Deforestation, together with its various consequences, is the principal ecological problem in the Philippines. Since the 1960s, many corporations in partnership with the Philippine government have expanded mines, logging, and plantations, uprooting vast tracks of land without genuine consideration of ecological balance and the social costs.
Due to the widespread denudation of the forests, the destruction of watersheds[i] and the massive siltation[ii] of rivers, the annihilation caused by typhoons and flooding has massively worsened in the past 20 years. The natural barriers that once aided communities to survive these storms have been destroyed by inhumane government policies and profit driven corporations. Thus, the greatest calamities and threat to the Philippine environment and to the Filipino people are not “natural” but are man-made.