Philippines has lowest forest cover
The Philippines has the second-lowest forest cover in Southeast Asia and its biodiversity is among the most threatened in the world; despite the country having one of the most extensive coral reef areas in the world, only 2 per cent of them remain in exce
Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) officer-in-charge and undersecretary Demetrio Ignacio made this assessment in his Earth Day address on Monday, even as he assured the public that the government was working to reverse the country’s environmental degradation.
“Our forests have dwindled in the past 100 years [from 30 million hectares] to only 7.2 million, or 24 per cent of our land area,” Ignacio said, adding that it has resulted in the country having the second-lowest forest cover in Southeast Asia.
“Our coastal and marine areas are equally problematic,” he official said. “We have one of the most extensive coral reef areas in the world [but] 40 per cent of these are in poor condition and only 2 per cent are still in excellent condition.”
Ignacio noted that while the country’s biodiversity is considered one of the richest in the world, it is also among the most threatened.
As for major urban centres, particularly Manila, the official said pollution was a common problem while bodies of water in these areas remained unfit for human activity.
Ignacio said such environmental deterioration had resulted in a degraded ecosystem, poor health, a scarcity in natural resources, poverty, unmitigated flooding, as well as death and destruction with the onset of climate change.
On road to recovery
Speaking at Earth Day rites at Quezon Memorial Circle, the environment official also apologised to the public for the government’s inability to fully deliver on Filipinos’ right to a balanced and healthful ecology, but added that [the country] was “now on the road to recovering the environment we have lost”.
Ignacio cited several measures being undertaken by the government to heal the environment, among them a total log ban in all natural forests and the national greening programme. a reforestation effort aimed at planting 1.5 billion trees in 1.5 million hectares within six years.
“We will plant more trees in six years than what we [have] planted the past 50 years,” Ignacio said. “If we do not do this, it will take us 240 years to reforest our country,” he added.
Among the initiatives of the national greening programme are the reduction of carbon emissions in the atmosphere, the absorption of runoff water and the distribution of geo-hazard maps to all communities to mitigate the loss of lives and property during extreme weather events triggered by climate change, Ignacio said.
