The first place I visited under FRAME research project is the province of Surigao del Sur.  It is one of the several of the provinces in the Philippines blessed with both terrestrial and coastal natural beauty at par with many tourists’ destinations of the world.

 
For community forest researchers, it is an interesting site to study as the  province  has the largest area set aside for community based forest management, over 59,000 hectares being managed by SAMMILIA or San Augustin, Marihatag, San Miguel and  Lianga. It is formerly managed by Lianga Bay Logging Company Incorporated under Timber Licence Agreement in the 1950s, had been transferred to different holders, sequestered by the government and finally awarded to SAMMILIA in 2001.  Historically it has been a home of the finest timber in Asia, like Narra (Naga), Philippine Iron Wood (Mankono), Yakal, Molave (Tugas) and many others.

 It has  been featured in ABS CBN in 2005 with the controversies between SAMMILIA (CBFMA holder) and the former employees of Lianga Bay Timber Company Incorporated (LiaTIMCO).

 In the same year, I recommended it as one good area for CBFM review. It comprises 4 municipalities, 19 barangays, with about 28,761 population comprising 5,546 households. There is no data about the IPs (Manobo and Camayo) within the claim. It is interesting to look at the dynamic of such big claim with several ethnic groups. Who are the stakeholders? How is community defined? What is the power play between stakeholders? How is utilization enterprise managed?  Who benefits most? What is the mechanism for the benefit sharing? At that time of controversies, we did not include the area for study because it was too hot to handle. Now it is relatively cooler. I have heard that they had a suspension lately for some violations. Therefore, there is not much activity at present.

 I was on my way to Surigao del Sur from a 9 hour travel from Cagayan de Oro City. I was amazed by the newly repaired road from Ampayon, to San Fransisco, Agusan del Sur. It was really bad in 2005. I thought the good road extends up to Lianga and Tandag, Surigao del Sur but to my dismay the road from Barobo to Liangga was as bad as it was years before.

My host live along the coast of Lianga very close to the ruins of the old logging corporation who used to operate in the area—Lianga Timber Corporation (LiaTImCo). The sight of 2 logging trucks full of falcata and the sounds of chain saw from the bay was the first indicator I got of an active logging enterprise in the area. Again, I relived the stories of my folks on how people in Agusan live in the 1960s.