“From Power to Foresight: Reimagining Pathways of Land Use and Water Governance Futures” is a new report by Heidi D. Mendoza and Shermon O. Cruz, Chair of the Philippines Node of The Millennium Project, recently published on Vol. 27 No. 3 March 2023, Journal of Futures Studies.

How might futures of land and water governance systems emerge from foresight processes? This paper explores how a multi-stakeholder group used foresight processes to reimagine landscape governance in the Philippines. Landscape governance as a natural resource management framework is not at all new, but it is gaining attention and momentum especially in developing countries.

In 2018, alliances of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in the Philippines embarked on a landscape governance effort to influence policy and decision-making processes both at a landscape and national level. However, the alliance acknowledged that to better influence policy processes, the alliance has to tap and harness collective intelligence, and maximize their collective foresight.

This case study focuses on exploring foresight methods, questioning underlying assumptions, reimagining future scenarios, and rethinking pathways to the futures of Philippine land use and water governance as two critical aspects of landscape governance.

The emerging scenarios for land use posit the alliances’ aspirations for community-powered agricultural transformations for the next 50 years, and transformations that can promote human-conscious artificial intelligence, and biosphere-led ecosystems. On the other hand, the emerging scenarios for water governance detailed an eco-efficient, indigenous-centric, multi-purpose and cooperative-led water infrastructure, distribution and access systems.

The foresight process revealed that diverse worldviews and narratives challenge and reframe default ways of knowing and embodying land use and water governance. Ultimately, the foresight process challenges how current landscape governance planning, and visioning provide power for the alliance to influence policy and decision-making processes in longer-time horizons.

Read the paper online: https://jfsdigital.org/articles-and-essays/2023-2/vol-27-no-3-march-2023/