Republic of the Philippines
CENTRAL BICOL STATE UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE
San Jose, Pili, Camarines Sur 4418
Website: www.cbsua.edu.ph
Email Address: op@cbsua.edu.ph
Trunkline: (054) 871-5531-33 local 101
Sinaon, Jurelle G.
BSES 3—A | Assessment 1
21 May 2023
Forest cover has declined over the past years because of over-exploitation
and deforestation. Illegal logging and other illegal activities in the forest have been
identified as a significant cause of forest cover loss. According to the Forest
Management Bureau (FMB) data of the Department of Environment and Natural
Resources, the Philippines is losing approximately 47,000 hectares of forest cover
every year. In 2003, the country’s forests comprised 7.2 million hectares, but in
2010, it went down to about 6.8 million hectares, about a 4.6 percent decline. The
country has less than 24 percent of the original forest cover in the 1900s.
In recent years from 2002 to 2021, according to the Global Forest Watch,
the Philippines lost 158kha of humid primary forest, making up 12% of its total tree
cover loss at the same time. The total area of humid primary forest in the
Philippines decreased by 3.4%. In addition, according to Gregg Yan in BIOFIN
Philippines in the Game of Trees, the Philippines is losing around 52 000 trees
daily. Logging, slash-and-burn-farming, and land conversion erode 47 00 hectares
of forest yearly – thrice the size of Quezon City. Owing to this rate, only 7.168
million hectares of forest remain, covering roughly 24% of the nation’s land area.
If we apply the natural resource inventory in addressing the problem, we
may have the exact number of existing forest cover in the Philippines. Several
existing applications we can now use in getting the totality in terms of abundance
and distribution of forest cover in the Philippines, including field mapping, setting
quadrats with more than 50 cm, etc. Through this, we can spot which forest cover
is almost extinct or needs some restoration. We can count which type of tree needs
to repopulate and many other indicators we may use to spot which one still needs
improvement and, at the same time, protection and conservation due to many
kinds of human activities that continuously destroy our forest cover. From this also,
we can strengthen the monitoring conservation efforts and more initiatives from
the people.
Republic of the Philippines
CENTRAL BICOL STATE UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE
San Jose, Pili, Camarines Sur 4418
Website: www.cbsua.edu.ph
Email Address: op@cbsua.edu.ph
Trunkline: (054) 871-5531-33 local 101
References:
radniw518. (2019, February 5). Trends and threats Philippine Clearing House
mechanism. Philippine Clearing House Mechanism.
http://www.philchm.ph/status-of-philippine-biodiversity-2/trends-and-threats/
Written by BIOFIN Philippines/ Gregg Yan. (n.d.). A “game of trees.” Foreign-
Assisted and Special Projects Service - A “Game of Trees.”
Forest Change. (n.d.). Retrieved May 21, 2023, from Global Forest Watch:
https://www.globalforestwatch.org/dashboards/country/PHL/?category=su
mmary&dashboardPrompts=eyJzaG93UHJvbXB0cyI6dHJ1ZSwicHJvbXB
0c1ZpZXdlZCI6WyJzaGFyZVdpZGdldCIsImRvd25sb2FkRGFzaGJvYXJk
U3RhdHMiXSwic2V0dGluZ3MiOnsic2hvd1Byb21wdHMiOnRydWUsInByb
21wdHNWaWV3ZWQ
https://fasps.denr.gov.ph/index.php/public-relations/project-
stories/biodiversity/23-a-game-of-
trees#:~:text=The%20Philippines%20is%20losing%20around,of%20the%20
nation’s%20land%20area.
