Group backs regulated harvesting in production forests

A non-profit environmental organization, while strongly supporting the imposition of a total log ban in selected areas such as critical watersheds, high ecological risk areas, and other protected areas, is in favor of allowing regulated harvesting in production forests.

Based in Los Baños, Laguna, the Forest and Natural Resources Research Society of the Philippines (FORESPI) is a professional organization composed of researchers, scientists, and individuals involved in forestry and natural resources research.

FORESPI is strongly urging the government to allow regulated harvesting in production forest areas, including forest plantations in both public and private lands.

As an ex-officio member of the board of FORESPI, the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD), an agency of the Department of Science and Technology, advocates FORESPI’s stand that logging ban should be complete and absolute in "protection forests" but should not be applied in production forests. This means that total log ban should be applied only in watersheds and ecologically sensitive areas where harvesting operations would result in dire ecological consequences that will far outweigh the economic benefits.

In production forests, regulated harvesting, which involves the cutting of only mature and overmature trees, leads to the sustainability of benefits provided the volume harvested is not more than the growth of the forest resource base.

Managed in this manner, the forests can yield economic goods in perpetuity. Forest scientists call this "sustainable forest management."

Forest-based industries form part of the backbone of the Philippine economy. In 2003, the furniture sector earned $278 million from exports. Add to this the earnings from the local market which amounted to P17.87 billion in 2003, from P19.12 billion in 1999. A total log ban would kill this industry, throw about two million workers out of their jobs, and further worsen unemployment and poverty in the countryside, PCARRD said.

The main sources of raw materials for these industries are forest plantations. Out of the 403,263-cubic meter total log production in 2002, 78 percent (314, 293 cubic meters) came from tree plantations and 22 percent (88,791 cubic meters) from natural growth forests. A total log ban would strangle the wood-based industries and unfairly bankrupt tree plantation investors who could no longer harvest their crops to regain their capital.  It would also discourage private sector participation in replanting millions of hectares of denuded forestlands, which the government cannot reforest by itself due to budget constraints.

FORESPI believes that experts should urgently identify the "wrong" and "right" areas to log.  The "wrong" areas are the protected forests, such as critical watersheds and other high-risk zones.  The "right" areas are the plantation forests in ecologically benign areas that are intended to provide the needed raw material supplies of the wood-based industries. Forestry experts should be allowed to say where, when and how to do proper logging in the "right" areas.

For the "wrong" areas, protection should be given by reviewing the applicability of existing policies and implementing them correctly and honestly.

According to FORESPI, the national government should support well-trained foresters as stewards of the forest and other natural resources, provide them their basic needs, give proper incentives, and ensure that corruption in the field is properly addressed.

Finally, FORESPI appeals to the government to implement the logging ban in selected areas like vital watersheds, biodiversity reserves, other protected forests, and high-risk zones.  — Leila C. America, S&T Media Service