HISTORY OF PCEEM Davao Foundation, Inc.

PCEEM Davao Foundation, Inc. evolved from a five-year bilateral project jointly funded by the Government of the Philippines through the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the Government of Canada through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). The project, which aimed to test a governance model using watersheds as units of management, was also implemented in Cebu, where watersheds have been degraded to an alarming stage. In Davao, PCEEM chose the Talomo-Lipadas Watersheds (TLWs) as its project site.

To date, the PCEEM Project (1998 – present) has gone through three phases, namely,

1) The Project Management Phase (1998 – 2000)
2) The Transition Phase (2000 – 2002)
3) PCEEM Davao Board Management Phase (2002 onwards)

The Management Board and Stakeholders of Davao City have been keen to initiate interventions supported by the project over the past five years. However, in the first two years, the Project Management Office focused on the strengthening of the Board and on the third year, on the Transition Strategy. Hence, the Management Board of PCEEM-Davao Inc. have been managing PCEEM activities since 2002, after the signing of the Memorandum of Agreement between SNC-Lavalin and PCEEM-Davao Foundation, Inc.

As a project, the name ‘PCEEM’ stood for Philippines-Canada Environmental and Economic Management; today, ‘PCEEM’ in ‘PCEEM Davao’ stands for People Collaborating for Environmental and Economic Management of Davao Foundation, Inc. "PCEEM Davao Foundation, Incorporated", a non-stock, non-profit organization duly registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. While the words behind the acronym may have changed, it has retained its core values as an inclusive, impartial and collaborative organization that taps dynamic participation of multi-sector stakeholders to ensure sustainable management of the Talomo-Lipadas Watersheds. At the same time, this fortuitous change in name not only reflects the shift from being a project of two governments to becoming a non-government organization. It also highlights the fact that environmental resource management requires collaboration or partnerships of people.

PCEEM Davao, Foundation, Inc. prides itself on being a vehicle for conflict resolution and it continually provides a venue for the expression of different positions from the different sectors in the watershed. It uses consensus decision-making.