Tropical Deforestation Philippines Case Study

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Tropical Deforestation Philippines Case Study

• October 22, 2008

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The Political Economy of Tropical Deforestation

• 1. Most of the benefits of preserving forests
  cannot be captured by the government or the
  people that live in that country.
• 2. Most of the benefits of preserving forests can
  only be realized over a long period of time, they
  are a STEADY FLOW of income as opposed to a
  one-time harvest.
• 3. Most of the benefits from CUTTING forests can
  be captured by a small group of powerful elites
  in a country, while the costs of deforestation
  (e.g. flooding) are borne by society as a whole.

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Background on the Philippines

• Located in Southeast Asia
• Over 7,000 islands and over 80 languages spoken
• A Spanish colony from 1565-1898, an American
  colony from 1898-1946
• Only Roman Catholic nation in Asia
• 2000 population 77 million, 2.5 growth rate
  (country the size of Nevada)

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The Philippines Biodiversity Hotspot

• The Philippines is one of 25 global biodiversity
  hotspots, and is ranked as the 5th most important
  overall
• 7,620 species of plants (5,832 are endemic)
• 179 species of mammals (111 are endemic)
• 576 species of birds (195 are endemic)
• 258 species of reptiles (170 are endemic)

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The Philippine Monkey-eating Eagle
The Tarsier (one of the smallest primates)
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Forest Cover in the Philippines

• 1948 52
• 1969 33
• 1980 26
• 1997 18

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Logging Deforestation link strongest in
Southeast Asian nations (Philippines, Indonesia,
Malaysia) with high-value tropical hardwood
species.
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Political Economic Context of Deforestation in
the Philippines

• Urban/Rural poverty failed development,
  corruption
• 40 billion foreign debt
• High rates of landlessness, best land
  concentrated in the hands of a few families and
  used to grow EXPORT crops (see foreign debt)
• Fairly rapid population growth (poverty
  population cycle)
• Resulted in heavy migration of landless farmers
  into logged over areas and secondary forests via
  logging roads

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Images from February 2006 landslides in Leyte
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Programs/Policies to Address Deforestation

• Land reform
• Foreign debt forgiveness
• Extractive reserves/ biosphere reserves (focus on
  extractive products)
• Eco-tourism
• Agro-forestry
• Population policy

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Solutions to Deforestation Need to Be ..

• Site and time-specific (no magic bullet)
• Based on an appreciation of the political
  economy of the region (history, political
  situation, economic conditions)
• Based on the ROOT causes of the problem
• Based on a recognition of local people as part of
  the solution, not just part of the problem