Philippine Daily Inquirer, Mar 07, 2005
Cordillera seen as 3rd logging area
Defensor lifts ban in Davao, Caraga
By Blanche Rivera
THE DEPARTMENT of Environment and Natural Resources has approved logging in only two regions in Mindanao but may allow logging in one region in Luzon.
Environment Secretary Michael Defensor yesterday issued a memorandum allowing the resumption of logging operations in Region 11 (Davao) and Caraga but not in Region 9 (Zamboanga Peninsula) as he had earlier announced.
He said the DENR was studying whether it would be more "administratively efficient" to allow logging in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR)* in Luzon, where many of the country's furniture makers are based.
In Butuan City, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo officially announced the lifting of the total log ban in Mindanao.
"I authorize Secretary Defensor to allow legal logging in [two] regions, including Caraga," the President told reporters during her arrival at the Bancasi Airport yesterday morning.
Ms Arroyo said the provinces of Aurora, Quezon and Nueva Vizcaya, which were hardest hit by landslides last December, would be declared protected areas while the log ban in other regions would stay.
Massive landslides and flash floods killed hundreds of people in Aurora and Quezon late last year. The tragedy was blamed on logging in the Sierra Madre mountain range.
The President said she authorized the selective lifting of the ban "because thousands of poor families are suffering in areas where alternative means of livelihood are not yet available."
Ms Arroyo was in Butuan to conduct an aerial survey of the forest resources of Caraga, called the timber corridor of the Philippines. But torrential rains prevented her from taking a helicopter.
Caraga consists of the provinces of Agusan del Norte, Agusan del Sur, Surigao del Sur and Surigao del Norte, while Region 11 comprises the provinces of Davao Oriental, Compostela Valley, Davao del Sur and Davao del Norte.
Third region
In a phone interview, Defensor explained why he was considering CAR as the third region where logging would be allowed.
"Zamboanga and the CAR have about the same potential for reforestation and CAR is located in Luzon. We're thinking, 'Why would we open up Zamboanga if we can do it in CAR?' We're still studying everything," he said.
Both the CAR and Zamboanga have about 50,000 hectares of forests covered by logging permits. Defensor said the major consideration now would be which area could be managed more effectively if the log ban were lifted.
The DENR will announce its choice of a third region next week.
The CAR comprises the provinces of Abra, Apayao, Benguet, Ifugao, Kalinga and Mountain Province, while Region 9 consists of Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga del Sur and Zamboanga Sibugay.
Defensor, who flew to Mindanao yesterday to inspect 5,000 logs seized by the DENR, signed the memorandum lifting the log ban in Agusan del Sur province.
Second-growth
He said logging would be allowed only in second-growth forests and plantations in the three regions, and only in private plantations in the rest of the country.
The environment secretary said this limited logging scheme would compel wood consumers to plant the trees they needed instead of relying on large-scale commercial logging.
"We want to encourage private plantations. Those who need wood should plant trees," he said.
With a forest cover of 7.2 million hectares, the Philippines still has a potential for reforestation of around 5 million-ha. However, only 400,000-ha have been planted through private initiatives.
Furniture makers pleased
The DENR decision to consider lifting the log ban in the CAR pleased the Chamber of Furniture Industries of the Philippines (CFIP), which has been asking the government to consider the plight of the wood-based small and micro enterprises (SMEs) outside the three regions.
The SMEs account for about 80 percent of the 12,500 furniture-makers all over the country. Many of them are located in areas such as the northern Cagayan Valley region, where raw materials had been so accessible before the log ban.
The CFIP has complained that the prices of local lumber have gone up by as much as 55 percent since last December, when the government imposed the total log ban.
Mahogany prices have increased from P38 per board foot before the ban to P55; gmelina, from P28 to P33; and plywood, from P35 per square foot to P40, the CFIP said in a statement.
Prelude
The militant fisherfolk group Pamalakaya said the DENR move was a prelude to the lifting of the total log ban in the 14 other regions.
"We knew it from the very start. This total log ban called by Malacaang last year was only meant for publicity and PR-related campaigns to offset public outrage and shift public opinion in favor of the DENR and the Office of the President," Pamalakaya information officer Gerry Albert Corpuz said in a statement.
"Defensor and President Macapagal-Arroyo should be held responsible if a repeat of last year's tragedy in Aurora and northern Quezon happens in Regions 11 and Caraga," he said.
Environmental groups said the new logging scheme showed the government's lack of interest and political will in protecting the country's forests.
Greenpeace and Haribon maintained that only a total commercial log ban would save the country's remaining 20-percent forest cover.
"Of course, the government will allow logging in areas where there are still forests. What this signals is that the government is not into protecting our natural forests," Von Hernandez, Greenpeace campaigns director for Southeast Asia, said in a phone interview.
Business as usual
Hernandez said the new scheme limiting logging operations to three regions was actually nothing new.
"It's business as usual. The new scheme is basically just a continuation of the old scheme. Only now, logging is more focused on pockets of forests in the regions," Hernandez said.
Haribon executive director Anabelle Plantilla said the country needed a 45-percent forest cover to regulate the ecological processes, or more than twice the existing forest cover.
"Whatever we have left, just leave it alone. We need to bite the bullet at some point," Plantilla said, adding that the government should instead push for plantations.
"Why can't they establish more tree plantations? If they had started planting before the law was passed, the trees should have been grown by now," she said.
She expressed concern that the government would expand logging operations to other regions when the forests of Mindanao had been consumed.
Plantilla recalled that the Visayas had the least forest cover left because its natural resources were the first to be exploited for commercial purposes.
Both groups said they would not waver in their advocacy for a total commercial log ban.
Assurance
Defensor assured critics that the government would not expand the lifting of the log ban to the rest of the country.
"They have our assurance. There will be no other regions but those that can compensate the wood requirement," he said.
He said the logging operations would be limited to only three regions that have the capacity to supply the local wood requirement of 3 million cubic meters.
This requirement can be supplied by 1.5 million to 2 million-ha of forest, according to a study by the Asian Development Bank often cited by the DENR.
Region 11 has 100,000-ha of forest land covered by logging permits, while Caraga has 150,000-ha. This would expand as logging resumes, Defensor said.
Evaresto Narvajes, president of Philippine Wood Industries Inc., expressed gratitude to Ms Arroyo for lifting the ban.
"That's very good news for Mindanao, for the workers," Narvajes said.
He said the three-month log ban had caused dislocation in the wood industry. "I hope the President will be convinced to lift the same in all areas."
Illegal logging
But Bishop Nereo Odchimar of the Diocese of Surigao del Sur said that despite the President's order, the Church would continue its fight against illegal logging in the province.
Odchimar said logging concessions were using their timber licenses as fronts for illegal logging activities.
On Friday, tensions ran high in the province after church people and several groups blocked the gates of logging firm Surigao Development Corp. (Sudercor) in Lanuza town, Surigao del Sur.
In Davao City, Rex Linao, co-convenor of the Panaghoy sa Kinaiyahan-Coalition for Mother Earth, said the government should protect the remaining trees still standing in Mindanao.
"It's good to remind Secretary Mike Defensor that for decades, the government has always favored the interest of the food and furniture industry players," Linao said.
"They're saying that there are still trees left in the regions. Do they have data to prove that 54 percent of the forested area of the country's logging areas still meet ecological balance?" he asked.
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