Upland agriculture, the land frontier and forest decline in the Philippines

Abstract

Population pressure, expansion of small-scale agriculture and shifting cultivation are commonly cited as the causes of tropical deforestation. A close examination of deforestation and agriculture in the Philippine uplands reveals, however, that the vast majority of agriculturists must be sedentary farmers. In addition, the importance of population pressure as a cause of deforestation in the Philippines cannot be supported by the available evidence. Lastly, the concept of 'arable land' is shown to be of limited value in discussing upland agriculture in the Philippines.

Environment and development in the Philippine uplands: the problem of agricultural land degradation

“…While most of the uplands were forested in 1950 (and are still anachronistically classified as "public forest land"), rapid deforestation has reduced forest cover in the Philippines from 50-60 per cent of the total land area in 1950 to around 20 per cent, or 6-7 million hectares, by the 1980s (World Bank 1989;Kummer 1992aKummer , 1992b. Old-growth dipterocarp forests, the most valuable, had declined to under 3 million hectares by the early 1980s, compared with 10 million hectares in the mid-1950s (World Bank 1989).…”

“…Old-growth dipterocarp forests, the most valuable, had declined to under 3 million hectares by the early 1980s, compared with 10 million hectares in the mid-1950s (World Bank 1989). Estimates of the annual rate of deforestation during the 1980s range from 150,000 hectares (Kummer 1992a(Kummer , 1992b to 320,000 hectares (World Bank 1996). Hence "less than half the uplands remain under any significant level of tree cover" (World Bank 1989, 10).…”

“…Although clear-felling has not generally been practised, logging operations have converted primary forest to degraded secondary forest, opened up the forest to farmers practising shifting cultivation, and rendered the forests susceptible to fire. The combined effects of logging, shifting cultivation, and uncontrolled fires have led to the conversion of forest to grassland (Brosius 1990;Coloma 1990;Kummer 1992a). As well as its impact on forest cover, "commercial logging is a major contributing factor to land degradation and soil erosion", mainly due to access roads and skid trails (World Bank 1989, 19).…”

“…Overstocking during the period of regrowth after burning is said to result in severe soil erosion (World Bank 1989). Shifting cultivation is practised in the grasslands (Brosius 1990) and small-scale farming using draught animals is increasing as landless migrants move into the area (Kummer 1992a;Garrity et al 1993).…”

First principles of the MameLuke multi-actor modelling framework for land use change, illustrated with a Philippine case study

“…Population density (number of people per square meter) has received a great deal of attention in LUCC and deforestation literature (Kummer, 1992;Rudel and Horowitz, 1993;Kummer and Sham, 1994;Kummer and Turner, 1994;Pfaff, 1999;Verburg et al, 1999). Several scholars indicate that the relationship between the factors and drivers, on one side, and the LUCC, on the other, is complex.…”