A systems approach to understanding linkages between national level policies, local action and the use of traditional knowledge to improve tree seedling production for smallholder and community forestry in the Philippines

This paper outlines ongoing research that is investigating ways to increase the supply of high quality planting materials for smallholder forestry in the Philippines. A Bayesian Belief Network (BBN) of the nursery sector that had been developed previously by one of the authors was further refined during a planning and implementation workshop for the ACIAR Smallholder Nursery project. The refined model was then used to identify key leverage points for intervention. Stakeholders at the planning and implementation workshop also developed a series of potential pilot projects to be considered for implementation as part of the project. The BBN was then used to explore potential impacts of possible policy interventions and from this process the ‘best bet’ intervention measures were identified and pilot studies initiated. Improving Technical Skills was consistently a very important intervention for lifting the effectiveness of all nursery sub-sectors. Training, however, which directly influences Technical Skills in the BBN model, was found to have little influence on Technical skills for the individual and communal nursery sectors in particular. Another interesting finding arising from the BBN, was that implementing interventions simultaneously, as an intervention package, is much more likely to improve nursery effectiveness that implementing a single intervention by itself. The analysis of the ratings of potential areas for intervention by participants revealed three main themes, namely Markets, Quality of Seedlings and Funding (of nurseries).