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Realities and Situations of Philippine Forest - FOR 173

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13 views3 pages

Realities and Situations of Philippine Forest - FOR 173

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lmtomas
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Realities and Situations of Philippine Forest

Forests play a vital role in everyday life of every human on earth. They provide water for millions
of people relying on natural springs. They filter polluted air to make it breathable again. They are
also a source of food, medicine, shelter and livelihood for countless benefits of people in the
tropics. These and other countless benefits can be derived from this precious gift of nature (Culhi,
1998).

Development in the uplands can never be achieved without the concerted efforts of the different
sectors in our society. These sectors involve the program authorities on the government side, the
Non-Government Organizations (NGOs), the academe, the business and industry, and most
importantly the communities; they work within their development programs (Pascua, 2007).

However, the grave state of poverty in the rural areas has been a key factor in the social unrest
in the countryside. In many developing countries, development activities have been concentrated
primarily on the urban or more accessible areas where the greater number of people can be
served with minimum effort and expense (Sudaypan, 2009)

Southeast Asian countries face increasing population, deforestation, soil erosion and
underdevelopment. Logging and illegal clearing for farming have already destroyed the forests in
much of the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, Papua New Guinea and the larger islands on
Indonesia have some of the few remaining areas of rain forest in the region. Unsuitable farming
practices and natural resource exploitation are causing serious degradation in the uplands. Rising
population and low crop yields, force farmers to clear yet more land. Meanwhile the eroded soil
clogs reservoirs and makes rivers downstream shallow, resulting in flooding in the lowlands.
Improved farming and natural resource management help solve this problem. Simple strategies
such as hedgerows of nitrogen fixing trees planted across the slope can slow erosion and maintain
soil fertility. Growing a combination of crops livestock, trees and fish can raise farm incomes and
reduce the need to clear new land. At the same time, policy and institutional support is urgently
needed to improve agriculture and natural resources management and strengthen the decision-
making process of farm households (FAO and IRR, 1995).

Many of Philippines’ watersheds today are invariably degraded. They are characterized by
degraded forests, soil erosion, and erratic stream flow, declining groundwater resource, loss of
biodiversity, microclimate deterioration, and declining land productivity. Forest degradation is
mainly due to the removal of natural vegetation from a large area of land by conversion of forest
land into agricultural land, road construction, and urban development. Other causes in the
vegetation stock are timber poaching, fuel wood gathering, and collection of rattan and other non-
timber products. Forest degradation leads to loss wildlife habitats, microclimate changes, and loss
of production potential from wood renewable resources, and potentially to erosion and loss of soil
nutrients. Latest estimates show that no more than 20% of the country’s total area is covered with
forests. Almost 10 M hectares of the country’s forest were lost between 1935 and 1988 at the rate
of more than 150,000 hectares annually. This drastically dropped to about 100,000 hectares per
year from 1989 to 1996. Only Regions 2 and 4 have more than 30% of forest cover remaining
(DENR-FAO-UNDP, 2003).
The need to properly manage watersheds is more pressing now than it has ever been. The
increasing demand for water, timber, land, and other valuable watershed resources alongside the
worsening negative impacts of the local and global phenomena such as the El Niño, La Niña, and
global warming have brought the necessity for sustainable watershed management to a higher
level (Collantes, 2005).

Excessive soil erosion and siltation, floods, droughts, shortages of water supply, the diminishing
forest cover and declining land productivity are just a few but telling signs of the adverse effects
of mismanagement in watershed resource utilization and the ever-changing local and global
climate. Without appropriate intervention, the watersheds which are mostly now in varying
degrees of degradation will be at a greater risk of being permanently impaired to deliver many
goods and services vital to society (Taguiling, 2004).
With these conditions, recognizing the communities as partners in development rather than as
beneficiaries or takers of program services or as forest destroyers is an important principle in
achieving success in promoting a sustainable upland or forest management (Cerilles, 2000).

NGOs Concept and Support


In the book published by Asian NGO Coalition (ANGOC) for Agrarian Reform and Rural
Development (2001) entitled “Enhancing Ownership and Sustainability”, a resource book on
participation provided caution on the limits of participation as a development strategy. It mentioned
that Participation must be understood within the perspective of the environment in which an
initiative operates. Stakeholders will behave differently depending on the system they find
themselves in. Certain structures enable participation, while others make it challenging or even
impossible. Some factors limit participation. The key to sustaining stakeholder interest in any
development initiative lies in the robust analysis of the environment and locating areas of
leverage. Enabling participation requires creative solutions (ANGOC, 2001).

ANGOC further mentioned that: “In development projects, a project can be considered as a
system. A project that is run by a government agency that differs from that which is run and
implemented by a non-government organization – because participation relates to the
interrelationships of various actors working in a system.

Project Management and Implementers


Nevertheless, project management and implementers play a vital role for the success of every
project. They serve as the catalyst of development being the experts who have the knowledge,
skills, and proper attitudes.
Attendance to training improves the knowledge level and skills of participants. People are
provided training to make them aware of their problems, potentials, and capability to respond to
community development and ultimately build self-confidence as well as self-reliance attitude
(Kusharyono, 2002). Turaza (2004) stated that training is an important component of any
development program particularly in the adoption of a new technology. This will capacitate the
recipient and help him more productive and effective. Resource development is more important
than the development of natural resources, for unless the people are developed, all development
programs will become useless the people are developed, all development programs will become
useless and an exercise futility.
FOR 173 Social Forestry and Community-based Natural Forest Management

Activity No. 1
Directions
1. Read the article Realities and Situations of the Philippine Forest for your reaction paper.
2. The format of the reaction paper should contain the following:
o Summary of the article
o Insight about the article

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