IN spite of the country's adopting a much more proactive approach to climate change and environmental management with the beginning of the Marcos Jr. administration, it is painfully clear there is a long way to go. In a report released just this week, the Philippines, along with Laos, earned the unfortunate distinction of being one of only two countries in Southeast Asia where deforestation increased last year and is among the top 10 countries in the world with the highest loss of primary forest cover.

The report was published by the nonprofit group Global Forest Watch (GFW), which uses satellite data to measure forest cover and land changes. On a global scale, the rate of deforestation slowed by a small amount overall, but increased by 10 percent in the tropics. The report noted that among Southeast Asian countries, only Laos and the Philippines showed an increase in deforestation, with the two countries losing 31 percent and 25 percent more forest in 2022 than in 2021, respectively.