Since end-1980s, the Philippines' Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources had been offering 25-year (renewable once) forest land development joint ventures at thousand-hectare levels to local co-ops and associations. Per DENR terms, 90% of joint venture area is to be reforested and 10% converted to farms and ranches for daily income. 20% of timber harvests go to State. As of 1990s, several thousand rural multi-purpose co-ops and associations mostly led by NGOs had availed of the scheme. In many cases, foreign NGOs took care of funding for operations. Land areas granted came up to a thousand to 10,000 hectares per joint venture, the total occupying over ten million out of 18 million hectares of mostly uplands. Unfortunately, most of the co-ops floundered or tanked due to lack of sufficient funding, ultra low production for 'daily bread', expensive distances to markets, zero exports, rebel/army clashes and intrigu...