The target scope and coverage of such reforms are difficult to assess, given the nonexistence or unreliability of available data. While the coverage of agrarian reform has been routinely reported, accomplishment targets have been moving each year, due mainly to the poor state of land records in the country. The last major DAR survey was done in 2009. Since then the accomplishment target for the land transfer program has been readjusted annually. DAR also has no target scope for the leasehold program – whether in the number of tenants, the number of farms, or the total hectarage of farms under tenancy. In the case of ancestral domains, there is no data on the actual number of indigenous communities and their domains that can potentially be recognized under IPRA. By definition, the identification of indigenous people is based on self-ascription, while IPRA recognizes the principle of self-delineation in the mapping out of ancestral domains. Understanding asset reform Asset reform involves “redistributing resource endowments to designated marginalized sectors through a process that awards a tenurial instrument to target beneficiaries that provides them ownership or security of tenure over the subject asset. This is accompanied by support services designed to enable beneficiaries to make the most productive use of the distributed asset. Further, … (there are) resource management and resource governance mechanisms to provide the necessary enabling environment” (PhilDHRRA, 2008). Using the above definition, asset reform in the Philippines is seen to involve four elements: (1) the transfer of a resource (land and waters); (2) a tenure instrument; (3) support services; and (4) a resource governance and resource management system. And because asset reform involves the redistribution and the devolution of control over resources, there are forces that seek to obstruct and/or reverse asset reforms (Figure 1). Transfer of a resource usually involves the determination of two factors. First is the delineation of land and resources, which may be defined in terms of individual farm plots, collective agricultural areas, community forest use areas, municipal waters or ancestral domains. While delineation often involves defining the boundaries of surface rights (in hectares), it may also include measuring the depth of waters or assigning subterranean (e.g. mining) rights. While delineation is usually done by the State, under the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) ancestral domains are identified based on the principle of self-delineation. 18 Status of Land and Resource Tenure Reform in the Philippines 2018

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