SPECIAL REPORT; Quo vadis, Phl forestry: From verdant paradise to wasteland

(Second part)

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine forest landscape has degenerated to the point that the country has become a heavy importer of logs and other wood products.

According to the National Statistics Office, the Philippines began heavily importing lumber and logs in 1989, bringing in about $40 million worth of wood resources.

Since 1996, the Philippines has depended on other countries for lumber and related resources: Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, China, Papua New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, Brazil and Germany.

From 1989 to 2003, the Philippines imported 7.7 million cubic meters of logs valued at $926 million.

“Normally, in the early stage of a country’s development, natural forests are regarded as expansion areas for agriculture, communities, and other development activities. Homestead, land for the landless, and other programs that opened up frontier areas for agriculture and new communities have contributed to the wanton destruction of forest resources,” former UPLB-College of Forestry dean Adolfo Revilla Jr. professor said.

But the despoilation could have been averted with proper and timely land classification and appropriate development programs.

“Note that land classification was entrusted to forestry authorities until the mid-1980s, and very little additional land was classified as ‘alienable and disposable’ after 1985,” he said.

Consider the following data:

As of 1951, some 9.6 million hectares of land had been classified as alienable and disposable. From 1951 to 1987, 4.5 million hectares more were added to bring the total to its current level of 14.1 million hectares.

Comparing rates of alienable and disposable classification and forest cover loss for the period 1970 to 1980, only 0.52 million hectares were classified as A and D lands while forest cover loss was estimated at 1.7 million hectares.

“For the 1972 to 1987 period, 1.36 million hectares were classified as A and D lands while forest cover loss was 2.4 million hectares,” Revilla pointed out.

It may not be long before Filipinos wake up to find that they no longer have bountiful natural forests to inherit from their “mountain killer” predecessors.

Not long ago, someone pessimistically projected that the Philippines could yet be the first Southeast Asian country to considerably, if not totally, lose its natural forests in this century.            

It took only a little more than four centuries for the Filipino and foreign forest destroyers – no thanks to Parity Rights – to wipe out about 22 million hectares of forests in the country from the Spanish colonization to the last years of the 20th century, according to a new book titled “Sustainable Forest Management in the Philippines.”

The book, authored by Revilla, reported that “the second-growth natural forests continue to decline.” The most rapacious and wanton “mountain killers” were the 20th century Filipinos, particularly those who had their heyday during the second half  of the period.

“The ‘dark decades’ of Philippine forestry had been the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. There was a time in the 1960s and 1970s when the average annual deforestation was as high as 300,000 hectares,” Revilla pointed out.        

He added: “Over the last decade, the rate was still high – about 100,000 hectares per year.”

Other data gleaned by The STAR from other sources such as the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Forest Management Bureau, showed that from 1990 to 2000, deforestation was still high but eventually decreased to 152,000 hectares a year during the 2000-2005 period.

To be concluded