The research project aims to explore the ways land-use has changed in Negros Occidental, Palawan, and South Cotabato, paying special attention to the political and economic dynamics at play among the state and non-state actors present in these provinces. It is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC), the International Development Research Center (IDRC), and the Department of International Relations, of the University of Montreal. It is a collaboration between the University of Montreal and the Third World Studies Center of the University of the Philippines.
The project was headed by Dr. Dominique Caouette, of the University of Montreal political science department. Some of the data collected for this project by Dominique Caouette and John Edison Ubaldo are simultaneously being utilized for producing write-ups for this project and as resources for the GMLC project.