WE got an email from former UP-Diliman professor James V. LaFrankie, who holds a Harvard Ph.D in Biology. He has authored, co-authored and co-researched with other UP scientists several books. He is the author of Trees of Tropical Asia and co-author of the 2013 National Book Award winner Shades of Majesty: 88 Native Philippine Trees.
The urgent matter he wrote us about is the destruction of our forests by the Department of Energy and Natural Resources (DENR). It happened rather unwittingly. In that government agency’s effort to solve our serious ecological problem of deforestation, it decided to use a species of fast-growing tree--the so-called Bolivian mahogany--which has caused grave ecological damage to our country and will continue to do so if DENR does not desist spreading this enemy of our forests.
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