From the air the Philippines is seen as a series of mountain slopes softened by tropical growth and interrupted by cultivated plains and terraces, as well as by inland seas and channels. Except in Luzon and Mindanao, no portion of the archipelago is much more than 50 miles (80 km) from the water. It is a land whose mineral resources are inadequately mapped, but whose volcanic soil is constantly being eroded because of reckless farming methods and deforestation.
