EDITORIAL - Protecting forests

With El Niño drying up vegetation, grassfires have hit four woodlands, destroying hundreds of hectares of forests and crops. A fire believed to have started in a trekker’s camp continues to rage on Mt. Apo in Mindanao.

The fires have prompted officials of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to order all protected area management boards to draw up plans for protecting forests, including preventing and containing fires. The boards were directed to set up fire lines to prevent a blaze from spreading, and to train personnel and volunteers in managing fires. The DENR also wants a public awareness campaign on forest protection and fire prevention.

DENR officials have lamented the acute lack of personnel to protect forests, particularly in areas infested with armed threat groups. The government may consider augmenting this lack, at least in areas without armed threats, by tapping as forest custodians people who are on probation or on parole for various offenses. The forest duty can be considered as community service that can be credited to ease their penalties.

Convicts who are out on probation, whose sentences are up to six years, are required to report every month to a probation officer. There are approximately 40,000 of them nationwide, according to reports. Together with convicts who have been paroled and who must also report monthly to a parole officer, that means about 100,000 people who can be tapped to protect forests as part of their service to the community.

At the same time, the government must further improve firefighting capability. The responsibility for putting out grassfires lies not with the DENR but with the Bureau of Fire Protection under the Department of the Interior and Local Government. The BFP recently received more new fire trucks, which are needed in many communities. But putting out forest fires requires more specialized equipment including aerial assets. Preventing grassfires also requires efficient monitoring. The recent grassfires have destroyed large tracts of valuable forests. That loss should lead to better measures to prevent more destructive fires.