ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the process, paying particular attention to economic trends, national policies, population growth, internal migration, land tenure, and power relations, which conspired to alter local socioeconomic conditions and transform diverse ecosystems in the vast Philippine uplands and coastal zones. It examines interactions between certain particularly vulnerable populations and the ecosystems they occupy, as well as their responses to external forces. In 1976 a ban on log exports was decreed in order to secure profits on value-added processing of lumber products for the Philippine economy. Philippine public land policies understandably are directed toward promoting the exploitation of natural resources for agricultural development to serve national economic goals. A growing body of research suggests that along with reforestation, the most productive and protective use of "forest" land lies in indigenous and newly developed agroforestry management systems, which are among the best adapted land use systems in the tropics.
