Philippine leader blames deforestation for killer mudslide
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Tuesday blamed years of deforestation for a deadly mudslide that buried a mountainside community amid last week’s torrential rains set off by a storm that has left more than 130 people dead across the country.
During an aerial inspection of the widespread damage wrought by Tropical Storm Nalgae in southern Maguindanao province, the president said he pointed out to the provincial governor how the mudslides cascaded on denuded slopes of Mount Minandar.
“I noticed that in all places where the landslides came down, the mountains were bald. That’s the problem,” Marcos Jr. told provincial governors in a televised meeting with key Cabinet members in Maguindanao to discuss the worst natural disaster he faced since taking office in June.
“We have to include tree-planting in our flood control,” he said. “We have been hearing about this over and over again, but we still cut the trees, so that’s what happens, these landslides.”
The storm’s vast rain clouds swamped a wide swath of the Philippine archipelago, leaving at least 132 people dead and lashing another 2.4 million people, including some who had to be rescued from the roofs of flooded houses. More than 6,500 houses were either damaged, torn down or swept away by flash floods, according to disaster-response officials.
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Philippine forests are rapidly disappearing
In 2011, Typhoon Sendong brought 12 hours of continuous rain to Mindanao Island. Tragedy took place after that. The rivers flooded and people were crushed by logs or drowned. The government declared it “a national disaster” with the storm affecting 338,000 people in 13 provinces.
Sean McDonagh, a priest who worked in the area, said that decades of deforestation Cagayan de Oro City and nearby provinces was to blame for the scale of the disaster. Much of the region was converted from rainforest into pineapple plantations.
“The deforestation was literally criminal,” he told The Universe Catholic Weekly. “If the rainforest in the area had been left intact, even 12 hours of continuous rain would not cause this devastation. The rainforest canopy would stop the torrential rain from hitting the ground directly. Trees would also absorb the water.”
“The root cause is the denudation of our forests,” commented one environmentalist. “This is a sin of the past that we are paying now.”
Harold R. Watson, a former American agriculturist who had been helping the locals in Mindanao, agreed. “When man sins against the earth, the wages of that sin is death or destruction,” he explained. “This seems to be universal law of God and relates to all of God’s creation. We face the reality of what man’s sins against the earth have caused. We are facing not a mere problem; we are facing destruction and even death if we continue to destroy the natural resources that support life on earth.”
It is impossible to exaggerate the ecological debacle threatening the Philippines. More than 90 years ago, the Philippines was almost totally covered with forest resources distributed throughout the 30 million hectares. These resources provided income, employment, food, medicine, building materials, and water as well as a healthy environment.
In the 1950s, only three-fourths of the archipelago was covered with forest, according to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). By 1972, the figure had shrunk to half, and by 1988 only quarter was wooded and just one tiny fraction of this was virgin forest.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said about 7,665,000 hectares of the country is forested. Between 1990 and 2010, the country lost an average of 54,750 hectares per year.
According to environmentalists, logging operations – legal and otherwise – are mowing down the country’s remaining forest cover. The Rev. Peter Walpole, executive director of the Ateneo de Manila University’s Environmental Science for Social Change, said the Philippines “trusted” logging companies to cut down trees and manage the forest. “But they did a very bad job,” he decried. “That started the problem that we have now.”
In 1989, the government imposed a lumber export ban in an effort to save the country’s forests from uncontrolled illegal logging. The following year, the ban was quietly lifted, but was reinstated after loud criticism.
DENR, the lead agency responsible for the country’s natural resources and ecosystems, is virtually powerless in stopping rampant illegal logging. It has no guns, no radios, no boats, and only few men to roam the jungles, where they are usually terrorized by armed men or rebels.
Another culprit of the rapid disappearance of forests in the country: mining operations. This is the reason why some B’laan tribe in Kiblawan, Davao del Sur are fighting the entry of Sagittarius Mines Inc. (SMI) into what tribe leaders said was the tribe’s ancestral domain.
“The forest, to us, is like a vast market. We get everything we need there. It is our hunting ground, our drugstore, our farmland and our sanctuary. Destroy the forest and you also destroy our lives,” Rita Dialang was quoted as saying by the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Other causes of deforestation in the country include forest fires, volcanic eruptions, geothermal explorations, dam construction and operations, fuelwood collection, and land development projects (construction of subdivision, industrial estates, and commercial sites).
The country’s surging population has likewise contributed to the problem. At least a fourth of the total population lives in the upland areas, where most trees are located. Most of them practiced slash-and-burning agriculture (kaingin farming). “These migrant farmers attack virgin forest lands to cultivate the rich soil, which they quickly deplete,” observed Watson. “Then, they move on, looking for more. One day, there is no more.”
If you think deforestation happens only in the uplands, you’re wrong. Even in the lowlands, mangroves are fast disappearing. Mangrove forests grow where saltwater meets the shore in tropical and subtropical regions, thus serving as an interface between terrestrial, fresh-water and marine ecosystems.
In 1981, there were an estimated 450,000 hectares of mangrove areas in the country. Since then, there has been a decreasing trend from 375,000 hectares in 1950 to about 120,000 hectares in 1995.
