The Philippines is having an awful time of it at the moment. Torrential rains have caused mudslides across the country, killing at least 200 people, and now a ferry with 74 people on board is feared to have sunk.
There is a thread connecting these disasters. Officials are blaming the mudslides on illegal logging, which has rendered hillsides above settlements unstable and turned them into accidents waiting to happen. Though an inquiry has yet to be held, if past ferry losses are anything to go by, it is possible that the little vessel — the 63-ton Piary which went missing in the Sulu sea on Sunday — was in one way or another working without proper certification or safety precautions.
There will be investigations, and maybe a few officials will be dismissed or even jailed, either for incompetence or corruption. But that is not the complete answer. There are deeper problems in the Philippines, as there are in so many developing countries.
There are two sorts of deforestation. Illegal logging around the headwaters of rivers is a crime which could be prevented if local officials and customs officers did their duty. Not only do such depredations rob the country of a fragile natural resource, but — where it concerns tropical rainforest — it endangers both the local and global climate. But there is another form of deforestation, which is done by the locals in order to put fire in their hearths, food on their tables and warmth in their homes. This felling and collection of wood has happened for generations. The problem is that there are now so many more people that the woodlands can neither provide sufficient fuel nor regenerate fast enough to sustain themselves.
Yet for those in comfortable homes to criticize poor people like those in the Philippines for persisting in what has become a dangerous woodland harvest is wrong. If they had to go out each day to collect fuel for their stoves and water for their everyday needs, they would see the injustice of such strictures. The solution does not rest with the ordinary collectors of wood, it lies with governments, who must work to provide alternatives or encourage sustainable forestry.
With the succession of ferry disasters, the government bears similar responsibility. For sure, maritime inspectors seem lax in their certification and licensing of ferryboats. But the truth is that there are many ferry operators who choose either to ignore the need for official permits or cut costs and corners to wring the maximum profit from their businesses. The price of their crime is paid by their passengers and by their hired crews, who should have known better than to go to sea in such poorly equipped and maintained vessels. It is a scandal that will only end when these operators are punished properly.
