Philippine Normal University

The National Center for Teacher Education

Taft Avenue, Manila
Term 1, Academic Year 2021-2022

Relationship of Tree Cover Loss

towards Flood Risk Level
in Palawan

Harley Jay N. Capus

January 11, 2022
II-10
I. Introduction
In the wake of Odette, two of the most popular hashtags in Facebook and Twitter
caught the attention of netizens, the hashtags #PalawanNeedsHelpToo and
#PalawanNeedsHelp. These trending hashtags started in a tweet “Habang nakikita ko ang
paghahanda ng mga relief operation para sa ibang probinsiya na affected ni #OdettePH, tila
nakalimutan na affected rin ang Palawan. Palawan has gone dark and it’s been three days”.
This is because Palawan has not been hit by strong typhoons in the past decades and the
strong winds, heavy rains, and flash floods brought by Odette left the province devastated.
Palaweños pointed out mining corporations, illegal loggers, and real estate developers to be
held responsible for this horrible aftermath of the typhoon, specifically the sudden and severe
appearance of flood in different municipalities which had never experienced extreme flash
floods in the past decade. They believe that the alarming rate of deforestation in the province
worsened the aftermath of Odette as tree cover loss is immensely evident in Palawan.
According to the latest reports of Global Forest Watch (GFW), an online open-access
platform of worldwide forest monitoring and alert systems, Palawan leads deforestation in the
country. In the Philippines, there are 11 provinces that were responsible for 51% of tree cover
loss from 2001 to 2020. Palawan experienced the huge decline of tree cover, with 163,000
hectares lost compared to an average of 15,900 hectares. Also, in the said report, between
August 14 to August 21, there were 31,025 Global Land Analysis and Discovery (GLAD )
Alerts reported in the Philippines, most of them detected from Palawan. The province
originally has 1.50 million hectares of forest land but according to the Strategic
Environmental Plan for Palawan (SEP) Act of 1992 there was a huge forest decline back in
the 1970s that left Palawan to 1.30 million hectares of forest land and as per the recent
reports of GFW, Palawan is down to 1.16 million hectares.
Looking at the silver lining in the abominable situation of Palawan, GFW reports said
that between 2001 and 2012, Palawan had the most tree cover gain in the country which is a
good indicator that efforts in reforestation works. This province is still considered as the “last
frontier” of the country with its 1.16 million hectares of forest lands equivalent to the 10% of
the Philippines’ current forest lands.

II. Map
III. Data and Processes employed in the Map
The map named “Location of Tree Cover Loss Relative to Flood Prone Areas in
Palawan comprises two sets of data: flood prone areas and tree cover loss in Palawan. The
first set of data retrieved from the latest geohazards reports of Mines and Geosciences
Bureau, MIMAROPA Region for the flood prone areas (2020-2021) and the second set of
data obtained from the Global Forest Watch 2021 Reports for the tree cover loss rate of
different municipalities in Palawan.
The template of the map retrieved from Schoppe et al. ( 2010) in their study titled
Conservation Needs of the Critically Endangered Philippine Forest Turtle, Siebenrockiella
leytensis, in Palawan, Philippines. There are two softwares used in creating the map: Paint
3D, a Microsoft application for graphics and 3d modelling, and Canva, a graphic design
platform. In creating the map, the first software used was Paint 3D to illustrate the data
through applying colors in portraying flood prone areas and symbols for the tree cover loss
rate. Canva used for incorporating the important elements of map.

IV. Map Interpretation

The map consists of two significant sets of data which are the flood prone areas and
the tree cover loss rate in Palawan. The map has six legends: three colors for the first set of
data and three symbols for tree cover loss data. The three colors are green, orange, and red.
The green symbolizes that the municipality is considered as a low flood risk area, orange is
for moderate flood risk area, and red is for high flood risk area. While the three symbols are

leafless tree , tree , and trees . The leafless tree represents the municipality that
has equal to or greater than 16.4% tree cover loss rate, the tree is for 8.4% to 16.3%, and trees
for 0% to 8.3% tree cover loss rate. To further understand the map, the table below shows the
relationship of tree cover loss rate to the flood prone areas in Palawan.

Municipalities Flood Risk Tree Cover Loss Rate

Aborlan Moderate flood risk 23%

Agutaya Low flood risk 0.86%

Araceli Low flood risk 0.46%

Balabac High flood risk 20%

Batazara High flood risk 15%

Brooke’s Point Moderate flood risk 20%

Busuanga Low flood risk 7.4%

Cagayancillio Low flood risk 0.29%

Coron Low flood risk 7.9%

Culion Low flood risk 12%

 Cuyo Low flood risk 1.7%

Dumaran Moderate flood risk 3.1%

El Nido Low flood risk 5.8%

Linapacan Low flood risk 8.4%

Magsaysay Low flood risk 0.37%

Narra High flood risk 20%

Puerto Princesa City High flood risk 25%

Quezon High flood risk 14%

Roxas Moderate flood risk 14%

Rizal Moderate flood risk 15%

San Vicente Moderate flood risk 22%

Sofronio Española Moderate flood risk 12%

Taytay High flood risk 14%

The rows that are highlighted in red and green show the absolute relationship of tree
cover loss rate towards the level of flood risk in a municipality. Eight out of ten
municipalities with low flood risk have lowest to average tree cover loss with 0. 37% to 7.9%
rate. This data shows that the lower the tree cover loss rate, the lower the flood risk in an
area. On the other side, three out of six municipalities with high flood risk have high tree
cover loss rates with 20% to 25% rate. This also means that the higher the tree cover loss rate,
the higher the flood risk in an area. Thus, there is a direct and significant relationship between
tree cover loss rate and flood risk level in 11 out of 23 municipalities of Palawan. For the
unhighlighted rows, different resources believed that river basins, population, housing
location, etc. are factors why the level of flood risk does not match with the range of tree
cover loss rate. However, this is not sufficient to conclude that there is no significant
relationship between the two sets of data as modern researchers conclude that deforestation
leads to more frequent floods even just in an average rainfall but much worse in typhoons.

V. Significance of Map in Social Sciences

The map contains information significant to the field of social science today. This
could be a lot of help for the local government of Palawan, Palaweños, and for further
research. With the current global issues such as climate change, global warming, pollution,
and deforestation, this map could be a basis of information to be applied to places inside and
outside the country. One of the main roles of studying and teaching social sciences is to make
a change and give solutions to the social issues that people are experiencing. This map also
leads to different conclusions in terms of geography, politics, anthropology, and demography
which would affect how social scientists perceive flood risk level and tree cover loss rate.
References
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