The Kaingin System (Slash and Burn Farming)

               It is always a question why humans continue to do the slash-and-burn farming (kaingin). One reason often being associated with this dilemma is economic reasoning of poor people where in fact the great question of ethical consideration of preserving nature is being sacrificed. Some consider kaingin as their means of earning money to finance their basic needs by utilizing any possible natural resources within their area of residency and sell them on the market. They claim that it is only through this system that they can feed their family since most of them haven't had the chance to go to school to earn a decent degree. Many had attested that the elimination of trees in the mountains had greatly affected the overall hydrologic cycle of nature and that kaingin is the major attributor on this argument. Can we stop the kaingin system? Can we really blame poverty on this predicament?

               I am interested on the rampant problem of kaingin system because, like many developing countries, Philippines had been facing this problem for decades without any new advancement in alleviating the existing problem. Philippines had been recently visited by a lot of water runoff from storms and regular rains and consensus said that this is due to excessive overflow from the mountains because there are not enough trees that can help soil in seeping water on the surface. Since this problem catches the hydrology and hydraulics area which is part of my academic interest for my undergraduate degree, I always wanted to make use of whatever knowledge I have to save mother nature.

               I know that kaingin is a process where trees are being cut and turn into charcoal by burning the woods without replacing the trimmed trees. From where I live in the Philippines, it seems that this activity was always perform every night because I can always see the mountains burning. Kaingin had been addressed several times in the Philippine Congress as a threat because of the domino effect of removing trees in the mountains and the catastrophic loss that may occur once kaingin will never stop.

               I need to do more research on obtaining and relating the consensus of having a great flood to the depletion of trees on the mountains. I would like to explore other possible options that we can follow for solving the continuous kaingin system and asses each options in their weaknesses and strengths to develop a new efficient and effective way of alleviating this problem. Also, if the blame is all paid to poverty, I would like to seek out some solutions on this matter and discuss their practicability.