By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net
AURORA Representative Juan Edgardo Angara recently filed House Bill 137 seeking to require specific tree planting plans on both public and private lands.
Otherwise called the Tree for Legacy Act, HB 137 serves to improve forest management programs to sustain the country’s forest biodiversity.
Angara in a statement explained that the bill is a response to the rapid reduction of Philippine forests, which by 2010 could only amount to 266,666 hectares or six percent of the country’s total land area.
Angara cited reports from the non-government organization Haribon Foundation, which stated that the Philippine forest cover was at 21 million hectares during the 1990s. It was reduced to just 800,000 hectares by the turn of the decade.
He also gathered information from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources citing at least 30 areas with denuded forests in the Philippines that are prone to landslides and flooding.
“As a gross consequence, ecological and economic disasters have now become inevitable. It is very important in integrated watershed management,” Angara said.
August 29th, 2007 at 3:04 pm
House Bill 137 intention is good but I wonder if it touches the difficult part of strictly apprehending and punishing the illegal loggers that, to date, apparently continue to enjoy the fruits of their illegal activities. Otherwise, the bill, assuming it pass into law will only be a useless law. The call for saving our forests dates long back and politicians after politicians come and go with all their promises resulted to nothing but continued destructions of our forests. Total ban on logging must be implemented and must be implemented seriously if we really want to avoid natural disasters that are common to our country now. Tree planting alone cannot reverse the present condition of our forests.
August 30th, 2007 at 9:21 am
great on this!
August 30th, 2007 at 10:03 pm
[...] Inside Science : Solon files bill on forest management [...]
August 31st, 2007 at 10:17 am
let’s hope this gets implemented before it’s too late
September 1st, 2007 at 7:40 am
Nilo,
True enough, illegal loggers find their trade lucrative because this syndicate is protected by influential and even high officials. They will get what’s coming to them, and so would the highest man in DENR if by inaction or active action would be responsible for continued illegal logging. We do not forget what he did in Arroceros Park.
Forest and logging management will only be eased if we set actual forest boundaries which would be declared protected zones. Zoning of forest areas with aid of satellite imagery would reinforce this fact. Good resolution imagery of these protected zones must be open to public access and environmental groups must be given a copy of these zones. Plants in these respective forest areas must be of endemic (native) species with appropriate biodiversity native to the land.
Next would be logging management. There will be farm areas designated for commercial tree planting for logs. Harvest and planting should be in a “tiered” fashion , i.e. planting and harvest should be done sections at a time so that while some mature trees are harvested the rest are growing while new ones are planted. This would supply the continued need for wood but done in a sustainable manner.
Lowland areas already denuded and stripped may be allocated piecemeal (not in large tracts which the greedy oligarch will simply exploit and add to their already overflowing wealth) to individual farmer families for partial plant and forest replanting for commercial purposes. There must however be a master plan for a super-cooperative to handle training and agricultural support and for future harvests, hauling and trade for all the tree farmers in the vicinity.
Lastly of course which is the hardest is actual implementation and catching crooks who still engage in this activity. This must be a collective activity with cooperation among NGOs, media, police, army, forest rangers and farmer residents in the area.
All captured trucks and equipment used in illegal logging would be automatically confiscated and it’s engine and parts stripped and converted to be used as a forest patrol vehicles or for use in ranger stations in the area. The remaining chassis of the vehicle would be sold for scrap or cleaned then dropped in the ocean to serve as an artificial reef.
All high officials involved must be pounced by NGOs and make sure that they rot in jail.
Honestly this is a tall order but to tackle organized crime, which illegal logging belongs, there must also be an organized anti-crime movement.