Farming threatens three important Philippines rivers

Three of the most important rivers in the Philippines are at risk from water depletion due to illegal conversion of their common watershed into cabbage farms, officials said Monday.

Provincial Governor Maximo Dalog said the local administration had asked the national government to cancel land titles covering forested sections of the affected area, the Mount Data National Park.

The 5,512-hectare (13,620-acre) park in the Cordillera range is the common watershed of the Chico, Amburayan and Agno rivers, which provide irrigation, tap water and electricity to the northern Philippines.

Forest rangers are powerless to stop the deforestation because the culprits are armed with land titles issued by the environment and natural resources department, provincial government spokesman Andrew Doga-ong told reporters.