‘Philippines wood production can grow into a $20 billion industry’

MANILA, Philippines — The local wood industry has the potential to grow an initial $20 billion if the government will push for laws that will boost the sector while ensuring that the environment is equally valued.

The Philippine Wood Producers Association said the sector could earn $20 billion if at least one million hectares of the country’s nine million hectares of barren forest land will be reforested.

“This is good for the environment and good for the economy. We need sustainable tree farming in the Philippines and we need help from regulators,” PWPA chairman Charlie Liu said in a briefing during the Philippine Wood Expo 2019 yesterday.

Businessmen also need sovereign guarantee to invest in reforestation and it normally takes 10 to 15 years before trees grow,” he said.

A huge chunk of wood supply in the Philippines still comes from importation. Last year, the country imported one million cubic meters of wood valued at $200 million to $300 million as part of the construction and furniture industries.

The country imports from Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Eastern Europe, Canada, USA, Russia and Ukraine, among others. The Philippines used to export wood back in the 1980s.

“We used to export our natural forest products but laws during that time highly regulate the extraction and processing and sales of these natural forest products. But now, we have a lot of areas available and yet we do not have trees,” Liu said.

The industry has three major laws that need to be passed to propel its growth.

These are the National Land Use Act aimed at delineating forest lands from non-forest lands, Forest Limits Bill which will determine protected natural forest from those for tree farming, and the Sustainable Forest Management Act that will manage plantation forests.

“These laws have been filed several times in Congress for more than 10 years already and we really need the help of Congress to pass these laws,” Liu said.

“What we can produce domestic, we can process and export for a much better value. We can develop the market,” he said.