MANILA, Philippines — Last January, an angry President Rodrigo Duterte ordered a halt to all logging activities in the Zamboanga Peninsula to prevent destructive flooding and landslides linked to cutting of trees.
This ban came after he was briefed on forest denudation in the area during the onslaught of back-to-back typhoons Urduja and Vinta.
Duterte believes that widespread logging is the root cause of the catastrophic mudslides and flash floods that wreaked havoc in Mindanao late last year.
READ: President Duterte shuts down logging firms
Environmentalist organization Haribon Foundation welcomed the chief executive's order, saying it is necessary in areas in where biodiversity is threatened.
Despite government bans on timber harvesting and crackdowns on logging that started during the term President Corazon Aquino, illegal logging continues to this day.
Powerful logging interests and weak implementation of laws contribute to the continued degradation of the country's forests, which is losing approximately 47,000 hectares of forest cover every year, according to the data provided by the Forest Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
READ: Recovering the Philippines' forest cover
October 1988 – President Corazon Aquino places a tax on loggers to pay for a government program to plant new trees.
March 1989 – To curb deforestation in the country, Aquino announces a ban on timber exports.
May 1991 – The Department of Environment and Natural Resources issues Department Administrative Order 24 to shift logging from old-growth forests to second-growth or residual forests. Logging the old-growth (virgin) forests is prohibited starting January 1992. Commercial logging in secondary forests and plantations, however, is allowed under this order.
November 1991 – Typhoon Uring (international name: Thelma) wreaks havoc in Leyte, burying the province in water and debris. Hundreds of logs were among the debris that were flushed down due to flash floods that killed at least 4,000 people.
June 1992 – Aquino signs Republic Act 7586, or the National Integrated Protected Areas System Act. Although not specific to logging, it seeks the protection of select nature reserves, natural parks, wildlife sanctuaries and natural biotic areas.
December 2004 – President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo orders the cancellation of logging permits in Quezon province and the suspension all permits nationwide.
March 2005 – Environment Secretary Michael Defensor lifts the suspension of timber harvesting in Zamboanga Peninsula, Davao region and CARAGA to address demand for wood.
February 2011 – President Benigno Aquino III signs Executive Order 23, which declared a moratorium on the cutting and harvesting of timber in natural and residual forests nationwide to address the continuing problem of deforestation. The EO, however, allowed logging in plantation forests or forests planted by man.
EO 23 also mandates the creation of anti-illegal logging task force.
February 2011 – Aquino declared the implementation of the National Greening Program as a government priority when he signed Executive Order 26. The forest rehabilitation program aimed to plant 1.5 billion trees on 1.5 million hectares of forest lands nationwide from 2011 to 2016. A total of 1.6 million hectares of forest lands have been rehabilitated under the NGP as of December 2017.
November 2015 – The Aquino administration issued Executive Order 193 or the Expanded National Greening Program, which extended the NGP to 2028. ENGP was also expanded to cover all the remaining unproductive, denuded and degraded forestlands.
Under the ENGP, the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte targets to reforest around 1.2 million hectares between 2017 to 2022.
February 2017 – Duterte ordered the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Department of Agriculture and the Department of the Interior and Local Government to study total log ban.
January 2018 – Duterte orders a halt to all logging activities in the Zamboanga Peninsula after he was briefed about massive forest denudation there.