All over Southeast Asia, rural communities are in transition to a sustainable status. This book explores how an environmentally fragile upland community in rural Philippines coped with and responded to economic and environmental tensions brought about by a globalized economy and decentralization. This in turn gave rise to local power especially in the management of natural resources. Time-series farm and household-level data of the study community characterized upland development in the Philippines during the turn of the 21st century. Farmer stories on how land-use decisions were affected by economic policies and environmental stresses were told and documented. As the tension between the economy and the environment exhibit both predicted and unforeseen changes, this book suggests institutional innovations, promoting a greater understanding of sustainable rural development in the developing world.