What is unique about the Philippines is its 220 million hectares of territorial seas that

contain the most biologically rich marine life in the world the Sulawesi Marine Triangle.
What is fantastic about the Philippines is that it is the richest store of fish, corals, and other
marine life in the entire world!
Today, however, the Philippine environment is in a critical state legal and illegal logging
threaten its remaining 800,000 hectares of forest cover, unnecessary mining activities are
going on; and illegal fishing are done by smart businessmen.
This critical situation inspired the Commission on Science and Technology to undertake the
comprehensive audit or inventory of the Philippine environment as quickly as possible.
In partnership with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources which prepared
the comprehensive survey form, the Commission sent out 5,000 survey forms to all the
DENR regional, provincial, and municipal directors; 79 provincial governors; 115 city
mayors; 1,496 municipal mayors; and the members of the three largest womens
organizations of the Philippines the National Federation of Womens Clubs of the
Philippines, the National Council of Women of the Philippines and the Rural Improvement
Clubs of the Philippines. The three groups of respondents are intended to cross-validate one
another, thereby getting the most realistic situation.
We can never protect our environment and conserve our natural resources unless we know
what we still have and where they are.
Our policies, plans, and programs will all be guessing game unless we know where we are
starting from and from there, where we want to go.
Formulating a strategic plan for ensuring a healthy environment and productive natural
resources is the dream of all Filipinos.
An environment audit will map biodiversity hotspots and sensitive bioregions, track down
land cover changes due to deforestation and flooding and monitor actual status of fishing
grounds and coral reefs.
Actually, increasing population, over-consumption and dubious technology, and greed for
money are driving the human impact on our environment.
Preliminary Audit
As the reports flow in since May 30, 2003 we learned that while there are bad news, there
are also good news.
There are significant areas that are intact:
For instance, the only existing pygmy forest in the Philippines located in the border of Mati
and San Isidro, Davao Oriental is in danger. Pygmy forests, which are very rare in the
world, are natural prehistoric virgin. Bonsai Forests having predominantly dwarf trees and
plants. This pygmy forest is due to the abundant cobalt under the ground.

This abundant cobalt is now threatening the forest. A foreign mining company and some
local officials are moving heaven and earth to mine the forest and to hell with the
environment and health of the people.
Another still intact mountains are in the Caraballo Range in Nueva Viscaya. The report says
that two foreign companies are fighting tooth and nail with the communities in the
mountains to mine gold and copper. The residents would rather continue their citrus
plantations.
In Mindanao, too, specifically Maguindanao, communities are busily engaged in fighting off
soil erosion by weaving choir mats and placing them on eroding roads and highways. The
communities in Maguindanao are also using vetiver grass to fight soil erosion. They also
have 30,000 hectares of intact wetlands.
In Panay Island, the communities, with the help of Philippine Endemic Species Conservation
Project funded by Germany, are successfully maintaining seed banks for the propagation of
indigenous trees.
Batanes and Catanduanes still have their pristine mountains, forests and rivers.
In Tayabas Bay, Quezon, the government is transplanting corals after the corals there were
destroyed by cyanide fishing.
In the small island of Hingutanan, Bien Unido, Bohol, there are two water tanks run by solar
energy. About 3,000 residents are provided water by this solar-induced water reservoir.
In Western Samar, along Maqueda Bay, 91 hectares have been planted to mangroves.
Now, for the bad news. Palawan is now in jeopardy.
It is bad enough that parts of Palawan were mined for the last 25 years of nickel ore
leaving behind environmental degradation and ill-health and poverty to the communities,
today, a foreign mining company, in conspiracy with some government officials, intend to
build a hydrometallurgical processing plant. This is an environment disaster waiting to
happen. Remember Marcopper in Marinduque?
The damage is greater than the profit. Peoples health are non-negotiable.
Just as bad is the situation in Paracale, Camarines Norte. An alleged illegal and unlicensed
gold processing plant is merrily engaged in making money to the detriment of the health of
the people. This activity has been going on for 10 years. Is the government aware?
Another discovery of the audit.
The San Roque Dam in San Manuel, Pangasinan is in operation. However, there are howls of
protest from environmentalists.
And with reason. Small dams are less disaster-prone.
Big dams like Aswan Dam in Egypt and Three Georges in China created havoc on the
environment.

