Deforestation and detribalization in the Philippines: The Palawan case

Palawan Island contains the largest remaining expanse of unbroken forest cover in the Philippines. The forest is currently threatened by agricultural colonization, as numerous migrants from throughout the Philippines settle annually in the island's forested uplands. Further, Palawan is being heavily logged and is, in consequence, the focus of an acrimonious national environmental debate. This paper examines how land alienation and other forms of socioeconomic marginalization attending these pressures have undermined the well-being of Palawan's indigenous tribal peoples. It also explains how lack of secure tenure and failure to achieve popular participation so distort the gap between the ideal and the practice of agroforestry programs aimed at these peoples that such programs not only fail to ameliorate the ecological situation but further undermine tribal well-being.