Proclaimed as a ‘paradise on earth’ in the 1970s, the Philippine island of Boracay landed on the bucket lists of western tourists seeking sun, sea and surf. However, by the mid-1990s, tourist arrivals dropped due to degradation caused by a non-existent sewage system on the island. Despite the improvements in clean water, sewage treatment and waste management systems in the late 1990s, environmental issues persisted due to the noncompliance of the island’s business establishments.

Originally the home of the indigenous Ati people, Boracay was a sleepy agricultural island with a population of 100 that lived on rice cultivation and fishing, supplemented by goat farming. Part of the Aklan province in the Philippines, the island first started to receive intraregional migration from other nearby islands in the 1900s, leading to transformation of more land into farms for coconut and fruit trees. With continued migration, the island's population grew.