“Most of the country’s once rich forests are gone,” says the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) study entitled, “Sustainable Forest Management.”
“From the late 1950s through 1973, deforestation in the Philippines reached 172,000 hectares per year,” wrote Robert Repetto, author of The Forest for the Trees? Government Policies and the Misuse of Forest Resources. “Virgin forests have been especially hard hit, declining by 1.7 million hectares from 1971 to 1980 alone.”
In 1982, 55% of the country’s total land area (16.6 million hectares) was classified as forested land and virgin forests accounted for about 9% (2.7 million hectares). But Landsat photos taken in 1976 showed only 8.5 to 9.0 million hectares actually under forests, and 1983 photos revealed a decrease to 7.8 to 8.3 million hectares, within which virgin forests were only 2.0 to 2.5 million hectares.
According to the 2022 Philippine Forestry Statistics, the nation currently has an estimated total forest cover of 7.22 million hectares, which constitutes 24.07% of the country’s land area of 30 million hectares. This figure is “far below” the 17.8 million hectares of forest cover recorded in 1934.
“This showcases just how much of our forest we have lost over the years, and how serious of a threat deforestation is to the country,” states the Climate Change Commission (CCC), the lead policy-making government body tasked to coordinate, monitor, and evaluate government programs and action plans related to climate change.
“Where have all our forests gone?” asked Jethro P. Adang, director of the Mindanao Baptist Rural Life Center (MBRLC), a non-government organization based in Kinuskusan, Bansalan, Davao del Sur. “Why are we losing our trees at a very fast rate?”
The ever-growing population can be partly blamed. “The most likely causes were the increase in population – up from about 500,000 in 152 to around seven million in 1900,” surmised the Environmental Science for Social Change (ESSC), a Jesuit research and training organization.
Today, the Philippines is home to 112.90 million Filipinos.
“This was accompanied by the spread of commercial crops (abaca, tobacco and sugarcane) and by growth of pasture lands for cattle raising as the Philippines became part of the world economy,” the publication continued.
But logging – both legal and illegal – is seen as the primary culprit. “I have seen fortunes made overnight from the forest and it makes my skin crawl to realize that there are many Filipinos who just don’t care about the future generations’ legacy in the way of forester sources,” the late president Ferdinand E. Marcos was reported to say those words.
When the late President Benigno Aquino III visited Davao City and was asked by a Grade 6 pupil why illegal logging continues to persist even if it is prohibited by law.
Aquino replied that previous administrations tried to curb illegal logging but despite all attempts the practice persisted. “Talagang merong pasaway,” the president was quoted as saying.
In a way, logging is the primary culprit of the fast disappearance of the country’s forest resources. “An important source of deforestation has been the dramatic expansion of destructive logging,” wrote Robert Repetto in The Forest for the Trees? Government Policies and the Misuse of Forest Resources.
He explained: “After independence, the Philippines’ new government viewed exploitation of the country’s forest reserves as a good way to raise desperately needed revenues. Log- and wood-product exports were resumed, and timber companies were given substantial incentives.
Logging boomed in the late 1960s. “Logging concession areas increased from 4.5 million hectares to 11.6 million hectares, covering more than one-third of the entire country,” the ESSC publication reported. “Timber companies owned by the traditional elite, the Philippine military, and politicians cornered the logging contracts.”
Most of the country’s forest covers are located in the uplands. In the Philippine context, the uplands are rolling to steep lands, with slopes ranging upward from 18%. About 60% of the country’s total land area is considered upland.
Upland migration and agricultural expansion have contributed to the past disappearance of the country’s forest cover. “Some 80,000 to 120,000 families cleared an estimated 2.3 million hectares of forest land,” Repetto wrote. “The spread of shifting cultivation largely reflects population growth and the economy’s failure to provide employment alternatives for the country’s rural poor.”
Mining also threatens the country’s remaining forests. Kalikasan, people’s network for the environment, wrote in its website: “Through the Mining Act of 1995, mining companies are given timber rights which allow them to cut trees inside their concessions. As of March 2011, more than one million ha of land are covered with mining permits and applications.”
According to Kalikasan, “human rights violations related to deforestation include land grabbing, militarization, violation of the Free and Prior informed Consent requirement and killings. Indigenous peoples and national minorities are the usual victims since their ancestral domains are usually located in forests.”
The destruction caused by deforestation is already written on the wall. “Deforestation has left upper watersheds unprotected, destabilizing river flows, with significant effects on fish population and agriculture,” Repetto wrote.
“The implications for hydroelectric projects and irrigation facilities have already become apparent in Luzon, where anticipated lifetimes of important reservoirs have been cut in half by sedimentation,” Repetto added.
As a consequence of the continuous removal of forest cover, the Philippines now reels from different environmental woes. “Most of these were not seen in such intensity and magnitude before our time,” pointed out Adang. “The signs cry out for immediate, nationwide attention.”
Soil erosion and siltation are the two most common problems associated with deforestation. “Soil erosion is an enemy to any nation — far worse than any outside enemy coming into a country and conquering it because it is an enemy you cannot see vividly,” said Harold R. Watson, an American missionary who received a Ramon Magsaysay Award for his work in Mindanao.
Water, one of man’s basic needs, is expected to diminish as forest cover disappears in watershed areas. A certain Diosmedes Demit, a farmer from Bukidnon, told a reporter on why he was joining the ‘Fast for the Forests’: “If the forest perishes, so will the life of people. The trees are our source of life. Without trees, there will be no water. If there is no water, there will be no life.”
The threat to life escalates during a flood. Even slight flooding can cause numerous disruptions. A major flood can incur damages reaching billions of pesos, impacting agriculture and infrastructure, while also leading to a decrease in productivity across both industry and commerce, alongside the heartbreaking loss of human lives. Overpopulated urban centers like Metro Manila and Davao City may experience complete paralysis for several days.
“Most floods are caused by man, not weather; deforestation, levee construction, erosion, and overgrazing all result in the loss of ecosystem services,” said Paul Hawken, who is not only an American environmentalist but also an entrepreneur, author, economist, and activist.
In The World for World is Forest, Ursula K. Le Guin wrote: “A forest ecology is a delicate one. If the forest perishes, its fauna may go with it.” Forest is home to some of the most ecologically-fragile flora and fauna.
“More than 400 plant and animal species in the Philippines are currently threatened with extinction, including the Philippine eagle and the tamaraw,” the Washington D.C.-based Population Reference Bureau reported.
The Philippine Eagle Foundation said that a pair of Philippine eagles needs at least 7,000 to 13,000 hectares of forest as nesting territory. “The Philippine eagle has become a critically endangered species because the loss of the forest has made it lose its natural habitat,” explained Dennis Salvador, PEF’s executive director.
So, where have all our forests gone? “A person without children would face a hopeless future; a country without trees is almost as helpless,” American President Theodore Roosevelt reminded.
