State of the Philippine Environment

Center for Environmental Concerns – Philippines

 Outline
1. Natural Resources
– Biodiversity
– Forest Resources
– Agricultural resources
– Mineral Resources
– Freshwater and Marine Resources

2. The Philippine Environmental Crisis

3. People’s Struggle
Great and exciting Greatest challenges
advances Famine and hunger, rapid
Information technology, ecological destruction,
automation, genetics breakdown of health
and medicine systems,
social decay
and
disintegration
Man’s interaction with
nature
•Resources for the production of
his needs
•Food, clothing, shelter
•Tools, processes, technologies

Man’s interaction with man

•Relations with others
•Dominance of a segment of society
over others
•Current dominance of monopoly
capital
The Philippine Natural Resources
» Biodiversity
• Identified as one of the world’s
biologically richest countries
• Has among the highest rates of
discovery in the world.
• Highest number of endemic
endangered species.
• Terrestrial and marine areas
protected to total territorial area,
percentage: 3.31 (2000)
Mt. Makiling has more tree species than
the whole of USA.
The country is one of the few nations that
is, in its entirety, both a hotspot and a
megadiversity country,
placing it among the top priority hotspots
for global conservation.
 Total Endemic % Endemic
COUNTRY species Species Land Area (km2)

Philippines 1139 558 49% 300,780

Spain 435 25 6% 451,171

Brazil 3131 788 25% 8,511,965

Source: Heaney, 2002

» Forest Resources

Total land area: 30,001,563 ha

Total forest land: 15,847,009 ha

Total forest area: 7,162,000 ha

% of land area: 24% (2005)

Primary forest cover: 829,000 ha

% of land area: 2.8%
% total forest area: 11.6%

Annual deforestation rate: 2.1%

1900s 70% 1988 23% 2010 6%
 Deforestation
Forest Cover in the Philippines

Spanish colonization
300,000 270,000 km2

250,000 (400 years) American colonization

210,000 km2
200,000
(50 years) Philippine
Independence
150,000 150,000 km2

(40 years)
100,000
Post EDSA
Revolution
50,000 8,000 km2

0
1400 1500 1900 1950 1990
» Agricultural
Resources

•13 million hectares or

43% of total land area
are classified as
agricultural lands
•10.3 million hectares of
prime agricultural lands
Land Monopoly
-1/3 of landlords in the country owns 80% of
agricultural lands;
-of the agricultural areas nationwide about
51% is under tenancy, lease, and other
forms of tenurial arrangements
-The most fertile lands are used by
businesses while marginal lands are
cultivated

7 out of 10 farmers do not have lands to till.

Exports From a rice exporter to a
rice net importer
• Value of total agricultural exports: P Agricultural trade deficit: P 169 billion
173 B
• % agriculture in total exports: 7.90% B
• Top agricultural exports: coconut oil
(27%), banana fresh (10%),tuna
(10%), pineapple and products (7%)

Imports
• Value of total agricultural imports: P
342 billion
• % agriculture in total imports:13.50%
• Top agricultural imports: rice
(25%),wheat and meslin (9%) ,milk and
cream and products (8%)
» Mineral Resources
Considered to be 5th
mineralized country in the
world
•3rd in Gold, 4th in Copper,
5th in Nickel, 6th in Chromite
deposits;
•Has the potential to be
among the 10 largest mining
powers of the world
•Est. worth US$840B-US$1
trillion
 Colonial Plunder of Minerals
• Spanish colonization
- Conquer SSM communities
• American colonization
- Laws = systematic
exploitation
- 1930s gold boom
• Neocolonial puppet
governments
-Liberalization
 Mining Act of 1995

• 60 priority large-scale mining projects

mostly owned by foreign mining TNCs

• Only 32 out of hundreds that are

allowed have approved Social
Development and Management
Programs
Lafayette Mining Inc.
Rapu- Rapu, Albay, 2005
 Mining
• Ecological Destruction
• Human Rights Violations
• Community Displacement
• Threats to Health
• Dubious Economic Gains
» Marine and Freshwater Resources

• Philippines is richest in
marine biodiversity

• Has the longest

discontinuous coastline and
one of the richest coral reefs
in the world

• Overflowing water resources

Freshwater Resources
About 90% of the country’s freshwater resources
deemed available for human use;

BUT..
• 2 out of 5 Filipinos (34%) do not get water from formal sources
for domestic consumption
•Lowest annual per capita availability of freshwater
•Drinking water costly and privatized
•Only 65% of Philippine households have access to potable water
•only 45% of the irrigable lands are irrigated
•158 of 421 rivers unsafe for drinking
Marine Resources
RP regarded as "Center of Marine
•Around 2,500 fish species Biodiversity" in the world, surpassing the
Great Barrier Reef of Australia.
•Rich coral reefs, with 488
out of 800 known species
worldwide
•Longest discontinuous
coastline worldwide
•The Philippines is among the
largest fish producers in the
world
Marine Resources Depletion

• Overfishing: 90% fish stocks

depleted in 50 years
• Degradation of marine
environment: only 4% of coral
reefs in good condition
• Monopoly control of fishery
resources
• Open access policies
• Privatization of municipal
fisheries
The Philippine Environmental Crisis
Air Pollution and Climate Change
Coal Consumption
Disasters in the Philippines
Figure 5. Number of Reported Disasters per Country in 2009
Source: CRED, 2010

Figure 6. Disaster Affected Population 2008, 2009.

Source: CDRC Database, 2009.
Philippine economy
• Mainly extractive
• Export-oriented
• Dominated by TNCs, local
elite
• Dependent on foreign
capital and technologies
 Environmental Crisis

• Rapid destruction of the

environment:
• Direct result of rapid,
unchecked
appropriation of environmental
resources for the benefit destruction
of a few. environment
plunder
 Capitalism as root cause of crisis
Characteristics of capitalist
production

Production for profit

Anarchic

Wasteful and pollutive

Monopoly on production,
resources, capital

Division of the world –market, raw
materials and war
 Role of International Finance

International finance capital

Stimulate production and sale of
consumer goods

Cover debt service burden and
budgetary deficits

Developing countries forced to follow
rescriptions of the IMF and the WB
which open up resources and
markets
Philippine Government
Large scale plunder of the
environment without benefit to
the majority of our people

Government policies promotes

Neoliberal Globalization

Biofuels Act

Oil deregulation law

Mining Act 1995

EPIRA

Forestry Code

Corruption
Killings of Environmental Activists
What must be done?
 Rich Natural Resource Base +
Skilled Forces of Production

Potential for national industrialization, self-

sufficiency, sovereignty, and prosperity.
The struggle for the environment is a
struggle for the people.