SIMPLE Goals and Objectives

SIMPLE enables local governments to manage their entire territory from “ridge to reef” SIMPLE encourages local governments to integrate all nonurban areas into their land use plans. This has not been common practice in the past, simply because it was not mandatory and appropriate methods and tools were not available.

A typical rural town consists of between 40% to 60% public

land. A key approach therefore involves including forest land use planning (FLUP) in the Comprehensive Land Use Plan. The forest lands will be surveyed and protection and production zones will be identified as desribed in the FLUP guidelines. For the coastal areas, this means foremost the delineation of the 15km municipal water zone. This includes not only resolving boundary issues but also the delineation into water use zones. Protection and production purposes have to be balanced just as in the forest areas. The establishment of Marine Protected Areas is often an important result of coastal planning.

Ridge-to-reef planning and management will also help to include climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction measures in the land use plan. Mapping the risks and hazards is the prerequisite to draw up proper conclusions where to locate people, infrastructure, agriculture or nature protection areas.

The core of every land use plan is the delineation of allowed uses in various zones in both public and private lands. The Zoning Ordinance (ZO) as the legal instrument must be enforced to reach compliance of citizens

with the prescribed land uses. SIMPLE provides a ready-to-use template for local governments to cover all lands. This will greatly improve the land use efficiency by assigning and monitoring the right use of land to certain zones and its strict enforcement and compliance.

With the assigning of proper land uses and monitoring its compliance, negative effects stemming

from land conversions or uncontrolled urban growth can be limited. Prime agricultural lands can be maintained and crucial ecosystems will continue to provide services, such as clean water supply, fish or wood. This builds healthy communities because it supports social stability, peace and order and livelihood for the poorest. Business enterprises will benefit from clearer rules and regulations and more transparency in possible land uses for private investments. The development of housing and social infrastructure becomes safer and faster as local governments will identify priorities and the feasibility of public investments based on sound plans.

“In the past, we are just planning everything with a few people. It was just the Municipal Planning and Development Office, the consultants and the Mayor. With SIMPLE, the grassroots are involved, the barangays are well represented. Before, there were no thematic maps like flood maps but with SIMPLE, people became aware of the hazards and proper land use planning is being implemented.” Fernando Sarile Jr., Municipal and Development Planning Officer, Municipality of Javier, Leyte

SIMPLE empowers communities

SIMPLE builds on a participatory land use and development planning process starting at the barangay level by communities for communities.

This does not change the usual local development planning process but adds a participatory element to it. The output of this process is a barangay development plan (BDP) that feeds into the local development plans (CLUP and CDP).

What this facilitated participatory planning does

change, fundamentally, is how the plan is made. It ensures that people directly affected by the plan and those who will implement it also participate in its formulation. In short, they make the plan. This process can dramatically change the insight and accuracy of the situational analysis, the practicality of the target results, the acceptability of the methods, and hence the probability of successful implementation. Last but not least, communities will comply with the plan because they were consulted during its formulation.

“It was easy for us to produce maps with calculations of land uses for certain areas and present them to the barangay constituents based on their proposals because we use GIS.” Errol Ripalda, GIS staff of Municipality of Alangalang, Leyte

SIMPLE develops local capacities at affordable costs

SIMPLE’s participatory nature improves the data basis for planning, helps prioritize

investment projects and guarantees compliance with zoning regulations. It uses locally available knowledge and builds on the experience of the people. Its core is the establishment of a pool of trainers at the provincial level that provides trainings to municipalities and cities including the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS). This lowers costs as the employment of external experts is largely reduced.

It is innovative in its easy-to-understand description and application of the rather complex

planning guidelines currently prescribed. It adapts important topics, such as land conflicts, budgeting and revenue management, gender, disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation to the locally available capacity of planners and community workers. Communities are encouraged to try out innovative methods and techniques to showcase how to reconcile the conservation of natural resources with food security, income generation and other needs.