Cancel logging permits, Angara urges

Opposition Sen. Edgardo Angara called yesterday for a review and the possible cancellation of some log-cutting agreements granted by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

Angara believes some of the agreements, supposedly intended to promote the sustainable use of forest resources, are being used as cover for illegal logging activities.

"The existing tenure instruments, such as the Integrated Forestry Management Agreements or IFMAs, only result in the systematic cutting of trees. We have to rethink the entire forest tenure agreements if we want to solve uncontrollable logging," he said.

Angara was present last Wednesday at one of the rare occasions when the Senate convened as a Committee of the Whole. The senators questioned DENR Secretary Michael Defensor during the hearing.

Angara said the granting of logging permits had become so unwieldy that private firms, individual loggers and even community-based organizations can resort to legal maneuverings to cut down trees without any concern for the impact of such activity on the environment.

He said the DENR should simplify the process of getting logging permits and cancel those that contribute to deforestation.

"Unless there’s a review and scrapping of these tenure agreements, all of the country’s old-growth timber will be gone in a few years," he said.