually seen as contributory factors to the degradation of the resources. As a consequence, measures designed to sustainably manage the resources only address the issue discerned by scientists. Previous experiences, however, have shown that without the participation of the resource users, it is more likely that any effort to conserve and manage the resources in a sustainable way would fail. As such, recently attention has been directed towards the crucial role resource users can play in the management of the resources. This recognition is a result of the failures of many development-related programmes that were conceived to alleviate the continuous and alarming impacts of resource degradation.