Presentation short abstract

After intensive logging and reforesting with exotic species, new tree-planting initiatives challenge established Philippine forestry paradigms. Yet, bringing back native trees in a landscape transformed by colonial forestry raises new questions about the belonging of tree species in the archipelago.

Presentation long abstract

How to restore an altered archipelago? This is the question that more and more people engage with in the Philippines. After centuries of deforestation, most reforestation efforts in the 20th and 21st centuries have focused on a few introduced tree species on account of being fast-growing, available, and easy to grow. The knowledge around native tree species, as well as the species themselves, has been gradually lost during this process.

In the last decade, interest in native trees has increased in the Philippines, leading to the establishment of initiatives by scientists and civil society groups aiming to bring back many of the almost forgotten native tree species. These new bottom-up reforestation communities try to challenge governmental reforestation paradigms by circulating seeds and knowledge through trainings or social media groups.

Yet, despite their common goal of bringing back native tree species, new conflicts between scientists and civil society groups arise. What are the baselines of restoration, as well as what “native” means in an archipelago, are two contested questions influencing collaborations between different actors. Based on eleven months of ethnographic fieldwork accompanying initiatives of scientists and civil society groups, I highlight the conflicts around tree planting by examining the role of expertise and the different perspectives on tree planting that shape the Philippines’ future forests.