Experts around the world opine that while gigantic dams have brought benefits in water
supply, the social and environmental costs have been high. More than 80 million people
have been displaced globally, mostly tribal communities. San Roque Dam displaced the
Ibaloys.
Large dams, damaged aquatic habitat as in Aswan Dam, and blocked migration routes for
spawning species.
The Casecnan Dam in Nueva Ecija is a disappointment.
Another bad news is the illegal logging now going on in the Bislig Forests, Surigao, as well
as in Quezon where the forest rangers of the Department of Environment and Natural
Resources were withdrawn for fear of their lives from the illegal loggers.
As well as the unbelievable marine poaching in the South China Sea and Batanes. But the
foreign marine poachers in Batanes who were released after being caught by the local
government takes the cake. The poachers were released on the ground that the rights of
the poachers as recognized by international conventions and reflected in our Constitution
are superior to the interests of the Ivatans. Astounding and breath-taking!!!
Well, so much for the bad news.
This wealth of information (environment audit) will be submitted to the national
government, the economic planners and decision makers, businessmen and of course
environment scientists for remedial measures.
Then and only then, will the Philippine government be able to CORRECTLY plan to reforest
denuded forests, stop unnecessary mining, clean the rivers and lakes, prevent overfishing
and destruction of corals.
Then and only then will the biospheres of the Philippines be protected and conserved.
We invite the world to help the Philippines preserve the most biologically rich marine life in
the world.

The Environment of the Philippines is prone to natural disasters, particularly typhoons, floods,
landslides, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and tsunamis, lying as it does astride the typhoon belt,
in the active volcanic region known as thePacific Ring of Fire, and in the geologically unstable region
between the Pacific and Eurasian tectonic plates.
The Philippines also suffers major human-caused environmental degradation aggravated by a high
annual population growth rate, including loss of agricultural lands, deforestation, soil erosion, air and
water pollution, improper disposal of solid and toxic wastes, loss of coral reefs, mismanagement and
abuse of coastal resources, and overfishing.
The Pasig River, one of the world's most polluted rivers.[1]

Although water resources become scarce in some regions and seasons, the Philippines as a whole
has more than enough surface and groundwater. However, the neglect of a coherent environmental
policy led to the actual situation, in which 58% of the groundwater is contaminated.[2] The main

source of pollution is untreated domestic and industrial wastewater.[1] Only one third of Philippine
river systems are considered suitable for public water supply.[2]
It is estimated that in 2025, water availability will be marginal in most major cities and in 8 of the 19
major river basins.[3] Besides severe health concerns, water pollution also leads to problems in
the fishing and tourism industries.[4] The national government recognized the problem and since
2004 has sought to introduce sustainable water resources development management (see below).[5]
Only 5% of the total population is connected to a sewer network. The vast majority uses flush toilets
connected to septic tanks. Since sludge treatment and disposal facilities are rare, most effluents are
discharged without treatment.[6] According to the Asian Development Bank, the Pasig River is one of
the world's most polluted rivers.[1] In March 2008, Manila Water announced that a wastewater
treatment plant will be constructed in Taguig.[7] The first Philippine constructed wetland serving about
700 households was completed in 2006 in a peri-urban area of Bayawan City which has been used
to resettle families that lived along the coast in informal settlements and had no access to safe water
supply and sanitation facilities.[8]

Deforestation
Main article: GAGO
Over the course of the 20th century the forest cover of the Philippines dropped from 70 percent
down to 20 percent.[9] In total, 46 species are endangered, and 4 were already eradicated
completely. 3.2 percent of total rainforest has been left. Based on an analysis of land use pattern
maps and a road map an estimated 9.8 million ha of forests were lost in the Philippines from 1934 to
1988.[10] Illegal logging occurs in the Philippines [11] and intensify flood damage in some areas.[12]
According to scholar Jessica Mathews, short-sighted policies by the Filipino government have
contributed to the high rate of deforestation:
The government regularly granted logging concessions of less than ten years. Since it takes 3035
years for a second-growth forest to mature, loggers had no incentive to replant. Compounding the
error, flat royalties encouraged the loggers to remove only the most valuable species. A horrendous
40 percent of the harvestable lumber never left the forests but, having been damaged in the logging,
rotted or was burned in place. The unsurprising result of these and related policies is that out of 17
million hectares of closed forests that flourished early in the century only 1.2 million remain today.[13]

Sustainable Development
Recognizing the need to tackle the environment issues as well as the need to sustain development
and growth, the Philippines came up with the Sustainable Development Strategy.[14] The nation for
the Sustainable Development Strategy includes assimilating environmental considerations in
administration, apposite pricing of natural resources, conservation of biodiversity, rehabilitation of
ecosystems, control of population growth and human resources development, inducing growth in
rural areas, promotion of environmental education, strengthening citizens participation, and
promoting small to medium sized enterprises and sustainable agricultural and forestry
practices.[15] One of the initiatives signed in part of the strategy was the 1992 Earth Summit.
Upon signing the 1992 Earth Summit,[16] the government of Philippines has been constantly looking
into many different initiatives to improve the environmental aspects of the country.

Environmental protection
Currently, the Philippines' Department of Environment and Natural Resources has been busy
tracking down illegal loggers and been spearheading projects to preserve the quality of many
remaining rivers that are not yet polluted.