Illegal Logging Kills Philippine Forests

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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

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Forest Networking a Project of forests.org

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10/11/99

OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY

Environment News Service (ENS) continues its awesome coverage of

logging and forest issues with this report from the Philippines. ENS

is now providing news to the Forest World News Center--ForestNews Now

at http://www.forestworld.com/news/center.htm . The extent to which

Philippine forests have been reduced, and the threats posed to the

remaining remnants, is made clear. The liquidation of the Philippine

forest ecosystem is being repeated Worldwide in remaining large

forest expanses. With only 20% of the World's old growth prior to

human impact remaining, there is no excuse for this cut and run, boom

and bust mindset. The timber industry must be reigned in globally as

an urgent priority first step to ensure biodiversity and ecosystems

associated with remaining ancient forest wildernesses are not

squandered.

g.b.

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Title: Illegal Logging Kills PHILIPPINE Forests

Source: Environment News Service, http://www.ens.lycos.com/

Date: October 11, 1999

Byline: Michael Bengwayan

MANILA, Philippines, October 11, l999 (ENS) - The Philippines' once

sprawling 16 million hectares (39.5 million acres) of virgin forests

dominated by hardwoods is now down to only 700,000 hectares (1.7

million acres). The blame is falling on governments that over the

years have passed laws favorable to logging concessions and

implemented forest protection poorly.

The Philippines, with a deforestation rate of 1,900 hectares (4,695

acres) a day, will likely be completely denuded by 2025, forestry

experts predict.

"Unchecked illegal logging remains the main culprit," Philippine

senator Loren Legarda says. "Government negligence has prompted the

devastation of the forests. Much of the remaining forests have now

been invaded by commercial loggers," she said.

"Philippine forestry laws passed since 1930 have failed to provide

adequate security provisions for virgin and second growth forests,

thus the forests had virtually no protection at all. For instance,

there is only one forest guard for every 3,000 hectares (7,413 acres)

of forests," she said.

Much of the nation's forests were open-season to any logging company,

particularly on the islands of Mindanao and Northern Luzon. The

logging firms circumvented government forestry laws and corrupt local

officials enriched themselves.

A common practice was for firms to apply for a Timber Licensing

Agreement on areas exceeding those required by law and have these

areas sub-contracted by smaller loggers including those operating

illegally. Since the 1950s, many politicians were also in the logging

business, preventing forestry officials from implementing forestry

laws.

From 1972 to 1988, Legarda revealed that, "The logging industry

amassed US$42.85 billion in revenues at the rate of $2.65 billion a

year and laid to waste 8.57 million hectares (21.2 million acres) of

forests. Timber was not the only loss, but also natural habitats

which treasure much of important animal and plant biodiversity," she

said.

Over the same period, loggers destroyed 3.88 million hectares (9.6

million acres) of virgin forests, raking in $19.4 billion in income.

At the present rate of deforestation, less than seven per cent of

virgin and second growth forests will be left by 2010. By 2025, there

may be no Philippine forests to speak of left at all.

Reversing this trend is a gigantic, if not an impossible task,

considering the fact that the rate of reforestation, which is about

80,000 hectares (198,000 acres) a year, is far out-stripped by the

deforestation rate.

Legarda said that deforestation in the Philippines is the major

reason behind flooding, acute water shortages, rapid soil erosion,

siltation and mudslides that have proved costly not only to the

environment and properties but also in human lives.

To avoid such ecological disasters, "It is absolutely necessary for

the Philippine government to overhaul some forestry laws which have

outlived their usefulness, such as the 1975 Forestry Code, and

implement appropriate forestry laws with urgency and genuine

political will," Legarda stressed.

In 1990, the Philippine government borrowed US$325 million from the

Asian Development Bank for a national reforestation plan. It turned

out to be a failure.

The Ford Foundation and the Philippine umbrella organization of

environmental NGOs, the Upland NGO Assistance Committee (UNAC),

reported widespread corruption in the use of these funds.

Dr. Frances Korten, country representative for the Ford Foundation,

revealed that much of the funding was used by local politicians to

advance their own political agendas. Even within the government

environment agency many employees, including some directors, were

found to have personally profited from the funds. A large number of

the trees species planted were for short-term commercial purposes,

not for sustaining forests, Korten said.

UNAC said the reforestation program created "fly-by-night" NGOs which

had no technical expertise in reforestation. Many wasted the funds.

Even as then-Environment Secretary Fulgencio Factoran Jr. trumpeted

that the reforestation plan was a success, it turned out to be a

failure. Five years after its launching, many of the trees planted

were found out by NGOs to have died.

These problems prompted the Japan led Asian Development Bank (ADB) to

discontinue the second round of loans intended for further

reforestation.

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