Ecological Degradation and Measures Taken Towards Rehabilitation within One's Community

 Ecological Degradation


                  Soil degradation is defined as the process which lowers the current or future capacity of the soil to produce goods or services. It implies long-term decline in soil productivity and its environment-moderating capacity. This problem is much more serious in tropical than in temperate areas since tropical soils are more prone to degradation because of the nature of their properties and the prevalent climatic conditions. Countries in Asia and Africa that depend upon agriculture as the engine of economic growth are believed to suffer the greatest impact of soil degradation. In the Philippines, soil degradation is one of the most serious ecological problems today.
                    The major threat to our ecosystem in the Philippines are land clearing, unsustainable fishing, and pollution. We contribute to this problem without even knowing it ourselves like by wasting our materials like pencils, papers, and food. The wastes from the factories that make our everyday things causes pollution in the air, sea, and land depending where the waste is thrown away and these affect animals, plants, and humans in a negative way. The illegal or extensive cutting down of trees does a lot of negative effects to the ecosystem like destroying habitats of animals and by cutting down trees,
it lessens our supply of oxygen and reduces the amount of carbon dioxide being used. The animals in the ecosystem relies on feeding off of plants or animals that eat plants so clearing forest lands would cause the animals to have a hard time to search for food. The roots of plants are what help keep the soil firm and they gather water from the soil so if the plant life is removed, the soil is vulnerable to soil erosion and flooding.


We can also help resolve this problem by doing simple things like throwing trash properly even if the trash isn't ours so that drainage systems won't be clogged up and floods would be prevented. Planting trees is being encouraged in our community so that floods and soil erosion will be prevented to keep our environment clean. The Boys Scouts of the Philippines are also helping keep the community clean by picking up trashes found lying on the ground and planting more plants around the school vicinity. I pick up the pieces of trash around my home even if it is not mine nothing will get finished if you just tell others to pick it up so I have to take initiative. Hopefully, the people would realize and try to solve this problem even just by doing a little because if everyone will help, it will go a long way.

source of information:http://classroom.synonym.com/degradation-ecosystem-philippines-23752.html

http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=5957388

http://soil-environment.blogspot.com/2010/03/soil-degradation-in-philippines.html