Philippines Joins East Asian Campaign to Protect Forests
Copyright 2001 Asia Pulse
September 12, 2001
MANILA, Sept 12 - The Philippines is joining other East Asian countries in a campaign to intensify protection of the region's forests through a rethinking of forest law enforcement and governance throughout the region.
This developed as Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Heherson T. Alvarez hied off to Indonesia Monday to attend the Ministerial Conference on Forest Law Enforcement and Governance-East Asia (MCFLEG-EA), which is being hosted by the World Bank Institute and the Government of Indonesia from September 11 to 13 in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia.
"In consonance with our war against illegal logging, the Philippines, through this summit, expects to share as well as learn lessons on forest law enforcement from the rest of our East Asian neighbors. We intend to heighten cooperation and coordination with our neighbors in finding solutions to problems confronting the forestry sector," Alvarez said. The country has an estimated six million hectares of forest lands, or only 19 percent of our total land area which needs to be reforested. It is considered way below the 40 percent forest cover requirement to maintain ecological balance and down from the 17 million hectares forest cover in the 1940s.
The East Asian Conference aims to share and explore the best current thinking on forest law enforcement. During the series of top-level meetings, senior forestry officials will deliberate and debate on previously identified issues concerning forest law enforcement and illegal logging.
Representatives from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as well as from the industry are also expected to contribute to the technical segment of the deliberations.
Prior to this, similar region-wide events have built up momentum for the ministerial summit including an East Asia symposium on law enforcement, a workshop on illegal logging, a planning meet last April 2-3, 2001 on forest law enforcement and governance, and a roundtable discussion on the same topic.
According to Alvarez, one of the most important highlights of this conference is the signing of a Ministerial Declaration of Commitment between environment and forestry ministers and secretaries of East Asian countries to address important issues of forest law enforcement.
"Most important of all, leaders all over East Asia are here to pledge for a common political statement declaring their commitment to protect the forests. In recent years, countries are awakening to the reality that the issue of forest protection is not merely an environmental issue," he stressed.
"In the final analysis, the protection of forests concerns the very survival of humanity since it is not only a source of timber but also a carbon sink, a watershed, and a sanctuary of crucial biodiversity," Alvarez added.