STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The country’s steep topography, deforested uplands, and heavy rainfall events make it highly

susceptible to soil erosion (Asio et al 2009;Olabisi 2012). Trees and natural grade and form itself

stood as a built-in reinforcement of mountains. The illegal and uncontrollable alteration of the

geophysical profiles of these mountains leads in the depletion and gradual damaging of the

upland, from the liquefying of soil surface, down to the actual erosion of land due to lack of

cohesion and natural reinforcement.

Frequent soil erosion incidences in the Philippines chiefly contribute to the decline of

agricultural sources and destruction of farm lands that lead to shortage of agricultural products.

This forces the government to settle in importation of products to somehow aide the county’s

necessities in the said aspect. According to the World Bank Collection of Development

Indicators, as of 2020, 22.52% of the Philippine Labor force is employed in the agricultural

sector.

Many studies have also been conducted locally but the majority of the erosion research in the

developing world comes out of farm-level studies in the field and at agricultural experiment

stations. Many studies focus on the reasons why farmers choose to adapt soil conservation

strategies or not, citing lack of knowledge, lack of land tenure, or economic or labor costs as

barriers to the implementation of soil conservation strategies (Alfsen et al. Cramb et al 1998;
Graves et al 2004; Lapar and Pandey 1999; Nelson and Cramb 1998; Pattanayak and Mercer

1998).

Inspired by the innovations about the geosynthetics abroad, in early 2000s, Geosynthetics were

gradually adapted here in the Philippines. Geosynthetics are manufactured synthetic materials

(i.e., made from polymers or hydrocarbon chains) that are used for a wide range of engineering

applications (Koerner 1998). Essentially, they are a Petrochemical-based polymers

(predominantly are “plastics”) that is generally used in stabilizing the terrains and improving

soil conditions.

Geosynthetics, being a plastic, is a red flag talking  about the environmental corollaries it

produces from all of the processes it goes through. A study from Duke Nicholas Institute for

Environmental Policy Solutions states that According to Ocean Conservancy and McKinsey

(2015), the Philippines is the third-ranking contributor to plastic pollution in the world, with at

least 2.7 million metric tons of plastic waste generated every year (Braganza 2017). Of this

plastic waste, 20% is estimated to leak into ocean environments (Braganza 2017; Ocean

Conservancy and McKinsey 2015). About 74% of plastics that leak into the ocean were initially

collected but escaped from open landfills that are located near vulnerable waterways (World

Wildlife Fund [WWF] 2018).