DENR reviews all forest mgmt pacts

CEBU, Philippines - All existing Integrated Forest Management Agreements (IFMAs), Socialized Integrated Forest Management Agreements (SIFMAs), Community-Based Forest Management Agreements (CBFMs) and other agreements or contracts in Central Visayas are now reviewed and evaluated pursuant to the Executive Order (EO) 23 signed by President Benigno Aquino III on 1 February.

“With the issuance of Executive Order (EO) 23, President Aquino has effectively committed his administration to preserving a good balance of forest for perpetuity by shifting timber harvesting in tree plantations only,” said DENR-7 director Maximo O. Dichoso.

“We received instructions from DENR Central Office that pending the review and evaluation of all existing IFMAs, SIFMAs, CBFMAs and other forestry agreements or contracts to suspend the acceptance and processing of new and renewal or extension of Integrated Operations Plan and Annual Work Plan/Resource Use Permits in all natural and residual forests and application for Wood Processing Plant Permits such as sawmill, mini-sawmill, veneer and plywood plants,” Dichoso explained.

Further, he said the EO requires the suspension of cutting and harvesting of all existing tenure holders and permittees in natural and residual forests and issuance of transport documents for all logs cut and harvested within these areas prior to the issuance of the Order.

He added that transport documents shall be allowed only after proper inventory and upon clearance by the Office of the DENR Undersecretary for Field Operations.

“The Memorandum from DENR Undersecretary for Field Operations also instructs us to supervise the conduct of timber inventory of all logs cut and harvested prior to the issuance of EO 23 and the immediate pullout of all logging or cutting and hauling equipment from the areas programmed for logging operations in natural and residual forests,” Dichoso said.

“What P-Noy is saying is: leave the natural forest to future generations and, at least, let them thrive with their other uses like habitat for wildlife or gene pool for the country’s precious endemic flora and fauna species,” he explained.

With EO 23, Dichoso said timber extraction has now become a purely “what-you-plant-is-what-you-cut enterprise” especially for the 6 IFMA holders covering 7,986.93 hectares mostly in Negros Oriental; 212 CBFMA holders covering 57,419.431 hectares mostly in Negros Oriental; 19 SIFMA holders covering 2,700.9541 hectares mostly in Cebu.

“In summary, you cannot harvest what you did not plant,” he pointed out, referring to the order.

Natural and residual forests are forests composed of indigenous trees, not planted by man.

Dichoso said under the new regime in forest resource development, the country’s shift to tree plantation development has been given the needed push in recognizing the sustainability of tree plantations as a viable source of timber. — /WAB