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U R B A N I Z AT I O N A N D A G R I C U LT U R A L L A N D S C
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191Environment & Urbanization Copyright 2007 International
Institute for Environment and Development (IIED).Vol 19(1): 191206.
DOI: 10.1177/0956247807076782 www.sagepublications.com
Urbanization process and the changing agricultural landscape
pattern in the urban fringe of Metro Manila, Philippines
ISIDORO R MALAQUE III and MAKOTO YOKOHARI
ABSTRACT This paper discusses physical changes in the urban
fringe agricultural landscape of Metro Manila and the socioeconomic
factors and other pressures underlying these changes. In 1982,
agricultural land use dominated in both of the two study areas, but
the area under cultivation had decreased by 1997. The changing
pattern in the northwest study area was one of phased transition
towards a more urban land use. In contrast, in the southeast study
area, there was a sudden change from an agricultural to an urban
landscape. The paper explores the reasons for this difference and
recommends the conservation of green open spaces through the
adoption of an ecological planning approach involving a mixture of
urban and agricultural land uses.
KEYWORDS aerial photographs / agricultural lands / changing
patterns / Metro Manila / urban fringe
I. INTRODUCTION
In Metro Manila, as in many other centres, the urbanization
process has caused constant physical change in the urban fringe
landscape, resulting in a mix of urban and agricultural land uses.
The physical patterns that are created are the result of social,
economic and political conditions and processes. As part of this
process, agricultural lands in the peripheral provinces have been
subjected to urban pressures. Metro Manila has experienced net
migration to the adjoining province of Cavite, with an increase
from 24,406 between 1975 and 1980 to 29,970 between 1985 and 1990.
In conjunction with this, Cavites population increased rapidly from
771,320 (in 1980) to 1,610,324 (in 1995). Its recent growth rate
has been 6.47 per cent and the population density is 1,251 persons
per hectare.(1) Region IV, where Cavite province is located, ranked
fi rst in the country in terms of the number of applications for
land use conversion between 1988 and 2000. There were 753
applications, 30 per cent of the total number for the whole
country. Of these, 696 were approved, covering a total land area of
14,422 hectares.(2) Rapid land use conversions, which started in
the 1990s, resulted in urban fringe landscapes featuring idle
agricultural land because of residential sub-division lots that
remained unsold and the abandonment of agricultural lands.
Isidoro R Malaque III is an Assistant Professor in the
Department of Humanities, College of Humanities and Social
Sciences, University of the Philippines in Mindanao,
Philippines.
Address: e-mail: [email protected]
Makoto Yokohari is a Professor at the Group of Natural
Environment Studies, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The
University of Tokyo, Japan.
Address: e-mail: [email protected]
1. Unpublished secondary data obtained from the National
Statistics Offi ce during the authors research in 20002003.
2. Unpublished secondary data obtained from the Centre for Land
Use Policy Planning and ImplementationI Secretariat, Department of
Agrarian Reform during the authors research in 20002003.
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a. Spatial growth of Metro Manila
Manila, a primate city even in the pre-colonial era, has
continued to expand geographically to reach its present
metropolitan status.(3) The consolidation into a metropolitan
region started in the 1940s with the chartering of the
municipalities of Quezon and Pasay and their inclusion into the
urbanized zone of the city of Manila. The present metropolitan
arrangement was based on the passage of the Republic Act 7924 in
1995, creating the Metro Manila Development Authority. This defi
ned Metro Manila, which is composed of 17 cities and
municipalities, as a special development and administrative
region.
As the national capital and the centre of trade and governance,
Manila has long attracted migrants from all over the country. The
Philippine Internal Migration Data Set, available only for three fi
ve-year periods: 19701975, 19751980 and 19851990, indicates that
Bicol, Eastern Visayas, Western Visayas and Ilocos were the top
sources of migrants to Metro Manila. Migration data suggest that
the poorer a region is, the more migrants it sends to Metro Manila.
Between 1985 and 1990, net migration from Metro Manila to the
nearby provinces, together known as CALABARZON,(4) was 111,515
(184,039 gross) with a net migration rate of 16.2 per cent (26.8
gross).(5) It was therefore considered that CALABARZON would be key
to migration management in Metro Manila.
b. The urbanization process in the urban fringe
Economic development has, in general, been the major force
behind changes in the urban fringe areas. Urbanization in the
fringe of regional cities, as presented by Bryant and
colleagues,(6) is characterized by a high proportion of non-farm
inhabitants, some of whom have migrated from other regions and some
of whom have moved from the urban area.
These non-farm elements create a range of pressures that affect
the pattern of agricultural lands. These impacts have been identifi
ed by Pond and Yeates(7) as direct when land is taken out of
agriculture and built on to add to the existing stock of urban
land; as indirect visible when land beyond the contiguous urban
built-up area is used to serve the urban areas; and as indirect
less visible when land in transition can be identifi ed through the
intentions of the owners.(8) Pond and Yeates(9) further estimated
these direct and indirect impacts of urbanization in the fringe,
and used their ratio as an indicator of the stage of
urbanization.
