Wetter storms, deforestation: Manila faces worsening floods

Rowena Jimenez shows the height of the flooding inside their home in Marikina, a suburb of Manila. - AFP

BARAS, Philippines (AFP): From her house in a Manila suburb, Rowena Jimenez can't see the bare mountains around the built-up city. But she feels the impact of deforestation every time her living room floods.

Slash-and-burn farming, illegal logging, open-pit mining and development fueled by population growth have stripped the once-densely forested Philippines of much of its trees.