The State of the Philippine
Environment
IBON Foundation
14 September 2021
The planet is in
trouble.
What’s
happening in
the Philippines
is part of the
problem, but
also part of the
solution.
Outline
•The Philippine Riches
•The State of the Philippine Environment
•Understanding Inequality
•Solutions
How rich
is our environment?
The Philippines
… is one of the 17 mega-diverse countries in
the world
… has a rate of endemism which is one of the
highest worldwide.
The Philippines
is 5th in the
world in terms
of total plant
species, half
of which are
endemic.
How rich is our environment?
The Philippines
… is world’s most biodiverse
marine region
… is the “center of the center”
of the world’s marine
biodiversity
… 5th among nations with the
longest coastlines at 36,289 km.
Photo by: Carljohnthegreat
How rich is our environment?
p. 48 The State of the Philippine Environment, IBON Foundation, 2019
How rich is our environment?
The Philippines
… is the 5th most mineralized country worldwide
… 3rd country in terms of gold, 4th in copper and
5th in nickel
How rich is our environment?
The Philippines has forests essential for people’s
needs and for development.
It has fertile agricultural lands for food and
materials production.
But what is the state
of the Philippine environment?
Our Forests
1990s: 70%
1988: 23%
Deforestation and Plunder
2010: 6%
Our Forests
Among other reasons, the Philippines was
colonized for its natural resources—forests
and minerals in particular.
Philippine administrations has continued the
policy of exploitation to the benefit of local
and transnational corporations.
In February 2011, Conservation International
ranked the Philippines as 4th in its list of
Worlds 10 Most Threatened Forest Hotspots.
Our Land
About 13.2 million hectares of Philippine lands
are degraded, affecting 1 out of 3 Filipinos
(study by the Global Assessment of Land Degradation and Improvement)
Our Land
Philippine degradation at 13.7 million hectares
or 45% of total land area
of these:
5.2 million hectares are severely eroded
8.5 million hectares are moderately eroded
resulting to 30-50% reduction in the productivity and water
retention capacity of soil
(2010 Philippine govt. report)
Our Land
Land degradation not resulting from technological
advancement to develop agriculture ,
but simply from maximizing profit from land use
o High yielding varieties
o Inorganic fertilizers and pesticides
o Rapid land-use conversion by landlords
o Government neglect of agricultural lands
Our Marine and Coast Environment
A recent study of 166 reefs
(hard coral cover) concluded
that more than 90% of the
sampled reefs are in poor and
fair condition; none are in
excellent state.
Our Marine and Coast Environment
Fish catch by small fisherfolk:
• 1970s 20 kgs a day
• Today 4.6 kg a day
1 in 3 or 34.3% of Filipino
fishermen live in extreme poverty
Our Marine and Coast Environment
Aggressive real state development
As of Feb 2019, there are 22
reclamation applications which
cover 22,000 hectares of Manila
Bay’s shoreline.
Our Marine and Coast Environment
Next to China and Indonesia, the
Philippines is world’s 3rd largest ocean
polluter
(Ocean Conservancy 2015 report)
The Philippines produced about 2.7 million
MT of plastic waste in 2015 weighing half as
much as the total weight of all marine
produce in the same year
Our Marine and Coast Environment
Filipinos use more than
163 million plastic sachet packets,
48 million shopping bags,
45 million thin bags in a day
(consumption pattern of many
households are defined by their
measely daily wages)
Our Marine and Coast Environment
More than half of unrecyclable residual
wastes are branded, 60% of which are
produced by only 10 companies
Our Freshwater Resources
Ground water resources depleting
A study showed that the country’s
groundwater resources could
deplete by half a meter by 2050
Our Freshwater Resources
Of 421 principal rivers in the country
• 180 are relatively polluted/degraded
• 50 are biologically dead (4 in Metro Manila)
Of 36 major lakes
• 55.5% are threatened
• 41.7% are in good condition
• 2.7 are in critical condition
Our Air
The Philippines has 3rd highest incidence
of deaths related to outdoor air pollution
(45.3 deaths per 100,000 population,
next to China and Mongolia)
Our Air
Source of air pollutants
•65% from mobile devices (vehicles)
•21% from stationary sources (power plants and
factories)
•14% area sources (construction activities, open burning
of solid wastes, kaingin in uplands)
- National Emissions Inventory by source (2015) results
The Dirty Industries – pollution intensive industries
• Energy extraction
• Mining
• Production of metal and non-metallc products
• Chemicals industry
The Philippines is a recipient of many dirty industries but not for industrial
development. The lack of industrialization plan makes the country
dependent on foreign technologies which extract our resources and leave
us with meager profit and mountains of dirt.
The Dirty Industries – pollution intensive industries
Pseudo-renewable energy
Renewable
• Geothermal energy
• Large hydroelectric power
• Large dams
• Biofuel production
• Solar
• Wind
• Micro-dam or micro-hydro
energy
The Dirty Industries
Large-scale mining:
•Open pit mining
(copper/gold)
• Strip mining (nickel)
• Underground mining
(gold, silver, copper,
associated minerals; coal)
Mine tailings and waste
rock pose the greatest
environmental hazards
from the mining industry.
Urbanization (and the garbage problem)
The country’s solid waste problem is
most serious in urban areas, particularly
in NCR, because of unplanned economic
development.
Estimates of the amount of garbage
generated per day: 35,580 - 40,000 tons
NCR at 8,636 tons per day
Climate Change
Average global temperature increased by more than
0.9°C and by as much as 2.2°C in some regions.
Philippine average temperature increased by 0.57°C
from 1951-2009 alone.
Compared to the average 27.4°C, Philippine ave. temp.
is predicted to increase by about 2.0°C to 29.4°C in
2050, by 3.4°C to 30.8°C in 2100.
Climate Change
Climate change largely driven by what has esentially been
human-made artificial energy or thermal pollution of the
planets’s climate by greenhouse gases (GHG)emissions
The profit-driven activities of transnational corporations (TNCs)
are the human activities that have caused the large emissions of
GHGs
fossil fuel production and use
agriculture, land use, and forestry
transport
other sources
Climate Change
The climate crisis we are experiencing today is a
cumulative effect of historical emissions.
But who is accountable?
Climate Change
Top 10 emitters of global GHG emissions:
China 24.2%
United States 14.5%
European Union 9.1%
India 6.0%
Russian Federation 4.8%
Japan 2.9%
Brazil 2.7%
Indonesia 1.9%
Canada 1.7%
Mexico 1.5%
-Data from the IEA (2016) and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (2012)
Climate Change
Environmental plunder and rising inequality
Environmental distresss has become wider and is
unprecendented.
There is no real development for the people.
Environmental plunder has resulted to deeper poverty
among majority of Filipinos.
Environmental plunder and rising inequality
Environmental plunder gave rise to few hundred
multi-millionaires and a dozen or so billionaires
(in USD terms) .
2/3 of Filipinos struggle with incomes insufficient to
support a decent standard of living, with at least the
poorest one-fifth of the population in extreme poverty.
Maraming salamat po!
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