No more transport permits for Aurora lumber dealers

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga – Amid reports of unabated illegal logging in the remaining forests of the Sierra Madre mountains, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has stopped the issuance of transport permits to lumber dealers without legitimate logging concessions in Aurora province.

“This is to ensure that they (lumber dealers) are not made fronts or market outlets for illegal loggers,” said newly installed DENR-Central Luzon executive director Antonio Principe.

DENR regional forest conservation chief Fred Sadueste, however, said most of the illegal logs reaching Aurora had apparently been taken from the forests of Quezon.

“Dingalan town in Aurora has been unfairly described as the hotbed of illegal logging when, in reality, illegal logging does not exist there. Dingalan is a mere pickup point for hot logs from the Sierra Madre and floated down the Umiray River by illegal loggers,” Sadueste said.

“Drifted woods are usually washed ashore the Dingalan side of the Umiray River, especially during the typhoon season,” he added.

Principe said his order also covered transport permits for manufactured wood, furniture, charcoal, and other forest products out of retrieved wood coming from Aurora for distribution to the neighboring provinces of Nueva Ecija, Bulacan, and Pampanga, including Metro Manila.

“We received marching orders to once and for all put a stop to all these recurring issues of illegal logging in the Sierra Madre. This time, we will not hesitate to apply the one-strike policy on erring DENR field officials, including those who failed to carry out this directive,” he said.

Principe said only five Industrial Forest Management Agreement (IFMA) holders are allowed to operate in 68,764 hectares of forests, mostly in northern Aurora.

These IFMA holders are Industries Development Corp. (48,877 hectares in Dilasag, Casiguran, and Dinalungan); Pacific Timber Export Corp. (9,280 hectares in Dilasag and Casiguran); Benson Realty Development Corp. (982 hectares in Diotorin, Bibayabay, and San Luis); San Roque Sawmill Corp. (995 hectares in Dikapinisan and San Luis); and CKY World Trading Inc. (8,630 hectares in Dipaculao).

“These timber concessionaires are also holders of lumber dealership permits, and given their annual allowable cut, should be able to supply the lumber and other wood requirements of Aurora and neighboring provinces,” Principe said.

He added: “By denying lumber dealers without logging concessions transport permits, DENR authorities expect to plug the exit of illegally sourced timber via the Umiray River, (which) separates Aurora from the province of Quezon in Southern Luzon.”

Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Joselito Atienza earlier said he would fire regional field officials in areas where complaints of illegal logging would be verified, even as he ordered them to submit weekly reports on illegal activities in their respective jurisdictions.

Atienza singled out illegal activities involving logging, mining and degradation of water bodies and protected areas as the priorities in his campaign for the protection and conservation of the environment in his almost three years with the DENR.

DENR records show that more than 70 percent of Aurora’s total land area of about 300,000 hectares remains forested, one of the highest in the country.

Last year’s sustained forest protection efforts in Central Luzon yielded some 107,087 board feet of assorted lumber and other wood products, down by 43 percent from the 189,000 board feet confiscated in 2007.   – With Ric Sapnu and Manny Galvez