The process of land use conversion in Metro Manilas extended
metro-politan region:
represents a political process in two senses: fi rst, policy
choices are made relating to the use of land that refl ect a
particular set of development priorities; and second, the
facilitation of conversion involves the use of political power
relations to circumvent certain regulations.(10)
These trends are clear at the national, local and personal
levels, which are different but interconnected in the everyday
political activity in the urbanizing areas. Currently, local land
use planning and zoning regula-tions in the Philippines are mostly
in favour of built-up land uses rather than preservation for
agricultural purposes. Ballesteros, of the Philippine
3. Reyes, Marqueza C L (1998), Spatial structure of Metro
Manila: genesis, growth and development, Philippine Planning
Journal Vol 29/30,No 2/1, AprilOctober, pages 134.
4. This refers to the provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas,
Rizal and Quezon.
5. National Statistics Offi ce migration data set, from
Nakanishi, Toru (2002), Migration and environmental issues in
economic development, in Tatsuo Ohmachi and Emerlinda R Roman
(editors), Metro Manila: In Search of a Sustainable Future, Impact
Analysis of Metropolitan Policies for Development and Environmental
Conservation, University of the Philippine Press, Manila, pages
6169.
6. Bryant, C R, L H Russwurm and A G McLellan (1982), The Citys
Countryside: Land and its Management in the RuralUrban Fringe,
Longman, London, 249 pages.
7. Pond, Bruce and Maurice Yeates (1993), Rural/urban land
conversion I: estimating the direct and indirect impacts, Urban
Geography Vol 14, No 4, pages 323347.
8. Pond, Bruce, and Maurice Yeates (1994), Rural/urban land
conversion II: identifying land in transition to urban use, Urban
Geography Vol 15, No 1, pages 2544.
9. Pond, Bruce, and Maurice Yeates (1994), Rural/urban land
conversion III: a technical note on leading indicators of urban
land development, Urban Geography Vol 15, No 3, pages 207222.
10. Kelly, Philip F (1998), The politics of urbanrural
relations: land use conversion in the Philippines, Environment
& Urbanization Vol 10, No 1, April, pages 3554.
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Institute for Development Studies,(11) says that local
government units prefer non-agricultural land uses for example,
commercial uses because they generate higher income taxes.
Performance indicators are based on this kind of economic
standard.
In 1990, the CALABARZON regional project was launched to
pro-mote export-oriented industrialization in the periphery of
Metro Manila. It included seven major components, four of which
(urban development, agriculture, rural development and
environmental management) were, according to McAndrew, more
diffused and less capital intensive.(12) Various schemes provided
restrictions and incentives for industries to be located outside of
Metro Manila or in depressed areas. These schemes included:
encouragement by the Ramos administration in 1992 of the dis-persal
of industries into the countryside;(13) policies redirecting the fl
ow of migrants away from Metro Manila; and the launching of the
National Industrial Estate Programme that created the Canlubang
Estate project in Laguna. The result of such policy schemes was the
conversion of agricultural lands. In the peripheral provinces of
Metro Manila, the con-version of farmland into industrial estates
and residential sub-divisions was widespread, and in many instances
agricultural production was stopped and tenant farmers displaced
while owners speculated on the future sale of the land.(14) On the
other hand, there were also policy schemes aimed at the retention
of the rural population, including agrarian land reform efforts,
rural housing programmes and integrated rural agri-cultural
development schemes to promote agriculture. But, according to
David:
because of uncertainties about the land reform programme,
landowners hesitate to make long-term investments. They prefer to
convert land use to non-agricultural purposes, thereby avoiding the
land reform programme.(15)
c. The objectives of this study in the context of the
literature
This paper discusses physical changes in two study areas in the
urban fringe agricultural landscape of Metro Manila, and the
socioeconomic factors and other pressures underlying these changes.
The following sections describe earlier work on the topic that is
relevant to this research and indicate how the present paper builds
on that work.
Agricultural landscape ecological processes. Ecological planning
has been defi ned as the use of biophysical and sociocultural
infor-mation to suggest opportunities and constraints for
decision-making about the use of the landscape.(16) When the
principle of landscape ecology is applied to broad-scale
environmental studies, it answers the demand for the scientifi c
underpinnings of managing large areas and incorporating the
consequences of spatial heterogeneity into land management
decisions.(17) Ecological strategies,(18) used for landscape design
and planning, can be applied to all economic and social activities
that play a role in the interaction between society and its
environment. An understanding of the process whereby human beings
alter landscape patterns(19) serves as a starting point for
altering plans and implementing policies. Several studies have
related physical changes in the landscape to other factors. For
example, in a small catchment of the northern Loess Plateau in
China, land use change was studied through the interpretation of
aerial
11. Personal communication with M M Ballesteros, researcher,
Philippine Institute for Development Studies,30 August 2002.
12. McAndrew, John P (1996), Urban Usurpation: From Friar
Estates to Industrial Estates in a Philippine Hinterland, Ateneo de
Manila University Press, Manila, 212 pages.
13. Ochoa, Cecilia Luz (1999), The rural sector and the Ramos
administration, Kasarinlan Vol 14, No 3/4, pages 165172.
15. David, Cristina C (1999), Constraints to food security: the
Philippine case, Journal of Philippine DevelopmentVol XXVI, No 2-a,
page 30.
16. Steiner, Frederick (1991), The Living Landscape: An
Ecological Approach to Landscape Planning, McGraw-Hill, New York,
365 pages.
17. Turner, Monica G, Robert H Gardner and Robert V ONeill
(2001), Landscape Ecology in Theory and Practice: Pattern and
Process, Springer-Verlag, New York, 401 pages.
