The Basin's marginality is owed in part to its physical isolation from Manila and other regions of the Philippines and to a physical environment that is hostile to productive activity for much of the year.
Income is low and inequitably distributed.
Production and marketing technologies are inefficient compared to the rest of the Philippines and other Asian countries. Infrastructure and capital are scarce and local government institutions are weak and ineffective. High rates of population growth prevent appreciable increases in standards of living even in developing sections of the Basin, and in much of Bicol the land-tenure arrangements constrain increased agricultural production and more equitable distribution of income, Poverty and the lack of modern sanitation facilities perpetuate widespread health and nutrition problems. For decades, the Bicol River Basin has experienced high levels of rural poverty. The predominantly subsistence agricultural economy has created chronic underemployment and serious malnutrition among the population and encouraged relatively high rates of migration.