Casimiro Villadiego Olvida

Sarangani Energy Corporation
Philippines

Dec 4, 2018

Casimiro Olvida is a practitioner from the Philippines, focusing on watershed rehabilitation through public-people-private sector partnership, forest land use planning, forest governance, watershed management, and community-based forest management. After earning a Bachelor of Science in Forestry from the University of the Philippines at Los Baños (UPLB) in 1984, he worked with the Ecosystems Research and Development Bureau of the Philippine Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) for three years. He later transferred to the Forestry Development Center at UPLB doing research and teaching courses on forest management while pursuing his Master’s degree in Forestry which he completed in 1994. In 1995, he began working for the DENR’s Natural Resources Management Program conducted by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) through its contractor, Development Alternatives, Inc. (DAI), where he facilitated several management plans that pushed for community-based forest management. He also worked as the Project Development Officer for the USAID’s Support with Implementing Fast Transition (SWIFT) Project under the Office of Transition Initiatives, Bureau of Humanitarian Response where he packaged, developed, and implemented various village-based projects for the former Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) combatants in Mindanao, Philippines. For 10 years, he worked as the Senior Natural Resources Management Consultant of USAID-DAI-DENR’s Philippine Environmental Governance (EcoGov) Project serving as the Uplands and Governance Specialist for Mindanao and eventually the Forestry/Subject Matter Specialist for Southern Mindanao. For over two decades, Casimiro has bridged the gap between the public and private sector, assisting companies, government agencies, and nongovernmental organizations with preparing land-use and management plans for better forest governance. In recognition of his work, he has been named a distinguished alumnus of the University of the Philippines, appointed as one of the tribal leaders in Mindanao, and named a Visionary in a recent profile by the Manila Times.

Casimiro’s work bridges the gap between national and community governance as he works to build cooperation through land and forest management in post-conflict areas, especially in Mindanao and in both the northern and southern parts of the Philippines. As part of the Natural Resources Management Program, he helped communities to create the first tribal community resource management framework in the Philippines. His work has examined the role of forests and land in building peace, viewing forest governance as a way to address some of the underlying reasons for conflict, and resolve issues such as land grabbing, improper land use, conflicting claims to land, and conflicts over timber and land. Casimiro’s work has spanned planning and implementation, as he has brought together mapping of conflict and resources with implementation of forest management strategies to build peace. He has also helped to get local governments involved in resource management and allocation of resources, which has in turn helped to promote transparency and cooperation between parties and the involvement of many different stakeholders.

At its core, Casimiro’s work focuses on diverse strategies for community-based post-conflict natural resource management and governance. He explains, “Before we engage businessmen, development organizations, or private sector actors in resource management, we must resolve problems with land use and conflict, using conflict resolution strategies. This is one of the objectives of forest land use planning. Once the problems are solved, we can recommend development activities in the area and move towards better management. Addressing issues of inequality or unequal access to resources can help to lead to peace.” One project that demonstrates this approach is his work as the Project Development Officer of USAID’s Support with Implementing Fast Transition (SWIFT) Project providing emergency livelihood assistance to former Moro National Liberation Front combatants in conflict-affected areas in Mindanao. Through land use agreements and resource management methods, Casimiro has helped to support the peace agreement and implement livelihood assistance and cooperation over forest resources.

Environmental peacebuilding is deeply connected to Casimiro’s work on post-conflict natural resource management. Since co-authoring a chapter in the 2015 book, Livelihoods, Natural Resources, and Post-Conflict Peacebuilding (edited by Helen Young and Lisa Goldman), he has become more involved with environmental peacebuilding as a field. He says, “I joined the Association because I believe it can be a venue for sharing my experiences and for learning from experiences in other countries. Hopefully, stories from the Philippines can inspire people from other countries and there will be opportunities where people can help each other across geographic boundaries.”