DENR, wood producers to put up ‘clearing house’

As another step to fight illegal logging, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is setting up a "clearing house" with the help of the country’s top wood processors to monitor logs and the legitimacy of their sources, species and volume.

"The clearing house is a mechanism of check and balance where the interest of log suppliers, log buyers and wood processors are protected in the mutual pursuit of economic activities and environmental protection," said Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Heherson Alvarez.

Last Friday, Alvarez and officials of the Philippine Wood Producers Association (PWPA) signed a memorandum of agreement to establish a joint interim clearing house in Region 13 (Caraga) to ensure that forest products in wood processing plants and mills there come from legitimate sources.

Caraga was chosen for the pilot test after a composite team of the DENR, the Army and Philippine National Police seized P30 million worth of "hot" logs along the Agusan River last month.

Alvarez said the clearing house will also organize, supervise and mobilize roving teams that will check and validate log shipments from mill to mill before the logs are scaled and processed.

The DENR will organize the clearing house and designate four monitoring teams. The PWPA, for its part, will put up and manage a trust fund to support the operations of the clearing house.

The PWPA will also recommend to the DENR disciplinary and legal actions against any of its members found violating forestry laws and regulations.

The PWPA is the national association of manufacturers of lumber, veneer and plywood, pulp and paper and other wood products, as well as companies importing, exporting and distributing forest products.