POLITICAL IMPACT

• The Philippine Government has promulgated a number of laws for the protection of the environment. Some of these are:• Laws in Reforestation• Total Log Ban• Protection of Flora and Fauna particularly

the endangered species.

• There are unscrupulous individuals who explicitly disregard this laws.

Illegal Logging

• Illegal logging is the harvesting, transporting, processing, buying or selling of timber in violation of national laws.

• Illegal logging is still rampant. Plants and animals, mangroves and coral reefs are indiscriminately destroyed.

Kaingin• The Kaingin system is defined as the burning

of trees for the purpose of cultivation. It can also be defined as a way of damaging the environment for better environmental gain. In this case, the area being burned is burned to the point where the soil is no longer good.

DYNAMITE FISHING• Blast fishing or dynamite fishing is the practice

of using explosives to stun or kill schools of fish for easy collection. This often illegal practice can be extremely destructive to the surrounding ecosystem, as the explosion often destroys the underlying habitat (such as coral reefs) that supports the fish.

Muro-Ami Fishing• Muro-Ami Fishing, otherwise known as reef-

hunting, is one of the cruelest, most cataclysmic forms of illegal fishing that destroys the coral reefs and exploits children.

• Children as young as seven years old dive to the bottom of the ocean without oxygen mask. There they spread the nets and pound on the coral reefs to drive the fish towards the nets.