Rainforestation and Sustainable Development: From the Lens of the Four Individual Adopters from the Visayas Region in the Philippines

Abstract

Rainforestation (RF) is a reforestation strategy designed to address the problem of dwindling Philippine forest landscapes by planting native trees to unproductive and idle lands. It was introduced in the early 1990’s to ensure that forests only have species that are endemic in the country. Using the method of hermeneutic phenomenology, this paper concludes that the Philippine indigenous tree species have enhanced the viability of Rainforestation as a major conservation strategy in the Philippines as compared to the exotic trees used by the government in the 1970s and 1980s and therefore, is very significant in promoting biodiversity and sustainable development.