ABSTRACT
The Debt-for-Nature Swap is the first major environmental programme in the Philippines to be implemented through GO–NGO collaboration. The Philippines has awoken too late to the fact that its resources have been abused. The debate on a selective or total ban on logging is carrying on at a time when productive forests have been reduced from about 16 million hectares to around 6 million, with only around 850,000 hectares of old growth or virgin forests left. The importance of ‘bio-diversity’ has been recognized only after 50 per cent of endemic flora has been lost. There are now increasing demands for sacrificing economic gains for ecological values at a time when there is around 20 per cent unemployment and about 60 per cent of the population exists below the poverty line.