18. Tjallingii, Sybrand (1996), Ecological Conditions:
Strategies and Structures in Environmental Planning, IBNDLO,
Wageningen,320 pages.
19. Forman, Richard T T (1995), Land Mosaics: The Ecology of
Landscape and Region, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK,
652 pages.
14. Kelly, Philip F (2000), Landscape of Globalization: Human
Geographies of Economic Change in the Philippines, Routledge,
London, 189 pages.
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photographs for 1975 and 1997, land use patterns were studied
through various metrics, and changes in land use structure were
analyzed in terms of the infl uence of land use policy.(20)
Two other studies analyzing the process of human-induced
landscape transformation were conducted in a micro watershed in the
mid-elevation zone of the central Himalayas in India(21) and in a
small watershed in the central region of Honduras.(22) Both studies
concluded that by integrat-ing information about the physical
attributes of the landscape and their changes over time with
information about demographic, legal and policy changes, a cause
and effect pattern could be formulated.
The extension and intensifi cation of agriculture in Rostrup,
Denmark,(23) has also been studied. Changes in farm type and land
use between 1973 and 1995 were analyzed and this was supplemented
by the results of a questionnaire survey among farmers in the study
area in 1997 to investi-gate the forces of landscape change at the
local level.
Another case study from Ylane, in southwest Finland,(24)
illustrates that agriculture is the dominant land use type in the
area and that it in-creased steadily from 48 per cent to 56 per
cent between 1958 and 1997. It was expected that the intensifi
cation of agriculture would result in homogeneity of the landscape.
To investigate this, patterns of change in two Norwegian
agricultural landscapes were analyzed and compared using
agricultural statistics and aerial photographs.(25) One was a
typical intensively cultivated fl at area in Rekkestad, Ostfold,
and one was a trad-itional mountain farm landscape in Hjartdal,
Telemark. It was found that further intensifi cation of intensively
managed landscapes has led to an increasingly homogenous,
large-scale landscape featuring fewer bound-aries. In contrast,
reduced management in the mountain farm system resulted in an
increasingly heterogeneous, small-scale landscape.
A study of the changing face of a Czech rural landscape(26)
indicated that cultural landscapes are constantly developing, and
that changes depend on social, economic and political
conditions.
Identifi cation of the changes in landscape structures.
According to Ohmachi, environmental degradation in Metro Manila is
due to population concentration and the serious lack of, or delay
in, infrastructure developments.(27) Urbanization has caused the
loss of green space, as discussed by Takeuchi,(28) who referred to
the studies of Moriwake and colleagues(29) and Murakami and
colleagues(30) on the changes of landscape structures in Metro
Manila. These papers suggested that policies aimed at creating
green spaces in the city core and conserving green spaces in the
outer suburbs (the remaining woodlands and agricultural lands)
should be enforced because of their potential ecological function
in absorbing pressures brought about by urbanization. Moriwake and
colleagues(31) determined the characteristics of urban green spaces
in major land use types by performing a fi eld vegetation survey,
focusing on vertical struc-ture and species composition of trees.
The green cover ratio is used as an indicator of the spatial
quantity of greenery. In low-density residential areas and parks,
the ratio was found to exceed 20 per cent in most of the sample
sites. However, the ratio was less than 10 per cent in high-density
residential areas and in business and commercial areas. In
urbanrural mixed areas, the ratio was also small, since only the
tree crown cover was being assessed and grasslands were not
included. Agricultural lands have few trees, and trees in new
residential areas are still fairly young. Murakami and
colleagues(32) found that landscape features in Metro
20. Chen, Liding, Jun Wang, Bojie Fu and Yang Qiu (2001), Land
use change in a small catchment of northern Loess Plateau, China,
Agriculture, Ecosystems & EnvironmentVol 86, No 2, pages
163172.
21. Rao, K S and Rekha Pant (2001), Land use dynamics and
landscape change pattern in a typical micro watershed in the
mid-elevation zone of central Himalaya, India, Agriculture,
Ecosystems & EnvironmentVol 86, No 2, pages 113124.
22. Kammerbauer, Johann and Carlos Ardon (1999), Land use
dynamics and landscape change pattern in a typical watershed in the
hillside region of central Honduras, Agriculture, Ecosystems &
Environment Vol 75, No 1, pages 93100.
23. Kristensen, S P (1999), Agricultural land use and landscape
changes in Rostrup, Denmark: process of intensifi cation and
extensifi cation, Landscape and Urban Planning Vol 46, No 1, pages
117123.
24. Hietala-Koivu, R (1999), Agricultural landscape change: a
case study in Ylane, southwest Finland, Landscape and Urban
Planning Vol 46,No 1, pages 103108.
25. Fjellstad, W J and W E Dramstad (1999), Patterns of change
in two contrasting Norwegian agricultural landscapes, Landscape and
Urban Planning Vol 45, No 4, pages 177191.
26. Lipsky, Z (1995), The changing face of the Czech rural
landscape, Landscape and Urban Planning Vol 31,No 1, pages
3945.
27. Ohmachi, Tatsuo (2002), Ending the cycle of environmental
deterioration, in Ohmachi and Roman (editors), see reference 5,
pages 39.
28. Takeuchi, Kazuhiko (2002), Introduction: chapter 5, in
Ohmachi and Roman (editors), see reference 5,pages 171173.
