The Changing Village Environment in Southeast Asia follows the work of the Good Roots Project based on the island of Luzon in the Northern Philippines. The Good Roots Project is a multi-year forestry and agriculture research project and an attempt on the part of industry, government and science to better understand the processes of deforestation and initiate a strategy by which stressed upland ecosystems can be returned to productive stability.

The project examines the methods and results of five years of environmental research and development among the Ilocano and Yapayao speakers of Northern Luzon. This comparative study of the lowland rural population and the upland minority population seeks to establish a multipurpose methodology which focuses on helping the farmers of the island to help themselves.

A Director of the project, Ben Wallace analyses the issues surrounding the project, how the initiatives have been implemented, and the future for the island as the population growth rates continue to expand and increasingly more land is given over to agriculture.