Mongabay: While it's too early to assess the impact of Super Typhoon Haiyan - reportedly the strongest tropical storm ever recorded to make landfall - in the Philippines, the damage could be exacerbated by the large-scale loss of the country's forests.
According to the national Forest Management Bureau, forest cover in the Philippines declined from 21 million hectares, or 70% of the its land area, in 1900 to about 6.5 million hectares by 2007, mostly due to intensive logging and subsequent conversion to...