1959/01/01 by D. S. Rabor, Dioscoro S. Rabor
Social Sciences · #Philippine History and Culture
paper · pdf · doi:10.2307/4081841
Cebu Island, in the central Philippines, is one of the ten large islands of the archipelago, with an area of about 4390 square kilometers. Though hilly, it reaches no great height, the maximum elevation being 1013 meters in Mt. Cabalasan in the central part. The island was probably originally forested. Before the coming of the Spaniards, in 1521, the population probably raised only rice as a food crop. This could be grown only on favorable areas in the narrow coastal plain. Thus deforestation was limited. With the arrival of the Spaniards, and the introduction of corn, sweet potato and cassava (all native to tropical America), which could be raised more widely on lowlands and hills, deforestation continued. Within historic times Cebu has been densely populated compared with nearby islands. Before population pressure the forests disappeared. This deforestation was hastened by the wasteful method of shifting cultivation (kaingin system) practiced, in which land is cleared, planted to crops for a few seasons, then abandoned for a new clearing. When ornithological collecting was started on Cebu in 1872, the forests were limited to patches in a few parts of the island. In 1906, when McGregor and his assistants collected on Cebu, they already had difficulty in finding forests in which to collect. For some decades the Bureau of Forestry has been carrying on reforestation projects on Cebu, the most notable of these being in Toledo and in the hills near the water reservoir of Cebu City at Buhisan Dam. Up to 1941, the Bureau's efforts were progressing and new forests were being developed. The Second World War broke out and when it ended in 1945, nothing much was left of the government-created forests. The people had cleared most of them as well as the beginning luxuriant growths in many places in the hills and mountains of Cebu. Today, the Bureau of Forestry is again very seriously carrying on reforestation work in several parts of Cebu. In our work from Silliman University in Cebu, begun in 1947 (see below) and in aerial survey of the island, we have been unable to find any patches of original forest, and the best bird area we found was the newly developed forest near Buhisan Dam.