Enhancing Community-Based Environmental Governance Through Barangay Empowerment and Contextualization of The National Service Training Program

This study examines the persistent gap between community environmental awareness and substantive grassroots action in the Negros Island Region’s barangays, despite the robust legal mandates provided by RA 7160, RA 9003, and RA 9163. Employing a mixed-methods approach, the research triangulates quantitative assessments across three barangay clusters (PRKs) with qualitative insights from Focus Group Discussions involving barangay officials, purok leaders, and NSTP implementers. Although the overall mean score reached a “High” level (3.06), qualitative themes such as "Frontline Fatigue," "Symbolic Stewardship," and "Academic Parallelism" reveal fragmented coordination and limited technical capacity at the local level. The study identifies a structural gap within the NSTP—specifically its CWTS component—which currently lacks a standardized framework for aligning student-led projects with local development priorities. In response, a recalibrated policy framework was proposed, one that embeds joint planning, shared accountability, and mandatory monitoring and evaluation mechanisms between Higher Education Institutions and Local Government Units. This model aims to transform symbolic environmentalism into institutionalized, community-based stewardship, enabling barangays to move from awareness to well-informed, actionable environmental governance.