Illegal logging 'hotspots' reduced by 84 pct: official

MANILA, Philippines (Xinhua) - The number of illegal logging "hotspots" in the Philippines has been significantly reduced and the national government is eyeing to increase the forest cover to 30 percent of the country's land area by 2016, a senior government official said here today.

Demetrio Ignacio, undersecretary of the Philippine Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), made the remarks as the country joined the world in the Earth Day celebration.

He said the number of illegal logging hotspots nationwide was cut by 84 percent, from 197 municipalities to 31 municipalities.

"We believe that the logging ban and intensified enforcement have been able to significantly deter illegal logging," he said.

In order to stop the depletion of the Philippine forests, President Benigno S. Aquino III has imposed a logging ban in all natural forests nationwide.

With the intensified enforcement, Ignacio said, the DENR was able to apprehend and confiscate 25.5 million board feet of illegally-cut and processed forest products and filed 1,233 cases in courts, with 186 persons convicted.

He also said that with the National Greening Program, where the government intends to plant 1.5 billion trees in 1.5 million hectares in six years, the Aquino administration has already planted more than 683,000 hectares with roughly 400 million trees over the past three years.

By the end of the program, he said, the Philippine government " would have reversed our forest situation whereby we will then have more forest areas than degraded areas and will increase our forest cover from 24 percent to 30 percent of our land area."