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Manila had changed rapidly in 50 years, and that there was an
urban density of 200 persons per hectare about 10 kilometres from
the centre. In a further study by Murakami and colleagues,(33) a
join counts method(34) was applied to indicate the frequency of
contiguity between urbanized and green space areas, or the degree
of land cover/land use mixture. Based on the fi ndings, the whole
of Metro Manila was divided into three types of region, namely: a
central area with low land cover join counts and low land use join
counts; a mid-distance area with high land cover join counts and
low land use join counts; and an outer area with high land cover
join counts and high land use join counts. These studies were
concerned with the pressures of urbanization in the peripheries of
Metro Manila, and suggested conservation of green open spaces
through the adoption of appropriate land use arrangements in the
mix of urban and agricultural land uses. To understand the process
of change in the urban fringe landscape of Metro Manila, the
present authors conducted a study to identify the changing patterns
of agricultural lands and the differences between the lowland and
terraced agricultural landscapes.(35) However, only limited
discussion was undertaken. The objective of this paper, therefore,
is to contribute to further discussion of socioeconomic and other
factors underlying physical changes in the urban fringe
landscape.
II. PHYSICAL ANALYSES AND DISCUSSION
In previous work by the present authors,(36) two study areas,
each meas-uring fi ve kilometres square, were chosen and examined
in Cavite pro-vince near the southern periphery of Metro Manila, to
cover two types of agricultural landscape based on landform (Figure
1). This current paper follows on from that work and discusses the
same two study areas. Du-ring the fi eldwork,(37) the local
population referred to the northwest study area as Imus. The
southeast study area was popularly known as Molino. Imus is the
name of the local urban centre and is usually referred to as the
poblacin area. The term poblacin has its roots in the Spanish
era,
29. Moriwake, Noriko, Armando M Palijon and Kazuhiko Takeuchi
(2002), Distribution and structure of urban green spaces in Metro
Manila, in Ohmachi and Roman (editors), see reference 5,pages
185198.
30. Murakami, Akinobu, Kazuhiko Takeuchi, Atsushi Tsunekawa and
Alinda M Zain (2002), Trends in spatial extension and land use
mixture in Metro Manila, in Ohmachi and Roman (editors), see
reference 5, pages 174184.
31. See reference 29.
32. Murakami, Akinobu, Kazuhiko Takeuchi, Atsushi Tsunekawa and
Noriko Moriwake (2000), The changing pattern of urban population
density and landscape structure in Metro Manila, City Planning
Review Vol 35, pages 625630, The City Planning Institute of Japan
(in Japanese with English Abstract).
33. See reference 30.
34. The method of join counts proposed by Krishna-Iyer (1950),
as cited and used in the study by Murakami and colleagues (2002)
(see reference 30) was applied to measure the degree to which
different land cover/land use categories are mixed. The method
counts the joins between contiguous grid cells. In their study, the
join counts method uses the number of cells of urbanized land that
adjoin cells of green space as its value; in other words it
indicates the degree of land cover/land use mixture. Land cover
joins refer to the mix of urban built-up and green land cover (tree
crowns, grass and other vegetation). Land use joins refer to the
mix of urban land uses (commercial, residential and the like) and
green land uses (agricultural lands and woodlands). See
Krishna-Iyer, P V (1950), The theory of probability distributions
of points on a lattice, Annals of Mathematical Statistics Vol 21,
pages 198217, University of Oxford. FIGURE 1
Location of the study areas
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and traditionally refers to the urban centre of a town in the
Philippines. Molino is the name of a barangay in the upland area,
where a former dirt road was recently developed and called the
Molino highway. Both study areas are located within the political
boundaries of the municipality of Imus.
A spatial database was developed from image interpretation of
aerial photographs from 1982 and 1997. Landscapes, as represented
by land use maps, were sub-divided into landscape units each
measuring six cells by six cells (a cell measures 50 by 50 metres).
Pre-classifi cation was conducted to determine the presence and/or
absence of agricultural and urban land uses. Further classifi
cation took place using cluster analysis on landscape units that
had both agricultural and urban land uses. The variables used were
landscape metrics, which quantifi ed proportion to describe the
occupancy of the land use of interest and contiguity to describe
the spa-tial confi guration, based on the probability that a land
use of interest is adjacent to the same land use. Finally, the
units were classifi ed into fi ve landscape types, namely
agricultural, contiguous agriculture mixed with urban, isolated
agriculture mixed with urban, urban, and others that did not
include any agricultural and/or urban land uses. The changing
patterns indicated how landscape units used for agriculture in 1982
had either changed or remained the same in 1997 (Figure 2).
35. Malaque III, Isidoro R, Makoto Yokohari and Kazuyuki
Kobayashi (2003), Identifi cation of the changing patterns of
agricultural lands in the urban fringe of Metro Manila, Journal of
the Japanese Institute of Landscape Architecture Vol 66, No 5,
pages 901904.
36. See reference 35.
37. Between 28 August and 3 September 2002, personal interviews
were conducted with the local authorities, developers, landowners,
farmers and other stakeholders in order to explain the results of
the physical analyses. A non-structured or informal form of
interview was used, and the results were validated and supported by
secondary data.
