These POs collectively have 191,356 registered members – 124,306 males and 67,050 females (DENR, 2016b). This also means that around 280,000 hectares under CBFMAs lie beyond the scope of CARP or have not been included in reporting for CARP. Thus, while CARP sets a ceiling of five hectares per family under ISF/CBFM leasehold, the average size of CBFM awards per member as computed from the latest 2016 data is 8.4 hectares. Assessment It should be noted that the legal instruments for DENR’s tenure-related programs pre-existed CARP in 1988. The Public Land Act of 1936 (CA 141) provided for the administrative distribution of A&D lands, while the ISF Program on forestlands was instituted in 1982. The inclusion of these programs under CARP made them a national priority, with a stronger focus on equitable distribution, tenure rights and security for the poor. CARP provided for program budgets, accomplishment targets and monitoring systems, and inter-agency coordination under the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC). Lack of impact studies. To date, there has been no program-wide impact assessment of DENR-CARP work and accomplishments. Existing assessments of the CBFM program often focus on environmental impact and resource management, rather than on tenure security, welfare and livelihoods of forest dwellers. Several case studies on CBFM implementation cite that the lack of support services to the farmer-beneficiaries of public lands as one of its most common problems. Low CARP targets? There are reasons to believe that DENR’s CARP targets were set too low, and that there is much greater scope for further improving tenure security in public lands. One: The ISF/CBFM targets were reportedly completed as early as CY 2000. Two: Vast tracts of public land (755,000 hectares) remain unclassified, based on the 2016 Philippine Forestry Statistics, and the delineation of forestlands is still incomplete. Three: The DENR programs – on the issuance of land patents, and on CBFM – have continued long after “CARP completion” in 2000. However, the focus of these programs may have shifted. And in the absence of a CARP program framework in public lands, there is a danger of tenure reforms being ignored by the bureaucracy. 70 Status of Land and Resource Tenure Reform in the Philippines 2018