INTRODUCTION

The two major classifications of land in the Philippines are the alienable and disposable (A & D)  and the forest lands, both of which are considered lands of public domain, A & D lands  refer to those which have been declared but not needed for forest purposes.  Forest lands are areas in the public domain that have been classified  for forest use such as public forest,  permanent forests or forest reserves, timberlands, game refuge and bird sanctuaries, and areas which are not yet declared  A & D.

Of the country’s total land area, forest land has the highest share with 535% as of 1996. Agricultural land has about 33%, while those used for inland fisheries,   settlements   and open land account for 2, 0.44 and 0.04%, respectively.  Mining and quarrying has the least with only 0.03 percent.   At present, grazing on forestlands for livestock production is found on steep 18 to 50 % slope.

Grassland areas
The Philippines has 1.5 M ha of grassland areas, part of which is leased by the government to qualified individuals or corporation for grazing purposes.  Extensive areas are found in the provinces of South Cotabato, North Cotabato and Bukidnon in Mindanao; in Cagayan and Isabela in Luzon and the island provinces of Mindoro Occidental and Masbate.

Grazing areas getting smaller
Table 1 shows the area of grasslands covered by Forest Land Razing Lease Agreements and Permits under the administration and supervision of the government’s Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) from 1970 to 2000.  Areas under lease have larger area with lease agreement having a duration of 25 year renewable for another 25 years.   Areas under grazing permits is smaller with agreements of only 5 years.  Grazing permits was gradually phased out by the government.

The number of leasees and the area for grazing had been drastically reduced for the last 30 years (Table 1).   Since 1971, the number of leasees and areas under the Forest Land Grazing Lease Agreements (FLGLA) has gone down to 8.9 and 9.3 percent, respectively.  From an area of about 1.3 M ha , what is left is only 120 thousand ha. In the 60’s ,  SOCSARGEN (South Cotabato, Sarangani and General Santos) area had 40 thousand ha of pasture lease areas with 55 leaseholders, now it is down to 26 thousand ha with only 22 leaseholders (Montemayor 1999).  At present, he agrees with the stocking density of 0.25 au/ha, which means you need 4 ha per head of cattle.  In the 1950’s, he said that stocking density was over 1 au/ha,  but now it is down to only 0.4  which is true in their experience.  This could be attributed to land degradation and decreasing precipitation in the area through the years.   In the 66’s the annual rainfall in the area was 168 cm, in 1979 it was down to 112 cm and at present it is only 86 cm.

Table 1.   Forest land grazing l ease agreements and permits, 1970–2000 (‘000 ha)

Year	Lease		Permit		Total
	Number	Area (ha)	Number	Area (ha)	Number	Area (ha)
1971	1,907	943	2,710	342	4,617	1,285
1975	1,812	805	1,826	154	3,638	959
1980	2,009	882	305	41	2,314	923
1985	1,051	461	33	5	1,084	466
1990	1,014	405	63	9	1,077	414
1995	714	252	8	5	722	257
2000	412	120	-	-	412	120

Cancelled pasture lease areas
In 1999, cancelled pasture lease areas (PLAs) cover 337 thousand hectares.  Various reasons are given as to why PLAs have been cancelled (Rivera 1999).  These include the incidence of drought that results to low productivity, unstable peace and other condition, cattle rustling, and non-compliance with the rules and regulations as stipulated in the lease agreement.   Concerned government agencies though are yet unable to give any action on many of the cancelled PLAs, and leaseholders continue occupying the area without having to pay for the lease.  It is estimated that the government could have earned approximately PhP5.05 M to PhP 6 to 7 M per year in revenues using the PhP15 to PhP20/ ha/yr fees currently paid by leaseholders.  In some cases, squatters of illegal occupants have increased in numbers in some of these cancelled PLAs.