FIGURE 2Hypothetical changing patterns of landscape units
SOURCE: Malaque III, Isidoro R, Makoto Yokohari and Kazuyuki
Kobayashi (2003), Identifi cation of the changing patterns of
agricultural lands in the urban fringe of Metro Manila, Journal of
the Japanese Institute of Landscape Architecture Vol 66, No 5,
pages 901905.
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a. Physical changes at landscape level
Agricultural land use dominates in all four land use maps, but
its cover decreased between 1982 and 1997, from 47 per cent to 40
per cent in the
FIGURE 3Land use maps in the northwest (lowland) and southeast
(terraced)
study areas based on aerial photographs
SOURCE: Adapted from Malaque III, Isidoro R, Makoto Yokohari and
Kazuyuki Kobayashi (2003), Identifi cation of the changing patterns
of agricultural lands in the urban fringe of Metro Manila, Journal
of the Japanese Institute of Landscape Architecture Vol 66, No 5,
pages 901904.
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northwest study area and from 67 per cent to 49 per cent in the
southeast study area (Figure 3). The southeast study area had more
land devoted to agriculture in 1982 because it was then the rural
area. The northwest study area had less land devoted to agriculture
in 1982 because the poblacin, or urban centre of the municipality
of Imus, is located there. There were two distinct periods of land
development in the urban fringe of Metro Manila between 1982 and
1997. The earlier period was prior to the rapid land use conversion
of agricultural lands. In 1990, a landmark year in land
development, a total of 347 applications for land use conversion
were approved, covering about 1,790 hectares; the previous year,
only 39 had been approved, covering about 551 hectares.(38) The
later period was more infl uenced by the Ramos administration,
which began in 1992 and which encouraged the dispersal of
industries to the countryside,(39) making land use conversion a
common component of social, political and economic conditions in
the urban fringe of Metro Manila.(40)
b. Physical changes at landscape unit level
The agricultural landscape unit type is characterized not only
by the presence of agricultural land use but also by the absence of
urban land use. Patches of forest and bare ground/grassland can
also be found in some agricultural areas. Landscape units of this
type were dominant in both time periods in the two study areas, but
decreased from 46 per cent (1982) to 31 per cent (1997) in the
northeast area, and from 70 per cent (1982) to 41 per cent (1997)
in the southeast area (Figure 4). The intensive agricul-tural
activity in 1982 is made evident by the dominance of this type
of
FIGURE 4Landscape unit types in the northwest (lowland) and
southeast
(terraced) study areas
SOURCE: Malaque III, Isidoro R, Makoto Yokohari and Kazuyuki
Kobayashi (2003), Identifi cation of the changing patterns of
agricultural lands in the urban fringe of Metro Manila, Journal of
the Japanese Institute of Landscape Architecture Vol 66, No 5,
pages 901904.
38. See reference 2.
39. See reference 13.
40. See reference 10; also see reference 12; and see reference
14.
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landscape unit in both study areas. In Imus municipality, which
includes most of the study areas, there was a decrease in
agricultural lands used for rice production from 61 per cent (1980)
to 17 per cent (1995).(41) In the 1990s, the total number of
farmers also decreased from 835 (1991) to 673 (1997), along with a
decrease in rice production from 9,649 metric tons (1991) to 8,062
metric tons (1997).(42) Few of the farmers descendants are
currently farming, nor do they have any personal inclination
towards agricultural labour. The decrease in agricultural lands is
also related to an increase in the number of approved applications
for land use conversion in the entire country from 12 (1988) to
1,768 (1997).(43) Around 30 per cent of the total approved
applications for land use conversion were in Region IV, where
Cavite province and the study areas are located. Despite the fact
that this region is among those most vulnerable to land use
conversion, the municipality of Imus still has substantial areas of
agricultural land. This municipality was not included in Barbers
discussion of land use conversion in 12 critical municipalities, 75
per cent of which belong to CALABARZON, including municipalities
that adjoin the study areas, namely Dasmarinas, Bacoor and Gen.
Trias.(44)
The second type of landscape unit (contiguous agriculture mixed
with urban) is characterized by the presence of both agricultural
and urban land uses. Here, urban land use has started to encroach
but agricultural land use still remains aggregated. This landscape
unit type decreased from 31 per cent (1982) to 21 per cent (1997)
in the northwest study area, but increased from 6 per cent (1982)
to 11 per cent (1997) in the south-east study area (Figure 4). Even
before 1982, residential sub-division devel-opments had started to
encroach on agricultural lands, and the patches of residential
sub-divisions in this landscape unit type in 1982 were part of the
3,000 hectares of agricultural land that were converted annually
from 1977, as estimated by Serote.(45) In the northwest study area,
this type of landscape unit decreased between the two time periods
because most of the contiguous agricultural lands in 1982 had
become isolated by 1997. In the southeast study area, the
encroachment of new residential sub-division developments on
agricultural lands led to a slight increase in this type of
landscape unit.
