Plundering Paradise: The Struggle for the Environment in the Philippines.

• Author: Ryan, Megan

While traveling the Philippines in search of signs of environmental devastation, Robin Broad and John Cavanagh found themselves face-to-face with more evidence than they cared to deal with. The typhoon that suddenly marooned them in the fishing village of Mindoro was not exceptional - typhoons are common to this part of the world - but the storm surge that moved in after the typhoon was another story.

For two days, waves pounded the shore, uprooting trees and collapsing bamboo huts. The pair looked to their local host for reassurance, but saw only fear in his face. "This is the first time I've experienced anything like this," he muttered as water and sand washed into the house.

Safely back in Manila, Broad and Cavanagh discussed their experience with several marine resource experts. Why, they asked, would storm surges be greater than before? They learned that a deadly chain of events had weakened the coral reefs that once shielded Mindoro from the ocean's fury. Silt from deforested mountain slopes, gaping holes made by fisherman blasting the reefs with dynamic for quick catches, and dead zones created by entrepreneurs collecting aquarium specimens by squirting cyanide into the reefs to stun the fish had taken their toll. Greater surges could lie ahead, they were told.

In an account of their travels through the Philippines in 1988 and 1989, Broad and Cavanagh examine the unforeseen consequences - and unintended price - of the past decade of "development" in the Philippines. Plundering Paradise is a chronicle of short-term gain for the few, and long-term decline for the many. But, it is also at times a story of hope, of how the people most immediately threatened by the loss of their trees, fish, and farmland are fighting back.

The story of how prawn farming came to the Philippines, for example, illustrates how seemingly brilliant ideas for economic improvement carry unforeseen ecological and social costs. Over lunch, they discuss the economics of prawn farming with Godofredo Galicia, the mayor of Bataan, who makes a handsome income from his 50-hectare network of ponds. Each hectare of pond brings in $90,000 for every $5,000 in costs, Galicia explains. The returns are compelling, but startup costs of around $50,000 guarantee that only a few islanders reap the rewards.

But Broad and Cavanagh find that for every islander who does, many more people are paying an unintended price. Investors like Galicia once raised milkfish - a staple in the diet...