1. The Philippines has abundant natural resources due to its geography as an archipelago, including forests, fertile agricultural lands, extensive coastlines and fisheries, and rich mineral deposits. However, many of these natural resources face threats from environmental problems like overfishing, coastal development destroying ecosystems, deforestation, and pollution. 2. To protect its natural resources, the Philippines must address challenges like weak enforcement of environmental laws, inconsistent regulations, and lack of funding for conservation efforts. Sustainable management and conservation of the country's biodiversity and ecosystems are needed to ensure natural resources can continue supporting the economy and people.

1. Resourcesof the Philippines

2. Review
TERMINOLOGIES
1. Latitude – an imaginary line around the Earth
parallel to theequator. Often referred toas the
parallelsof latitude. This is because latitudeare lines
that run parallel to the equator. They are flat line in
theglobeor map. It looks likea ladder.
2.Longitude - refers to the imaginary lines that bisect
theglobe through the Eastand West Poles.

3. 3. Equator – located at the center of the earth and is
the line that separates the Northern hemisphereand
Southern hemisphere.
4. Prime Meridian - The prime meridian is the
planet’s line of zero degrees longitude. Slicing the
earth along the circle of the prime meridian would
divide it into the Easternand Western hemispheres
⚫Weused Latitudeand Longitude to find places on the
map.

5. Lines of latitude with special
names
1. 0˚ Equator
2. 23.5˚N Tropic of Cancer
3. 23.5˚S Tropic of Capricorn
4. 66.5˚N Arctic Circle
5. 66.5˚S Antarctic Circle

7. BODIES OF WATER
⚫The Philippines boastof manydifferent kinds
of natural water forms, such as bays, rivers, lakes falls,
gulfs, straits, and swamps. Because it is made up of
islands, the country's coastline, if laid end-to-end,
would measure around 17.5 thousand kilometers. The
Philippines is blessed with excellent natural harbors
forports like Manila Bay. Otherexcellent harborswith
port potentialsare found in Ilocos, Pangasinan,
Visayas, and Mindanao. The three largest rivers in the
countryare the Cagayan River in Northern Luzon,
the Rio Grande de Mindanao, and the Agusan River,
also in Mindanao.

8. ⚫Also noteworthy in terms of size are the Agno, Pasig,
Angat, Pampanga, and Bicol rivers in Luzon. Most
popular among tourist is the famous underground
river in Palawan. Aside from rivers, the country also
abounds with lakes. Easily the most famous is the
heart-shaped Laguna de Bay. Other famous lakes are
Taal in Batangas, Sampaloc in Laguna, Buhi and
Bulusan in Bicol, Naujan in Mindoro oriental, and
Lanao and Mainit in Mindanao. Generating power for
the Nation’sgrowthare the magnificentwaterfallsthat
serveas touristattractions, as well. The biggest
waterfalls is the Maria Cristina falls, it can be found in
the North Western part of Lanao province in
Mindanao, while the most popular is Pagsanjan falls
in Laguna, where touristcame in droves.

9. Natural Resources
The Philippines is rich in natural resources. It has fertile,
arable lands, diverse flora and fauna, extensive coastlines, and
rich mineral deposits. About 30% of the land areaof thecountry
was determined be geologically prospective by the Philippine
Mines and Geo-Sciences Bureau. But Only 1.5% of country's
land area iscovered with mining permits. Despite the
rich natural resources of the Philippines, the government is
restricting its exploitation. A logging ban is imposed on many
areas of the country and only in select areas are "sustainable
logging" allowed. However illegal logging and small-scale illegal
mining continues is many areas. In July 2012, President Benigno
Aquino III ordered a stop toall mining activities in all (78 areas)
protected and eco-tourism sites. A positive step in the right
direction to protect the natural resourcesof thePhilippines.

11. LAND
⚫The Philippines’ primary source of livelihood is its
fertile land. Rich, wide plains suitable for farming are
found in the Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, South
western Bicol, Panay, Negros, Davao, Cotabato, Agusan
and Bukidnon. The country ‘s six major crops
are rice, corn, sugarcane, coconut, abaca and tobacco.
Except for rice and corn, all
these products are exported, along with bananas and
pineapples.

12. FOREST
⚫The Philippines also boastsof wide tractsof lush,
green forests. In fact, almost half of the country’s total
land area is forested. Sixty percent of these forests are
found in Mindanao.

