  Following the method of Buchbinder and Lyahovich, we carry out a canonical
formalism for a higher-curvature gravity in which the Lagrangian density ${\cal
L}$ is given in terms of a function of the salar curvature $R$ as ${\cal
L}=\sqrt{-\det g_{\mu\nu}}f(R)$. The local Hamiltonian is obtained by a
canonical transformation which interchanges a pair of the generalized
coordinate and its canonical momentum coming from the higher derivative of the
metric.
