In my younger years, I remember logger friends who were making some good green bucks. Back then, the forestry sector was considered a major contributor to the country’s export earnings. For example, in 1980, the combined revenues of logs and processed wood products sold abroad earned $370 million, and was ranked fifth in terms of contribution to the nation’s income.
Not that we would want to return to that era when frenzied and wanton logging of our rich forests had reduced the mountain cover to mere spurts of green, and in the process destroying the natural habitat of a wide range of flora and fauna unique to the Philippines.
Nor do we want to continue a system where only the influential loggers get filthy rich and powerful earning green money for indiscriminate cutting, processing, and selling a natural resource that had been our ancestors’ legacy. Most of our old forests are already gone, and would take several centuries to grow back.
The timing could not have come at better time. From 20 million hectares of good solid forests in the 1900s, the country was down to seven million in the 90s. Now, the number has dropped to a little more than five million hectares despite the many interventions conceived by government.
Even with the logging bans, illicit operations – albeit in smaller doses – continue. Because anyone who has a little money can now acquire a small motorized chain saw, the kaingeros’ formerly trusty hack and saw have been substituted for a far more efficient machine.
Since the amended forestry code was implemented, the number of big-time logging operations decreased from a high of 500 in the 70s to a paltry dozen today. Of the remaining timber licenses still in force, very few are now operating.
The forestry code of 1987 shifted the onus of forestry care from the National Government to the local governments, from big business to community-based tree cooperatives, and from the cutting-and-selling operations to sustainable plantations.
The National Government, believing in the need to involve local communities in the protection of forests, devolved many of its functions to the local governments. The high cost of replanting forests, not to mention caring for them, though have been a major stumbling block to making the program a success.
Community-based forest plantations have been known to last only while funding, usually foreign grants, lasts. The money earned from tree nursery cooperative ventures is often not enough to sustain decent livelihood for the local communities involved.
Timber license agreements covering large tracts of land have become passé, and industrial tree plantation contracts are the in-thing now. But few investors are not keen on entering such agreements largely because of the bureaucracy involved in getting contracts, including arbitrary policy changes and uncertainties.
Many foresters and teachers, for example, were led into investing in forest plantations only to be stopped from harvesting their trees when the government issued a total log ban recently following the recent floods and landslides in Aurora and Quezon.
The 25-year tenure on industry tree plantations also has its limitations. Because of the relatively short contract period and insecurity of permit renewals, foresters prefer to plant fast-growing tree varieties that they can immediately harvest and not the hard woods that can replace primary forests.
More importantly, the prevalence of slash-and-burn activities is totally ignored as indicative of a worsening poverty in upland communities. Primary forests may be safe, but the raids on secondary forests will continue unabated if better livelihood opportunities for the rural poor are not created.
However, there is a need to provide better focus on how the country could solve its critical denudation problem. A first step could be to straighten out the sector’s long-term strategy to one that would protect old-growth forests while coaxing young trees to grow faster.
Private tree plantations also have a good potential to provide livelihood to poor communities while contributing to increasing the secondary forest cover. Perhaps, better policies could be put in place to encourage more investments like these.
Finally, there should be new strategies to ensure that community-based forestry management truly works. People in the barrios and small towns adjacent to watersheds and mountains are the country’s best bets to protecting the forests and bringing the green dream to reality.
A minimal tournament fee (P500 for club members) will be charged. In return, poker enthusiasts will get the opportunity to test and hone their skills in probability analysis, risk and reward assessment, and opponent psychology. The games are supervised by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor), the country’s gaming authority, to ensure high standards of card play and proper decorum.
Additional information about the tournaments is available from the Poker Club of the Philippines (c/o Cindy at telephone no. 8179092), or from its website at www.PokerClubofthePhilippines.com.
Should you wish to share any insights, write me at Link Edge, 4th Floor, 156 Valero Street, Salcedo Village, 1227 Makati City. Or e-mail me at reygamboa@linkedge.biz. If you wish to view the previous columns, you may visit my website at