262 Governance and Education
achieving adoption of sustainable farming practices than strategies involving gov-
ernment regulation or the top-down transfer of technology.
This paper reports some of the results of a par ticipatory evaluation of the
Landcare Programme in Mindanao in the Southern Philippines (Figure 13.1). The
evaluation study was undertaken in the final phase of a four-year action research
project (1999–2003) funded by the Australian Centre for Inter national Agricul-
tural Research (ACIAR). The focus of this paper is Barangay Ned, part of Lake
Sebu Municipality in the province of South Cota bato in Southern Mindanao. The
Landcare Pro gramme in Barangay Ned is of particular interest because it has been
faced with extremely difficult conditions, has received minimal outside sup port,
and thus indicates perhaps the basic requirements for achieving an accelerated
impact on upland farming systems in the Philippines. The sustainable rural liveli-
hoods approach was used in this study as a framework to understand, explain and
evaluate the impacts of the Ned Landcare Programme.
Figure 13.1 Location of principal landcare sites in Mindanao, Southern Philippines