Developing Applicable Criteria and Indicators and Verifiers for Sustainability Evaluation of Mangrove Forest Management in Tagpait, Aborlan and Bacungan, Puerto Princesa City, Palawan, Philippines
This study identified applicable criteria and indicators for the evaluation of the sustainability of mangrove forest management systems by the local community in Tagpait, Aborlan, and Bacungan, Puerto Princesa City, through FGDs. Then, this study formulated verifiers for each applicable indicator through the rating scale through FGDs and KIIs. The formulated verifiers will be used to evaluate the sustainability of mangrove management systems. Also, this study analyzed the relationship between socio-economic characteristics (age, gender, livelihood, income, educational attainment, and the number of years living in the community) and level of awareness and perception on the importance on applicable criteria and indicators. The results show that there were seven applicable criteria and 35 indicators used. The verifiers for each applicable indicator was formulated and can be utilized for the evaluation of the sustainability of mangrove management system. In Bacungan, the number of years living in the community has a highly significant relationship to the level of awareness (p value=0.008) and perception on the importance of applicable criteria and indicators (p-value=0.001). In Tagpait, educational attainment and level of awareness have a highly significant relationship (0.003).