Population and Forest Land Use Cover Transition: The Case of Brgy.Puting Lupa, Mt. Makiling Forest Reserve, Laguna, Philippines

Theoretical propositions about the adverse impacts of population growth to the natural system have found grounding in many empirical-based literature since the environmental discourse became global. Neo-Malthusians predict ecological destruction when there is unrestrained population growth coupled with advancement in technology and increase in per capita affluence in a society. When industrialization in Calamba legitimized by local and national policies materialized, the Makiling Forest Reserve (MFR) became vulnerable to on-site and off-site environmental pressures. In 1990, the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) was vested exclusive jurisdiction, control, and administration over MFR and in the following years, adopted a ‘participatory’ approach to management. Chronologically following the implementation of these policies is the abandonment of agricultural claims of state-owned forest land by settlers within and near the MFR buffer zone in Barangay Puting Lupa. Results of this study show that forest land use transition occured in MFR-Calamba characterized by first, deforestation and forest land conversion to agriculture, then to gradual forest recovery. Spatial analysis of the 1993-2002 Calamba land cover shows that forest cover increased by 18%, agricultural land use decreased by as much as 29%,while built-up areas expanded by as much as 79%. Albeit forest land regenerated through time, land cover changed from forest species to agroforestry specifically in Barangay Puting Lupa. While industrialization is associated with increase in population and eventual environmental degradation, this study suggests that there are other socioeconomic elements that interact compatibly with each other to arrive at a different scenario of forest regrowth. Seemingly contradicting but synchronous commitments of policies of the university and of Calamba among other socioeconomic factors have a synergistic effect that amounts to the improved forest land use cover in the MFR buffer zone in Barangay Puting Lupa despite increase in population and pressures of industrialization.