At that time, one environmentalist wrote: “All over the country, whatever coastal province you visit, you see the same plight – desolate stretches of shoreline completely stripped of mangrove cover and now totally exposed to the pounding of the ocean’s waves.”
“Deforestation is a symptom of a bigger problem,” says Nicolo del Castillo, an architect by profession who teaches at the University of the Philippines. “I probably sound baduy (tacky and outdated) but I see the problem in the prevailing system of values, that is, the greed, the need to be the biggest, the wealthiest, and sometimes you feel hopeless. I am an optimist, but possibly there will be more tragedies and maybe then more people will wake up.”
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Low forest cover in the Philippines : Issues and responses at the community level
The Philippines is one of the most severely deforested countries in the tropics and most deforestation has happened in the last 40 years. Estimates place forest cover in the Philippines in the year 1900 at 21 million hectares, covering 70 % of the total land area. By 1999, forests covered 5.5 million hectares; only 800,000 hectares of this was primary forest. As illegal logging continues, the remaining forest is endangered.
The destruction of the Philippine forest was the subject of a recent study (1999), Decline of the Philippine Forest, by the Institute of Environmental Science for Social Change (ESSC). This study traces the history of the decline, examines the causes and effects of deforestation, and discusses emerging perspectives. The study considers two possible Philippine scenarios for the year 2010. One assumes that meaningful steps will be taken to reverse the decline and offers some hope; the other scenario assumes that things will continue as in the past, and the outcome will be a continued national degradation of resources.
The Philippines is paying a high price for the destruction of its forests and a number of major problems confronting the nation can be traced directly to deforestation. Today, the country faces food insecurity due to soil erosion, which means depleted nutrients and low crop yield. In many provinces, at least 50% of the topsoil has been lost, and 70% of all croplands are vulnerable to erosion. The country’s climatic conditions are such that typhoons sweep the country an average of 19 times a year. The topography is mainly uplands with a slope equal to or greater than 18% and these areas make up 52% of total land area. In the absence of forest cover and with frequent heavy typhoon rains, soil erosion, mass wasting, and landslides are induced.
The Philippines is facing water insecurity because of degraded and poorly managed watersheds. More than 57 % of the major watersheds are critically denuded, which means loss of water infiltration and slow recharging of water tables. Nationwide, water quality has deteriorated and cities like Manila, Cebu, Davao, and Baguio, are constantly facing water shortages. A country that once exported some of the finest woods in the world is now a net wood importer.
The decimation of the forest is a tragedy for indigenous peoples. Ethnic groups become forced to retreat into the interior and further impoverished. Government is doing little to raise these people above their subsistence level. Some have left their lands, and the sight of indigenous peoples begging in city streets is not uncommon. They have lost their lands, and their culture has been degraded. With the destruction of indigenous cultures, the nation is losing a treasure that should be nurtured to enrich national cultural diversity.
This loss of cultural communities is closely linked to the loss of biodiversity. Tropical forests are rich in herbs, woody plants, birds, insects, and animal life. Destroying the forests means destroying the myriad creatures and flora on which the indigenous communities depend. Forest loss also means loss of forest products such as, rattan, resins, and gums, a source of livelihood for indigenous people. Wildlife is quickly disappearing and to date, the destruction of the ecosystems is taking a heavy toll on biodiversity: 18 species of fauna are already rare and endangered, while 43 species of birds are threatened with extinction.
The ESSC’s response to these problems is multifaceted and flexible. However, in any approach, community management is central. This approach was discussed at such international conferences as the 1996 FAO Conference in Bangkok, the Intergovernmental Forum on Forests in New York in February 2000 (through the Working Group on Community Involvement in Forest Management), and at the World Bank Forest Policy Implementation Review and Strategy in Singapore in April 2000. A presentation on the role of indigenous peoples in watershed management was delivered to the House of Representatives of the Philippine Congress in December 1999.
ESSC is the Secretariat of the Philippine Working Group (PWG) for national resource management. PWG activities are documented in the ESSC publication, Forest People Facing Change. This monograph gives a history of the PWG, discusses the philosophy guiding its approach, examines PWG strengths and weaknesses, documents field visits, and critiques PWG findings. PWG members represent a wide variety of disciplines and backgrounds; expertise is drawn from the academe, government, NGOs, and funding agencies. Each member is there in his/her own capacity and not as a representative of an agency. Members feel free to discuss, question, and examine any problem without being held responsible for what others have said in the past or the present limitations of policy. Starting in the outlying sitios, where marginalised communities live, the group works its way up through the municipal to the provincial level. The PWG, after witnessing how government policies are being implemented, has been effective in having the national government modify its policies.
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7M hectares of Philippine land are forested — and that’s bad news
The country has been vulnerable to massive flooding linked to deforestation. The coronavirus pandemic is also a catastrophe that arose from populations occupying wild animal habitats.
Key findings:
- Forest loss persists in the Philippines even with a log ban and protection laws in place.
- Forest cover has remained the same since the first Aquino administration as losses in some parts of the country have eclipsed gains in others.
- The Mimaropa region – covering Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan – has seen the worst deforestation in recent years.
- The Duterte government excluded reforestation efforts among its commitments to mitigate climate change under the 2016 Paris Agreement.
- Bills that are meant to address legal gaps in protecting forests are languishing in Congress.
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