DEFORESTATION in the PHILIPPINES

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Deforestation is considered to be one of the major environmental problems especially in the Philippines. Philippines is a country that is rich with natural resources such forests, thus, it is said to be an agricultural country. Natural resources are their major sources for agricultural expansion and are also one of the major sources of most of the Filipino. But as time goes by, natural resources are now decreasing due to some reasons particularly irresponsible human use. This led to deforestation.

                Deforestation is defined to be the permanent destruction of indigenous forests and woodlands. In the Philippines, the primary causes of forest destruction are illegal logging and agricultural expansion, significantly decreasing the Philippine natural resources.

                According to the study done by World Resources Institute, one of the world’s most densely populated countries, economic stagnation throughout, the 1980’s pushed the poverty stricken and the unemployed out of the cities and into the remote forested uplands. Now, 11 million people live in the forest uplands without title, and therefore, have no incentive to maintain the lands.

                The increasing population and stagnant economy have severely degraded the land in the Philippines. But the increasing population growth does not directly caused deforestation. It just affect the agricultural expansion because people have to make living at the expense of the forest, therefore, it have an indirect affect in the Philippine deforestation.

Deforestation has far reaching affects, including loss of habitat of many species, landslide, warming of the environment, decreasing of natural resources and many others.

Since forest provide living creature with various living means, focusing on the issue and planning for more solutions to deforestation is a must. The solution for deforestation is directed towards the response of the people. It only needs discipline and cooperation.

After all, a big plan cannot work if there is no full force addressed to it.

DEGRADATION OF NATURAL ENVIRONMENT

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     "Environmental degradation is the deterioration of the environment through depletion of resources such as air, water and soil; the destruction of ecosystems and the extinction of wildlife. It is defined as any change or disturbance to the environment perceived to be deleterious or undesirable."

       Nowadays, environmental degradation is considered to be one of the major threats facing the Earth. Like other environmental problems, this occur either naturally or through human process. 

       Natural causes of environmental degradation are storms, earthquakes, volcanic eruption and many other. This natural events contributed on the degradation of natural environment.

       But human process is said to have a huge impact on the degradation of the environment. Human activities which results to pollution, particularly water and air pollution were believed to be the major cause of environmental degradation. Pollution all over the world poisoned the planet. When the Earth become polluted, the toxic and wastes makes the world unhealthy to live in.

       Another cause of environmental degradation is overpopulation. The land reserve that is available on Earth are limited. However, the demand for it is increasing due to the increasing population. Since human were the ones who have huge impact on environmental deterioration, the more human who exists, the more sources of wastes and toxins, which further led to the destruction of Earth.

     Industrialization, urbanization, agricultural development and deforestation are other causes of the degradation of the natural environment.

       If we are going to compare the Earth to what it is years ago to what is now, we can see that the environment has severely destroyed. People have to work hand and hand to take care of the environment since they have big contribution on the degradation of the environment. Also, everyone of us should work in rebuilding and restoring the environment and make sure that there will be no longer harmful actions done that may cause destruction of Earth.