Vital mangrove areas in the Philippines have shrunk to less than one per cent of its area in 1920. The loss could be worth as much as $3 billion. The country was among 30 countries with the largest mangrove areas in the world in 1980. At the time, it had 146,000 hectares of mangrove forests.

Disappearing mangrove forests cost RP P3B a year in lost forest, fish products. (1993, November 14). The Philippine Star, p. 22.