Old Growth Photo | TrekEarth

Photographer's Note

Rainforest, Malinao, Aklan, Philippines

It is said that the Philippines was one of the more thorougly covered countries in the world by rain forest - a few hundred years ago, at least 95% of the islands was covered by forest.

In the 1900, rain forest covered at least 70% of the country but due to increasing population and cultivation, some islands have been heavily deforested; some islands were devoid of their old growth cover.

Forward to 1992, the date of the most recent forest survey: old-growth rain forest cover has declined to a shocking 8.6 percent. In the late 1997, that percentage has probably dropped further to about 7 percent. 70% to 7% in a hundred years - it is the most severe and most rapid decline in old-growth forest in the world.

The Philippines has one of the highest density of both unique and endangered species in the world and the forest destruction is the primary reason the Philippines is ranked as having the most severely endangered mammal and bird faunas in the world - as well as the increasing frequency of floods, drought, erosion, mudslides, coral reef siltation and groundwater depletion.

The situation is bleak.

Pictured is one of the few remaining old growth forest patches on the island of Panay ... up in the central highlands. This may be the last you'll see of it.

Source: Vanishing Treasures of the Philippine Rainforest by Lawrence Heaney and Jacinto Regalado Jr, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL, 1998

andr3w, johnnyfive oznaczył to zdjęcie jeko użyteczne

Critiques | Translate

banyanman (7797) 2006-07-23 10:07

This photograph has been up for four months now, and nobody has commented on it Ken, but I hope the 263 people who have viewed it to date took the time to read your very informative note.

Perhaps I can add some additional information which I saw in the June 2002 edition of National Geographic Magazine which said:

"The Philippine Islands were once coated with thick forest that held moisture like a sponge and distributed it gently to springs and streams. Now, due largely to logging and farming, only 7 per cent of the old forest remains, and water runs off quickly bringing successive flood and drought to the lowlands.

Philippines is one of the world's 25 biodiversity hotspots but many feel that the Philippines exceptional biodiversity is past the point of saving."

So depressing.

David

PS: As far as the image is concerned, I think you really need something in the foreground to convey the depth of the scene, but I know it's often hard to find a POV to achieve that. Also I would have tried a little more contrast and sharpening.