by Ranell Martin M. Dedicatoria, SEARCA KMU
25-April-2008 SEARCA News Release
Liken the earth to a human body – the more food you eat, the more overworked your bodily system becomes. Likewise, the more number of people using earth’s resources, the more overburdened earth is.
The growing Philippine population continues to take a toll on the environment where food, water, wood, and other resources do not increase at par with population growth. Because of too much destruction on forests, too much use on fuels, earth finds it difficult to regulate our climate; thus, we experience climate change. Even the recreational activities and amenities are becoming limited because of changing land use to accommodate the growing number of population.
The 1992 Earth Summit held at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil pointed out that policies should address increasing population trends and their impacts on resource use. Without a definite policy on population, particularly in the Philippines, the more we can expect heavy withdrawals on our forests, coastal areas, lands – not a very bright future for our country where sustainable resource use is concerned.
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Thoughts on the Agriculture and Development Seminar Series (ADSS) titled Exploring Population, Health, and Environment Linkages – Policy Implications on Natural Resource Management in the Philippines last 22 April 2008 by Dr. Ma. Victoria Espaldon, Dean, School of Environmental Science and Management (SESAM), University of the Philippines Los Baños.
