Tenure over forestlands can mean sustenance for the poor as well as protection of natural resources. It is in this context that CARP included public lands in agrarian and tenure reform. This section briefly describes DENR’s accomplishments on tenure reform and identifies some emerging issues and gaps in the implementation of tenure reform in public lands under CARP. Evolution of tenure reform in forestlands. During Spanish colonization, the control and management of the land and natural resources were placed under State ownership. The 1894 Maura Act made it an imperative for all undocumented property rights to be transferred to the State. The US colonial government used the same notion by promoting the Regalian Doctrine. Without documented land titles, many Filipinos ended up losing their rights to land either to the State or to the elites. Among the most affected were indigenous peoples. State ownership of all lands in the public domain was further strengthened by the 1935 and 1973 Constitutions. Commonwealth Act 141, or the Public Land Act of 1936, established the systems of classification, administration, and distribution of public lands by the State. Upland dwellers in public lands were considered squatters, and kaingin or shifting cultivation were blamed for forest destruction which was estimated at a rate of 200,000 hectares per year by the 1960s (Makil 1982 as cited by Pulhin, et. al, 2008). The Forestry Reform Code of the Philippines in 1972 was among the first mechanisms to rehabilitate forests with the participation of local communities. However, the law did not provide land tenure security, and merely involved forest dwellers as cheap labor for reforestation. The Integrated Social Forestry (ISF) Program was formed in 1982 granting local communities the right to access and cultivate upland areas, and to secure tenure for 25 years. As a program approach, the ISF sought to address ecological stability and enhance socio-economic conditions of forest occupants and communities in open and deforested upland areas, and mangrove areas. The Letter of Instruction (LOI) 1260 of 1982 recognized the “concept of man’s new role of stewardship over our natural resources” as enshrined under the 1973 Constitution;” the law provided for kaingineros and other forest occupants in identified kaingin settlements to be included under ISF, through 25-year stewardship contracts. Although the objectives of social forestry included alleviation from poverty of forest dwellers and forest rehabilitation, its true intentions were questioned 64 Status of Land and Resource Tenure Reform in the Philippines 2018