Clockwise from top: A mining-built causeway in Aborlan, forest clearing for oil palm in Bataraza, and Indigenous Pala’wan farmers planting upland rice in Brooke’s Point. (Photos courtesy of Environmental Legal Assistance Center and IC Magazine)
MANILA, Philippines — Southern Palawan lost 57,715 hectares of forest from 2001 to 2023, with kaingin, or slash-and-burn agriculture, accounting for most of the loss, the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD) said, even as an environmental group cautioned against treating the practice as a catch-all explanation for deforestation.
Citing a study conducted by the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development Staff, Holy Trinity University and Western Philippines University, PCSD said kaingin accounted for 44,698 hectares, or 77.4 percent, of the forest loss recorded within the Environmentally Critical Areas Network (ECAN) core and buffer zones.
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But the Save Palawan Movement (SPM) said recent public communications and studies, including those released by PCSDS, risk oversimplifying a complex ecological and governance issue by framing kaingin as the principal driver of forest loss.FEATURED STORIES