13. MINERAL RESOURCES
⚫Except for petroleum and a number of metals, mineral
resources abound in Philippine soil. The country’s
mineral depositscan beclassified into metalsand non-
metals. Our metal depositsare estimated at 21.5 billion
metric tons, while non-metal depositsare projected at
19.3 billion metric tons. Nickel ranks first in terms of
deposits and size, it is found in Surigao del Norte,
Davao, Palawan, Romblon and Samar. Iron is found in
Ilocos Norte, Nueva Ecija, Camarines Norte and
Cotabato. While copper in Zambales, Batangas,
Mindoro, Panay and Negros. Among non-metal deposits,
the most abundant are cement, lime, and marble. Other
non-metals include asbestos, clay, guano, asphalt,
feldspar, sulfur, talc, silicon, phosphate, and marble.

14. Fishery Resources
⚫With its territorial waters measuring as much as 1.67 million
square kilometers and located in the worlds fishing center,
the Philippines is definitely rich in marine resources. Of the
2,400 fish species found in thecountry
. 65 have good
commercial value. Other
marine products include corals, pearls, crabs and seaweeds.
Someof thecountries best salt water fishing area’sare found
in Sintangki Island in Sulu Estancia in Bohol, Malampaya
in Palawan, Lingayen Gulf in Pangasinan, San Miguel lake in
Camarines Norte, Bantayan Channel in Cebu, and the seas of
Quezonand Sorsogon.
⚫On theother hand, among our biggest fisherwater fishing
areas are Laguna de Bay, Bombon Lake in Batangas, Bato Lake
in Canmarines Sur, Naujan Lake in Mindoro and Mainit lake
in Agusan del Norte.

15. Environmental problems in the Philippines
1. Overfishing and destructive fishing
Fishers in the Philippines are increasingly coming home with
pitiful catches. Of a number of factors which have led to this
situation, onestandsout: over-fishing in manyareas.
According to the Asian Development Bank (ADB), there has
been adropof 90% in thequantityof marineorganisms that
can be trawled in some traditional fishing areas of the
Philippines.
This isn’t just a question of declining fish stocks and
biodiversity, but also of social impacts and economic losses.
Mismanagementof fisheries resources is estimated tocost US$
420 millionannually in lost revenues.
At the root of the overfishing problem is weak fisheries
management, ineffectivepolicies and poorenforcementof
fishery laws.

16. 2. Coastal infrastructuredevelopment
Coastal zone development has been particularly
damaging to the Philippines’ marine environment,
especially tocoral reefs, mangroves, and seagrasses.
As populations have increased, so have their needs for
construction materials and living space. Excavation,
dredging, and coastal conversion toaccommodate coastal
development have seen corals being extracted for
reclamation and construction, especially in coastal
villages.
Mangroves have particularly suffered from coastal
development, notably at the hands of theaquaculture
industry. In the Philippines, aquaculture has reduced
mangrove stands toonly 36% of 1900 levels.

17. 3. Deforestation
Afterdecades of deforestation, which has left about 3% of
the original cover, forests continue to be under threat
from agriculture and urbanization, illegal logging and
forest fires.
Sustained forest loss in the Philippines is causing severe
soil erosion, and is threatening the country’s rich
biodiversity. This is particularlyworrying as manyof the
Philippines’ species, which depend on these forests, are
endemic (they cannot be found anywhere else in the
world). Forexample, of 180 native terrestrial mammal
species here, about 61% areendemic.
Inconsistent laws, inadequate regulations, weak
enforcement and lack of funding are making forest
conservation a majorchallenge.

18. 4. Pollution
Only about 10% of sewage in the Philippines is
treated ordisposed of in an environmentallysound
manner. The rest goes back to nature – usually the
sea.
In thiscontextof poorwaste treatmentand high
populationgrowth, waterpollution is a growing
problem for the country’s groundwater, rivers, lakes,
and coastal areas. Polluting industrial material isalso
found in abandoned mining areas, with mercury
pollutionaffecting water bodies in theseareas.

20. Assignment
1. (1-5) Listdown someof the Natural Resources found
in the Philippines
2. (6-9) List down some of the Environmental
Problems that the Philippines is facing today
3. (10) Howcanyou protectand conserveour Natural
Resources? 5 points

21. Sources
⚫http://www.philippine-history.org/about-
philippines.htm
⚫http://wwf.panda.org/who_we_are/wwf_offices/philip
pines/environmental_problems in_philippines/
⚫https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_Q96FgzGWg