The third landscape unit type (isolated agriculture mixed with
urban) is characterized by the presence of both agricultural and
urban land uses. Here, the aggregated agricultural land use has
already become frag-mented. This landscape unit type increased from
17 per cent (1982) to 34 per cent (1997) in the northwest area, and
from 1 per cent (1982) to 11 per cent (1997) in the southeast area
(Figure 4). In the northwest, the increase was the result of a
fragmentation of aggregated agricultural lands in 38 units of the
second type (contiguous agriculture mixed with urban) between the
two time periods. The increase in this landscape unit type in both
study areas was also due to some isolated parcels of agricultural
land that had remained unsold. Even with a housing backlog in the
country (for instance, that in the municipality of Imus increased
from 7,276 in 1980 to 10,771 in 1995),(46) some land remains unsold
or undeveloped be-cause housing consumers pay a large premium over
the price of raw land. Compared to other Southeast Asian countries,
the Philippines posted the longest permit delay (36 months) and the
highest land development multiplier (6.7).(47)
Ballesteros(48) explained that in order to ease the process of
land use conversion, land developers resort to an application
scheme that
41. Socioeconomic profi le: unpublished secondary data obtained
from the Municipal Planning and Development Offi ce of the
Municipality of Imus, Cavite, during the authors research in
20002003.
42. Unpublished secondary data obtained from the Municipal
Agriculture Offi ce, Municipality of Imus, Cavite, during the
authors research in 20002003.
43. See reference 2.
44. Barber, Ma Haezel M (1997), A study on the unchecked
conversion of agricultural lands into non-agricultural uses: the
CALABARZON experience, Philippine Planning JournalVol 28, No 2,
pages 120.
45. Serote, Ernesto M (1988), Measuring the conversion of lands
to urban uses in the Philippines: residential sub-divisions
development as surrogate data, Philippine Planning Journal Vol 19,
No 12, pages 715.
46. Municipal Development Plan (19962005): unpublished document
obtained from the Municipal Planning and Development Offi ce of the
Municipality of Imus, Cavite, during the authors research in
20002003.
47. Ballesteros, Marife M (2000), Land use planning in Metro
Manila and the urban fringe: implications on land and real estate
market, PIDS Discussion Paper Series No 200020, Philippine
Institute for Development Studies, Manila. The land development
multiplier indicates the ratio between the price of developed land
for sale to the real estate market and the price of raw land
(agricultural land). The high development multiplier in the
Philippines is also infl uenced by the long time it takes to
complete the process for land use conversion.
48. See reference 11.
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200
subdivides the total land area into smaller areas. Under the
approval system, areas measuring fi ve hectares or less are under
the authority of the regional offi ce, while applications for areas
greater than fi ve hectares require further processes in other
national government offi ces.(49) Even some of the agricultural
land still under cultivation is pending sale or is under the land
use conversion process, and some has tenant farmer bene-fi ciary
applicants under the Agrarian Land Reform Programme. Farmer benefi
ciaries of the land reform programme affected by the land use
con-version must be paid a disturbance compensation, which should
not be less than fi ve times the average of the annual gross value
of the harvest on their actual landholdings during the last fi ve
preceding calendars years.(50) In addition, the land use conversion
applicant or developer must provide free home lots and assured
employment for the displaced farmers, along with capital to enable
them to shift to another livelihood. In most cases, these
arrangements are made ahead of time between the landowners and
tenant farmer benefi ciaries, and the latter are paid a larger
amount of money in lieu of the piece of land. It is expected that
the isolated pieces of land that are intended to be part of the
disturbance compensation package will be used for urban
agriculture. But for those with less than two hectares, farming is
an inadequate source of income to support family needs, so these
farmers resort to non-farm labour such as construction work for
additional income. These trends are related to the slower rate of
agricultural production and an increasing urban population.
The urban landscape unit type is characterized by the presence
of urban land use and the absence of agricultural land use. Patches
of bare ground/grassland can also be found in the southeast study
area. Units of this landscape type increased from 6 per cent (1982)
to 14 per cent (1997) in the northeast area, and from 2 per cent
(1982) to 20 per cent (1997) in the southeast area (Figure 4).
Following the increase in population in the municipality of Imus
from 59,103 (1980) to 177,408 (1995),(51) this landscape unit type
also increased in both study areas. According to Ballesteros,(52)
the real estate boom, which was the result of an increasing fl ow
of investment that started in 1987, made landowners realize the
value of their land. She further explained that land prices in
CALABARZON had risen sharply: the price of commercial lots in 1991
increased by 42.1 per cent, that of residential lots by 21.9 per
cent and that of development lots by 12.9 per cent above their 1990
levels. Between 1990 and 1993, the average weighted asking price of
land in CALABARZON increased by 25 per cent to 32 per cent.(53) In
the municipality of Imus, the total number of development permits
for residential sub-division projects increased from fi ve (1993)
to 71 (1997).(54)This trend slowed down in 1998 and 1999 following
the economic crisis in 1997 but recently, real estate activity has
been on the upswing again, according to a department head of the
ACM real estate company(55) that is in the process of planning a
34-hectare residential sub-division development. Along with the
increasing num-ber of residential sub-divisions, the density of
commercial and industrial establishments increased from nine to 35
units per square kilometre between 1980 and1995.(56)
Other landscape units that do not belong to the four categories
above are characterized by the absence of both agricultural and
urban land uses; these include forest, bare ground/grasslands and
golf courses. This landscape type is absent in the northwest area
and has decreased slightly from 21 per cent (1982) to 17 per cent
(1997) in the southeast
49. Land Use Conversion Primer Series (1998), Department of
Agrarian Reform, Manila.
50. See reference 49.
51. See reference 1.
52. See reference 11.
53. Ramos, Norman R (1996), Urban land development trends in the
Philippines, Philippine Planning JournalVol 27, No 2, pages
1326.
54. See reference 46.
55. Personal interview with A Landas, Head of Construction
Service Group, ACM, 29 August 2002.
