Defensor cancels 276 forest tenurial accords

Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Michael Defensor has cancelled 276 tenurial agreements in forest lands nationwide, signaling the start of efforts to streamline logging operations.

The cancellation of tenurial agreements came amid plans of the government to allow logging operations only within 1.5 million to 2.3 million hectares of forest lands nationwide.

Specifically, Defensor cancelled 43 timber license agreements (TLAs) and integrated forest management agreements (IFMAs), and 233 community-based forest management agreements (CBFMAs).

"The cancellation of these IFMAs, TLAs and CBFMAs is the result of our review since February in order to correct the system of tenurial agreements," Defensor said.

"This is only partial as the review (of the agreements) continues," he added.

According to Defensor, there are at least 8,000 forest tenurial agreement nationwide when he took over the helm of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in September last year.

Of the number, 200 are IFMAs and TLAs, 3,000 are socialized integrated forest management agreements (SIFMAs), and 5,000 are CBFMAs.

"Guarding the forests itself is hard enough already, considering that there is only a two-centavo budget for the forests per day... and then we still have to oversee the 8,000 tenurial agreements," Defensor said.

He said the bulk of these tenurial agreements were in Regions 2 (Cagayan Valley) and 11 (Southern Mindanao).

"Hindi namin kakayanin lahat ng ito (We cannot do all of these things) ... but we should make the companies strictly comply with DENR regulations," he said.

During the DENR’s review of the forest tenurial agreements, Defensor said many of them were found to have violated the terms and conditions of the agreements and provisions of various department administrative orders, and have had low or unsatisfactory performance.

He added that some CBFMAs were even used by illegal loggers.

Defensor said the 276 companies or entities, whose IFMAs, TLAs and CBFMAs were revoked, will be blacklisted and will no longer be allowed to operate ever again.

Defensor said the DENR is targeting to reduce logging operations across the country by 90 percent next year. 

The cancelled tenurial agreements, which cover at least three million hectares, merely comprise about 30 percent of the total logging operations in the country.

Defensor admitted that there is an impression that all logging operations, whether legal or illegal, cause the unwarranted radical degradation of the country’s forest cover.

"We have… to correct the logging situation in the country. We have to separate the loggers who faithfully comply with regulations from those who do not, the legal loggers from the illegal loggers," he said.

"The government has to show the people that legal, commercial logging could be efficient and sustainable," he added.