Deforestation in the Postwar Philippines.

by R. S. Bora (New Delhi: Sage)

David Kummer has written a very important book on the controversial subject of deforestation in the Philippines. Based on his doctoral research this book is comprehensive and insightful having taken an historical approach incorporating social issues while wrestling with the thorny problem of quantification of change. The overall objective of the study was to "analyse and model deforestation in the postwar Philippines at the provincial level." This provides a basis for understanding the process not only in the Philippines but in other countries experiencing similar change. Moreover, policy interventions--which are in serious demand--are based on a more sound footing.

Kummer developed a five step process in his investigation. A review of tropical deforestation literature was undertaken to define the theoretical and quantitative levels other authors have identified as important in such studies. This research incorporated and improved upon several of the earlier methods described. Secondly, Philippine socioeconomic, demographic and historical variables were analysed at a national and subnational level. These variables were examined to determine which had more explanatory power in the Philippine context. Thirdly, and based on the two previous points, the variables deemed most critical to the Philippine case were chosen for use in Kummer's statistical analysis. As a fourth step, the chosen variables were examined using multi-variate statistical techniques. Finally, Kummer tested his model for relevance in both the Philippine case and other countries.

The literature review exposed some of the gapping weaknesses in research of the type Kummer attempts. The lack of agreed-upon definitions of what a forest is or was, the lack of consensus and "depth" in detailing why deforestation was occurring are but two examples. General themes as seen by Kummer were arranged based on scale--national and regional. Nationally, issues of population pressure, logging, fuelwood collection, corruption and mismanagement were significant. Regionally, issues such as cattle ranching, resettlement and spontaneous migration, road networks and inequitable social structures were identified. The recognition of the complexity of underlying reasons for deforestation is important and provided the opening for Kummer to address the issues in the Philippine context. In concluding his review Kummer noted the dearth of theory in this area and attributed this, in part, to the lack of data. Theory and testable hypothesis are difficult to develop in a climate of poor quality or non-existent data.

In Kummer's review of the history of deforestation in the Philippines the problems with available data and its sources were more clearly revealed. Figures ranged from 50 to 70 percent for loss of forest cover in the Philippines from 1900 to 1950. It was noted that today approximately 55 per cent of the Philippine forest cover of 1950 has disappeared. Corruption is detailed as an underlying cause for deforestation in the Philippines although it is correctly acknowledged that the "hard' evidence to substantiate it is unavailable. The official government line is that population pressure and the consequent expansion in agricultural land are responsible. Kummer tested these assumptions.

In Chapter 5 the development of the argument moves to the postwar era and the underlying reasons for deforestation. It is concluded that a lack of economic growth in the non-agricultural sector has had a dramatic impact on forest resources. Essentially the economy remained mired in a primary sector mode with forest and agricultural sectors being burdened to support elite social structures. Poverty deepened and in the postwar era the number of people in poverty grew considerably. As a result, families resorted to the occupation of forest lands (considerable areas having already been cleared of forest) to feed themselves.

Sources of data and a statistical analysis at a provincial level are presented in chapters six and seven. Most of the data were collected from government agencies in Manila and forestry organisations in Los Banos. A choice was made to avoid collection of data from provincial agencies. Admittedly it would have been difficult to visit all 73 provincial capitals. Kummer's assumption that he would not expose anything radically new or different is slightly off the mark. Relatively data-rich sources on forest clearance including historical maps are kept in the countless file cabinets of provincial offices. National level data are also available outside the Philippines. An important collection of maps produced by the various agencies responsible for the forests of the Philippines are housed at the American Geographical Society Collection in the Golda Meier Library at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. These maps and associated statistics could have been used in the analysis.

Kummer's analysis of variables impinging on deforestation proved to be adequate given the gaps in data and its quality. These limitations were clearly presented and reflected upon when interpreting results. Road density and population density were clearly linked with rates of deforestation at the provincial level. However even more important was the size of the forest resource and the fact that it was controlled by government or military interest. Therefore the process of impoverishment of the Philippine forests can not be directly attributed to the actions of squatter populations or loggers alone. These and other variables work in concert and their intensities are related closely to place and the political economy of the forest resource in the Philippines.

"Deforestation in the Postwar Philippines" is an important book. Research undertaken by Kummer was well conceived executed. An array of pitfalls could have derailed the project but the focus remained on the underlying crisis in the Philippine forests. The book should be prescribed reading for the many actors in the Philippine environment and development movement: from the groups attempting to improve the standard of living for the most impoverished rural dwellers to the policy groups and lobbyists influencing the direction of Congress. Forest and forest land issues will continue to haunt the development efforts of the country. More work like Kummer's will provide valuable insight into the nature of the problems.