56. See reference 41.
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area. Although some residential sub-divisions were developed
over bare ground/grasslands, the abandonment of 13 agricultural
landscape units between the two time periods resulted in a slight
net decrease. A golf course resulted from land use conversion of a
mango plantation that can be detected as a mix of forest and bare
ground/grasslands in the southwest corner of the southeast study
area land use map in 1982 (Figure 3).
c. The changing patterns of agricultural lands
In 1982, agricultural landscape units (whose total number was
the same in 1997) dominated in both study areas, covering 31 per
cent of the northwest study area and 40 per cent of the southeast
study area. How-ever, if we focus on physical changes in the
agricultural landscape, we fi nd almost no change in the northwest
study area from 1982 to 1997, whereas in the southeast study area,
changing patterns illustrate some abandonment of agriculture (5 per
cent) and some direct change from agricultural landscape to urban
landscape (10 per cent) (Figure 5).
The northwest study area is characterized as an alluvial plain.
The southeast study area, with an elevation of more than 20 metres
above sea level, is characterized as terraced (Figure 6). The two
study areas also differ in land use composition, as illustrated in
the land use maps (Figure 3). The
FIGURE 5Changing patterns in the northwest (lowland) and
southeast
(terraced) study areas
SOURCE: Malaque III, Isidoro R, Makoto Yokohari, and Kazuyuki
Kobayashi (2003), Identifi cation of the changing patterns of
agricultural lands in the urban fringe of Metro Manila, Journal of
the Japanese Institute of Landscape Architecture Vol 66, No 5,
pages 901904.
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changing patterns illustrated in Figure 5 show that the
southeast study area was more vulnerable to urban land development
and the abandonment of agricultural lands than the northwest study
area. Rainfed agricultural lands (mainly in the southeast area)
could only produce 4.5 metric tons of rice per hectare with one
cropping cycle per year, compared to irrigated agricultural lands,
mostly found in the northwest study area, which could produce 4.98
metric tons per hectare with two cropping cycles per year.(57) Both
farmers and a municipal agriculture offi cer(58) claimed that water
supply is better in the northwest area, making a second cropping
more feasible than in the southeast area. Tenant farmers in the
southeast area found that farming was less economically feasible,
especially if they were farming an area smaller than two hectares.
Low productivity and the landowners share result in a net profi t
that is not enough to support their needs. Thus, they prefer to go
along with land use conversion because their disturbance
compensation will provide them with the means to invest in
non-agricultural businesses. In contrast, it was common for tenant
farm-ers in the northwest study area to prefer to continue
farming.
According to an Imus planning offi cer,(59) in around 1982, when
there was intensive agricultural activity in the southeast study
area, real estate developers started to purchase agricultural land
directly from the landowners. More recently, the development of the
Molino highway (a diversion route for northsouth traffi c) has
attracted more buyers. In the northwest study area, the price of
agricultural land was higher than in the southeast study area,
approximately 500700 Philippine pesos per square metre compared to
400600 Philippine pesos per square metre. Applying any pre-identifi
ed multiplying factor for development costs, agricultural lands in
the southeast study area were more favourable for investment and
the market.
III. CONCLUSION
Rapid spatial expansion is taking place in the metropolitan
region of Metro Manila. In the peripheral area most of this takes
the form of low-density development that threatens the ecology of
agricultural lands.
F IGURE 6The northwest (lowland) (left) and southeast (terraced)
(right) agricultural landscapes
57. See reference 41.
58. Personal interview withS M Arandia, Municipal Agriculture
Offi cer, Municipality of Imus, Cavite, 27 August 2002.
59. Personal interview withR D Pelaez, Planning Offi cer II,
Municipality of Imus, Cavite,27 August 2002.
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Demand for land for urban use is the stimulus for speculation,
land use conversion and other forms of urban development in the
fringe, which will eventually result in changes in the pattern of
agricultural lands. According to Bryant and colleagues: There is
little doubt that a basic phen-omenon underlying land use change in
the regional city is to be found in changes in land ownership
structure and the real estate market.(60) Pond and Yeates
hypothesized that land market activity can be used to indicate
urban growth pressure before land use conversion occurs.(61) In the
peripheral provinces of Metro Manila, land experienced a number of
ownership changes before it was absorbed by the growing
metropolitan region; some of these were described by McAndrew.(62)
Thus, land market activity, as it is connected to land ownership
change, is one of the forerunners of urban development and may
point to future urban expansion. The Philippines experienced good
economic performance between 1990 and 1997, and this created a
strong demand for real estate from both the domestic and foreign
sect-ors. Since the rise of Manila as a primate city under colonial
rule, the pro-cess of urbanization that has shaped its growth has
also brought about physical changes in the nearby Cavite
countryside. The fragmentation of agricultural lands that created a
heterogeneous land use mix refl ects both the land ownership
structure and the decisions of individuals. Similarly, the
different political levels identifi ed by Kelly(63) relate to the
physical changes in the landscape at different scales. For example,
whether a piece of agricultural land just 50 metres square remains
agricultural or changes to another land use is related to politics
at the personal level. Local level politics is related to physical
patterns at the landscape unit scale a municipal zoning plan, for
instance, infl uences the change from agricultural landscape unit
type to another type characterized by urban land use. And national
level politics is related to the changing patterns that constitute
the process of urbanization in the two different agri-cultural
landscapes we have examined, and to the physical changes in the
urban fringe landscape that were illustrated by land use maps in
two time periods.
