Illegal logging in Cagayan down by 90%, says environment officer

TUGUEGARAO, Philippines – If a community environment officer in the northern province of Cagayan is to be believed, the snippets of good news coming from the anti-illegal logging front breathes a fresh air of hope to people fighting for the preservation of the country’s few remaining lush forest cover. A report from the Community Environment and Natural Resources Office (Cenro) of Sanchez Mira town have shown that incidences of timber poaching seemed to have slowed down as evidenced by the slump in recorded arrests by the local police. Vicente Bayucan, Cenro head of Sanchez Mira, said the downtrend in the apprehension of trucks loaded with suspected illegally cut logs plying the northern parts of the province has fallen to about 90 percent. In a radio interview, Bayucan stated that to date, joint efforts by the police and the illegal logging task force in their area have bagged only about 1,000 board feet compared to the nearly 10,000 board feet of poached lumber apprehended in December of last year. “The help of concerned citizens, local officials and the vigilance of the anti-illegal logging task force have helped a lot in our campaign against the proliferation of timber poaching," said Bayucan, adding that most of the apprehended trucks loaded with contraband came from neighboring Apayao province, passing through the town of Pamplona. As home to one of the country’s remaining and endangered bio-diversity areas, Cagayan’s forests are guarded only by a handful of forest rangers thinly spread over a combined area of 476.58 hectares of the Peñablanca protected land and seascape and Northern Sierra Madre Natural Park. “The government cannot solve the problem of illegal logging without the help of the community, that’s why we are calling on the people to be more vigilant in helping us fight forest degradation," Bayucan appealed. The perennial problem of illegal logging activities in the region, including the province of Isabela, have already taken its toll on the environment and has endangered the lives of many people countless times. - GMANews.TV