E. S. Bora's book on the migration between the Hill Region of Uttar Pradesh and the urban slums of Delhi follows an increasingly well worn path of analysis. While claiming to be "innovative" it falls short in several respects. First, the structure of the book leads to considerable repetition. Secondly, the use of statistics and their presentation in written form rather than in tables or graphs becomes tedious. Finally, summaries and conclusions reached were in some cases poorly supported by the evidence.

The goal of this research project was "to correct the lack of insight and understanding of the complexities associated with out-migration." Bora conducted a detailed empirical study to gain an "overall" view of the situation. He uses a two-way approach to link the origins of migrants with their destination and views this movement as a process. Therefore this book was to fill the gap between origin or destination studies, the result being the presentation of a quantified argument extolling on the causes and consequences of out-migration on migrants' home villages in the Hill District of Uttar Pradesh.

In Chapter One Bora portrays the I-Ell region of India as underdeveloped and links this with the process of out-migration. Over ten pages he presents various examples of poverty and underdevelopment but these are not substantiated by either his own empirical research or references to other work. Several villages, towns and districts are referred to throughout the section, but a map showing their locations in reference to the city of Delhi is not presented until the end of the chapter. This should have come far earlier in the chapter so that the reader could more easily understand the concepts of peri-urban versus interior villages. An explanation of the terms peri-urban and interior village would also have been helpful.

What is provided is a string of statistics and polemical statements which portray the Hill Region as a homogenously "backward" place. This is not only insulting but contradictory, especially in relation to the author's often championed claim to a high rate of literacy in the region later in the book. Bora's claim that high literacy rates result in higher job aspirations, and hence spur out-migration is spurious and unsubstantiated. In fact Bora contradicts this claim in Chapter Two when he describes one village as having the highest rate of out-migration and the highest rate of illiteracy. Are these statistics so because the literate have already left? Before important variables such as these can be conflated the basis for the statistical evidence must be critiqued.

In Chapter Three evidence on the economic status of migrants is used to validate the theory that the literate and poor are more likely to migrate. However, it was found that greater than 90 percent of migrants were male and from higher castes! Not only that but they were educated and came from land owning families. In spite of this discovery Bora continues to look for evidence that it is actually the poor and literate that migrate. To do this a cost-benefit analysis was done to attempt to prove that the poor and literate had more of an economic incentive to migrate. This quantitative method disregarded caste status as a variable and undermined Bora's claim. Even more confusing was the chapter's concluding remark: "reliance on employment from outside the region becomes a dire necessity and migration as a means to it." This is contradicted by the discovery that the more affluent were migrating.

A more detailed review of the causes of migrations is developed in Chapter Five. Bora presents a range of theories to explain the phenomenon of out-migration. Theory did not figure as prominently in the other chapters and I wonder whether this discussion would have been better placed in the introduction. Bora provides very little critique, even though the theories he presents are outdated, reductionist, and not applicable to this type of study. Later in the chapter government statistics were overused (without testing their veracity) and discussion convoluted on the actual causes for migration from the Hill Region. Without sufficient analytical data the author retreated to broad explanations such as "land, poverty and backwardness." Bora eventually concludes that the "poorest or lowest status groups had a lower propensity to move," followed by the statement, "excluding remittances the propensity to move was highest in the lowest income groups." I was confused.

Bora used cost-benefit analysis to shed light on the issue of out-migration and its impacts on Hill Region society. This cold, dis-embodied model relied on several disturbing assumptions. One was the argument that out-migration reduced pressure on agricultural resources. Though the numbers produced showed this to be the case, Bora only tested the productivity of labour in agriculture i.e., that having more people active (not migrating) in agriculture in the Hill region actually improved farm income. This disregards issues of input costs and commodity prices which can also influence farm income, perhaps with more elasticity than the presence or absence of one member of the farm family. Moreover, if the majority of migrants were from the higher caste land owning families, wouldn't this create opportunities for the lower castes to work on the higher castes' farms?

The concluding chapters include a sojourn into the slums of Delhi to survey migrants from the villages in the Hill Region. Although the interviews were intended to expand on the claims from the village surveys, they did not add any startling, new information.

Overall this book will appeal to those who are already convinced that outmigration is a malignant activity in regions striving to develop. It is my belief that Bora was already convinced of this fact before engaging in the research and writing of this book. Bora's holistic approach, encompassing both migration source and destination, serves only to dilute the argument and overshoots what I believe are the more interesting questions of power and political change in the villages. Change occurs as a result of migration, both in the slums of Delhi where "new" societies are evolving and back in the villages, where the remittances-noted by the author to be of greater value in the lower castes versus the higher status castes-alter power structures in the out-migrants home village. These areas of inquiry may explain the causes of underdevelopment in the migrant source areas and, if the lower castes are slowly being empowered, may indeed mean that the cost-benefits may be measured more than quantitatively and monetarily, but also qualitatively and socially.