There was a major difference in the changing patterns in the two
study areas, which represent two different types of agricultural
landscape. The northwest study area experienced uniform patterns of
change in a phased transition. In the southeast study area, there
was a more direct change from agricultural use in 1982 to an urban
landscape unit type in 1997. The abandonment of agricultural land
was also identifi ed; land that had been agricultural in 1982 had
become a bare or grassland land-scape by 1997. Although a smaller
scale might indicate more comparable change, at a landscape unit
scale of six cells by six cells (300 metres by 300 metres), the
level of urban development in the southeast area is relatively
larger than in the northwest area.
There was more urban development in the southeast area because
of the lower prices for agricultural land for residential
sub-division devel-opments and the strong preference among tenant
farmers there for land use conversion over continuing farming. This
preference was due to the low effi ciency and productivity of
agricultural lands as a result of in-suffi cient irrigation for the
rice crops grown there. Real estate developers also preferred the
southeast area for investment, as the development of the Molino
highway connecting the southern municipalities to the peri-phery of
Metro Manila made the area attractive for housing and other urban
developments. The northwest study area experienced a more
60. See reference 6, page 15.
61. See reference 9, page 207.
62. See reference 12.
63. See reference 10.
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phased transition because of relatively higher prices for
agricultural lands. This meant that the relatively large parcels of
land needed for larger-scale residential sub-division developments
were not affordable. As in the case of applications for land use
conversion, applicants resorted to a scheme that sub-divided the
land into small areas in order to ease the process. The northwest
study area also has a better irrigation system, which encouraged
tenant farmers to continue farming and made it possible to sustain
culti-vation in some isolated parcels of agricultural land that
tenant farmers received as compensation. Aside from relatively
higher land prices, there has also been strong resistance from
tenant farmers to land use conversion, and higher demands for
disturbance compensation. All these factors made the land use
conversion process in the northwest study area more diffi cult than
in the southeast area, and urban growth was consequently faster in
the southeast area over the time period examined. The current
zoning plan of the municipality of Imus has categorized the
southeast study area as residential and industrial zones, and
agricultural zones can only be found in the northwest study
area.(64) These zoning regulations are likely to be properly
implemented regardless of economic and political pressures, and it
can be assumed that intensive urban land development in the
southeast study area will take place in the future, while
agriculture will continue only in the northwest study area.
IV. RECOMMENDATIONS
Because of their proximity to urban centres, even urban fringe
areas made up of prime agricultural land can become sites for
expanding urban development. The resulting loss of green open space
may mean environmental degradation, including fl ooding and thermal
discomfort in the urban fringe, as is occurring at present in the
centre of Metro Manila. An understanding of the process of
landscape change makes it clear that agricultural lands can
co-exist with urban land uses in the process of urbanization. It is
recommended that landscape units with contiguous agriculture be
preserved in order to sustain productivity and preserve their
ecological functions. The mixture of urban and agricultural land
uses is characteristic of the vernacular urban fringe landscapes of
Asian megacities. This landscape, called Desakota by McGee,(65) was
defi ned as a region of intense mixture of agricultural and
non-agricultural activities that often stretch along corridors
between large cities. Yokohari and colleagues(66) described this
kind of vernacular landscape as a new ecological planning concept
for the future of Asian megacities, and recommended that it be
adopted to support the integration of urban and rural land uses.
This planning concept is truly appropriate for Asian megacities,
since segmented patches of agricultural land have such ecological
functions as water retention capability, microclimate control,
conservation of visual quality and the supply of safe, fresh
food.(67) At an economically sustainable micro scale, these
agricultural lands must also be cultivated and promoted as urban
agriculture. Rice is important in the daily meal of every Filipino.
Even if rice is a low-value crop, its cultivation plays a dominant
role in food production. Prime rice paddy fi elds run the risk of
being converted to urban land uses, but should be preserved for
food security. Policies relating to agricultural development should
encourage the cultivation of remaining agricultural lands and the
re-cultivation of abandoned
64. Personal interview with A G Cantimbuhan, Zoning
Administrator, Municipality of Imus, Cavite, 27 August 2002; also
see reference 46.
65. McGee, T G (1991), The emergence of Desakota regions in
Asia: expanding a hypothesis, in N Ginsburg, B Koppel and T G McGee
(editors), The Extended Metropolis: Settlement Transition in Asia,
University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, pages 325.
66. Yokohari, Makoto, Kazuhiko Takeuchi, T Watanabe and S Yokota
(2000), Beyond greenbelts and zoning: a new planning concept for
the environment of Asian megacities, Landscape and Urban Planning
Vol 47, No 3/4, pages 159171.
67. See reference 66, page 170.
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agricultural lands. To promote the productivity of remaining
agricultural lands, while maintaining a sound environment for urban
residents, provision for water and sanitation must also be improved
at the regional planning level. Urban land uses are also necessary
to accommodate a developing economy, but urban development should
be undertaken in landscape units with only isolated agriculture,
since these units are already vulnerable to land use conversion. In
this way, contiguous agricultural lands will be preserved with
their ecological functions. In cases where isolated open spaces can
no longer sustain agriculture, these can also developed as urban
parks within high-density urban developments, to provide a better
environment.
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