Notes on forest maintenance

LETTERS FROM THE AGNO
March L. Fianza

BAGUIO CITY -- City folk learned last week that the GSIS that also owned the lot beside the Baguio Convention Center where a mini Pine forest stands is no longer interested to pursue an agreement with the owners of SM to build commercial condotels right smack in that forest.

Why the change of mind is something good to find out. If the reason behind is because GSIS has realized at last that forests should not be sacrificed for money, then it may be safe to say that GSIS now is treading on PNoy’s “daang matuwid.”

Erstwhile Baguio Mayor Peter Rey Bautista then said that the mini Pine forest serves as the “lungs” of the city, and rightly so, all of us who wish to maintain that forest as such can now breathe a sigh of relief. That is good news.

Friends I asked agree that there are two main reasons for forest maintenance. One is preservation which is to look after the natural environment and biodiversity, and that forests should be protected not only for retaining water, but because they serve as carbon dioxide sinks that help mitigate global warming.

Second reason is conservation which is the control in the utilization of forest products so that these can be used more “sustainably longer,” instead of allowing them to be consumed quickly and disappear. In other words, control the use of forest products in order to have a steady supply of timber. This is more controversial.

Relative to the government’s fight for reservation and conservation of the country’s remaining forests, PNoy issued EO 23 that declared a moratorium on cutting and harvesting timber nationwide and also created the anti-logging task force.

But forest preservation and conservation may be good news for many, although not for some, especially for those who belong to an industry that relies on wood products.

Take the case of members of the wood processing industry. This sector says that wood is necessary for housing, building construction, manufacture of paper products, furniture and handicraft.

PNoy’s order came after visiting provinces hit recently by floods and landslides. This practically declared a logging ban all over the country.

But people who know more about the condition of the problem say that PNoy may have been ill-advised.

Dr. Rex Victor Cruz, dean of the UP College of Forestry and Natural Resources in Los Banos and part of the UN Working Group on Climate Change team that won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, said “a total logging ban is not the solution to flooding and landslides.”

Cruz stressed that “floods and landslides are caused by excessive rains and not by the lack of forests.”

As a result of the logging ban, illegal loggers and subsistence farmers will attack the forests and cut trees once these are abandoned by concessionaires that used to protect the areas.

And since these concessions would no longer be managed and guarded, the resultant effect would be greater damage to the forests that an ill-advised log ban seeks to protect.

Even the Society of Filipino Foresters that promotes sustainable forest management says that with EO23, preserving the forests will be more difficult as destruction will become worse since these areas will now be open to people that were once denied access.

True, with the admittance that the government does not have enough rangers to guard the forests, it is more difficult to keep at bay swarms of subsistence farmers that are coming from many directions.

To support their stand, the SFFI issued a statement saying "a logging ban will not necessarily stop nor even minimize flooding, mudflows and landslides altogether. The cases of floods in Albay, Camarines Sur, Samar, Agusan, Zamboanga, and the Davao provinces are the consequences of climate change manifested in prolonged and excessive rain rather than logging per se."

SFFI further said: “The recent floods in Australia and Brazil, which are countries more thickly forested than the Philippines, illustrate the fact that forests cannot prevent floods in the face of excessive and prolonged rainfall.”

The group said, an indefinite log ban looks good on paper and good also if it can be enforced. Certainly, since they are in the forefront when it comes to forest issues, they know that similar orders issued in the past “have not gone beyond political rhetoric, because both the environment police and residents in affected areas either cannot or would not enforce the ban.”

“How many tree-planting activities, launched with great fanfare by well-meaning politicians using public funds, have fizzled out because the saplings are not suited for the habitat or not properly maintained until they are firmly established?” the foresters ask.

In fact, that seems to be the trend now among subdivision housing developers. In their proposals, they include tree-planting activities as part of their program in environmental protection.

But in the city of Baguio, the case is different. While tree planting is indeed the most practical means in maintaining forest cover, water shortage in the city can be blamed to many other factors such as allowing squatters on forest lands to legitimize their occupation through TSA; the open pit mine at Loakan-Antamok has pulled down the level of water aquifers found in Busol which is just above it; and, Baguio has gone slow in checking the drilling of waterholes all over.

With an ever increasing population because of entry people who want to own lands in the city in addition to tolerated squatting, the demand for water becomes very, very big.

Baguio’s honorable officials do not have the will to stop TSA because this is the source of income for the city nu haan nga mapan ti bulsa, and cannot stopping squatting, the source of election votes, even if they know that the supply of water no matter how the Busol and Buyog forests are maintained, will never increase.

With PNoy’s order, the wood industry sector says that supply of wood will become limited; hence, motivation to circumvent the law becomes stronger.

Further, they are asking government to also look into the unchecked conversion of vast tracts of forested lands into residential, industrial or mining areas, which has contributed to the fast decrease of forested land areas.

I say again, that is true in Baguio where illegal squatting on portions of forest lands has been legalized through TSA that were awarded to the occupants to the disadvantage of legitimate claimants.

EO23 is powerful and extensive but it can also be abused when other members of the Task Force it created are not watching. Consider what happened to furniture makers in La Trinidad, Benguet.

As soon as PNoy issued the order, law agents immediately raided the furniture makers and hauled their finished furniture products. Naturally, the businessmen complained. To them, the warrant issued by the court was selective as no raids were conducted on wood carvers and handicraft industries.
“If PNoy’s EO23 includes the confiscation of wood furniture products, then the government might as well issue search warrants to all residential houses and confiscate all wood furniture that they see,” the businessmen said.

This is so because the government through the DENR said “it could declare as illegal mere possession of wood coming from trees in natural forests, particularly those lacking proper documents.”
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Landowners whose properties are affected by the operations of the Asin hydros are asking if the city that owns the mini-hydros can now bid out the facilities. They are stakeholders that have already waited for a considerable time.

I understand there was an agreement to have the facilities bided the soonest after the signing of the MOA. They are not in a hurry just because they want to get part of their share in the agreement but because many of the property owners are senior citizens.

They simply want the problem resolved at a time that they are still physically present and that they would not want to hand down unresolved problems to their children and grandchildren. In fact, some of them are very sick and are presently under medical care. Pray, no one dies while waiting for the city to act.

What is delaying the city from biding out the facilities is incomprehensible to them. They sometimes feel that they have been swindled. I wonder if they smell something fishy in the operations of the Asin hydros. – marchfianza777@yahoo.com