|
Third of seven parts
A mechanism for valuing and
paying for the ecological services provided by forests should be
incorporated into the Sustainable Forest Management Law. Forests are
valuable in themselves. Their continued existence is necessary for
maintaining life and sustaining environmental stability. They
provide a source of water for irrigation, domestic use and
hydroelectric power. They clean the air of pollutants. They
stabilize climate and the soil. They act as flood and erosion
barrier. They provide economic gains to communities that gather
forest products. They are a source of medicine and food. They
preserve biodiversity. Considering that at least 30 percent of
medicines are sourced from plants, it is necessary to preserve
forests and their biodiversity as insurance against future pests and
diseases.
The SFM law should provide a
mechanism for valuing these services. If this is done, activities in
forests such as mining and logging will be not be considered solely
for the monetary benefits that they bring from permits and licenses
and employment opportunities. Biophysical and environmental services
that are lost when a forest is exploited should be considered in
analyzing their true costs and benefits. Thus, the law should
incorporate a provision on scientific resource valuation and the use
of fair and objective economic tools for valuing and paying for the
ecological services provided by forests.
Commercial logging and mining in
protection forests should be banned completely. Deforestation and
degradation of forests in the last five decades brought about by
persistent logging, and a policy environment that has significantly
reduced the forest cover of the Philippines. Although current
statistics show that the area recognized as forestlands is very
extensive (i.e. about 50 percent of the country’s total land
area), the area actually covered by forest is much less. In reality,
only 5.39 million hectares or 17.9 percent of the total land area is
covered with forest (Edwino Fernando, Restoring the Philippine
Rainforests, Haribon Policy Paper No. 2, CY 2005, Haribon
Foundation). Moreover, these statistics could be misleading because
of the loose definition of forests used in obtaining these figures.
Considering that very little forests are left, it is necessary to
impose stricter measures to protect forests. Commercial logging and
mining should, therefore, be totally banned.
There should be no harvesting in
our remaining natural and restored forests, even those that have
secondary growth and residual forests. Under government policies,
there is a total log ban in forested areas (see DENR A.O. 24, s.
1991) at elevation 1000 meters and higher with 50 percent slope,
where montane and mossy forests occur and the trees are small and
not commercially viable. Most harvesting happens in lower elevations
(see lowland dipterocarp forest) where trees are bigger and there
are remaining patches of secondary growth (i.e. logged-over areas).
Ecologically, this is not wise since different species occur at
different elevations and kinds of forest. All natural and restored
forests regardless of their location must be designated as
protection forests that must be protected and restored.
The law should have a transitory
provision that will cover protection forestlands formerly covered by
tenurial instruments that allowed for natural resource extraction.
There is a need for a clause in the SFM law that provides for new
management mechanisms for protection forestlands formerly covered by
tenurial instruments that allowed natural resource extraction. This
will ensure that all doubts about the intent of the law to allow
only very limited activities in protection forests, i.e. gathering
of non-timber forest products for survival and livelihood means.
Acts that were allowed under previous and expired tenurial
instruments should be expressly prohibited. The emphasis should be
in preserving protection forests. Any doubt about this intent should
be dispelled.
--To be continued
|
