Legal logging decimates forests - group

DAVAO CITY, Philippines - Legal, not illegal, large-scale logging is the major culprit in deforestation. Lisa Ito of the Kalikasan-Philippine Network for the Environment (Kalikasan-PNE), during her presentation on the Philippine environmental situation for the Southern Mindanao Conference on the Environment held at the Holy Cross of Davao College Friday, said that in the 1900s, forest cover was estimated at 21 million hectares of 70 percent of the total land area. Yet a few decades of "development aggression" wiped out two-thirds of the forests. By 1999, forest cover was reduced to 18.3 percent of 800,000 hectares and is still decreasing at present. "Europe, Japan, and the United states demanded and encouraged the export of cheap and plentiful logs from underdeveloped countries in Asia and Latin America and the conversion of deforested areas into agricultural plantations for export crops," Ito said. She said FAO's State of the World's Forests 2007 reports a net forest loss of 20,000 hectares per day globally. In the Philippines, Ito said deforestation was a result of "colonial plunder of natural resources." "Since the American occupation, corporate and large-scale logging for exports and massive forest conversion were carried out as a government policy through Timber Licensing Agreements (TLAs)," Ito said. From 1920's to the late 1930's, the Philippines became a major exporter of tropical wood to the US and Japan. Forty-seven percent or 9.9 million hectares of original forests were destroyed in the period alone. "Philippine forests were nearly wiped out under the Marcos dictatorship under an unregulated logging industry caused by a combination of corruption, greed, and weak political institution. TLAs were liberally dispensed to Marcos cronies, relatives, military allies, and elite interests," Ito said. By the late 1980's, the Philippine was one of the most severely deforested areas in Asia but Ito said this state has worsened under the Arroyo administration. "The government has yet to implement a genuine and comprehensive reforestation program. It has one by one lifted log bans and farmed out commercial logging permits - TLAs and 23 Integrated Forest Management Agreement (Ifma) contracts from January 2001 to 2004," Ito said. Ito explained that Ifmas cover a total land area of 191,250.60 hectares and an Ifma contract allows the holder not just the right to timber but to all other forest products within the concession area. Ito added that as of their last check, the government has issued 201 Ifmas as of 2003 covering around 714,000 hectares of forestland. - Sun.Star Davao