Philippines

Environment – current issues

uncontrolled deforestation especially in watershed areas; illegal mining and logging; soil erosion; air and water pollution in major urban centers; coral reef degradation; increasing pollution of coastal mangrove swamps that are important fish breeding grounds; coastal erosion; dynamite fishing; wildlife extinction

Environment – international agreements

party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Climate Change-Paris Agreement, Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping-London Convention, Marine Dumping-London Protocol, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 2006, Wetlands

signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Air pollutants

particulate matter emissions: 18.38 micrograms per cubic meter (2016 est.)

carbon dioxide emissions: 122.29 megatons (2016 est.)

methane emissions: 51.32 megatons (2020 est.)

Climate

tropical marine; northeast monsoon (November to April); southwest monsoon (May to October)

Land use

agricultural land: 41% (2018 est.)

arable land: 18.2% (2018 est.)

permanent crops: 17.8% (2018 est.)

permanent pasture: 5% (2018 est.)

forest: 25.9% (2018 est.)

other: 33.1% (2018 est.)

Urbanization

urban population: 47.7% of total population (2021)

rate of urbanization: 2.04% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)

Revenue from forest resources

forest revenues: 0.18% of GDP (2018 est.)

country comparison to the world: 96

Revenue from coal

coal revenues: 0.07% of GDP (2018 est.)

country comparison to the world: 28

Major infectious diseases

degree of risk: high (2020)

food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and typhoid fever

vectorborne diseases: dengue fever and malaria

water contact diseases: leptospirosis

note: on 8 October 2019, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a Travel Health Notice regarding a polio outbreak in the Philippines; CDC recommends that all travelers to the Philippines be vaccinated fully against polio; before traveling to the Philippines, adults who completed their routine polio vaccine series as children should receive a single, lifetime adult booster dose of polio vaccine

Waste and recycling

municipal solid waste generated annually: 14,631,923 tons (2016 est.)

municipal solid waste recycled annually: 4,096,938 tons (2014 est.)

percent of municipal solid waste recycled: 28% (2014 est.)

Major lakes (area sq km)

Salt water lake(s): Laguna de Bay – 890 sq km

Total water withdrawal

municipal: 8.929 billion cubic meters (2017 est.)

industrial: 15.85 billion cubic meters (2017 est.)

agricultural: 67.97 billion cubic meters (2017 est.)

Total renewable water resources

479 billion cubic meters (2017 est.)