EDITORIAL - Trees matter in the forests, not city streets

There is now an uproar over the uprooting of several ornamental trees and shrubs that used to grow on the center islands of Escario Street. The Cebu City government, which relocated the plants to its nursery, said there was no need to secure a permit for what it did and cited the legal basis for its action. But the Department of Environment and Natural Resources disagrees and cited its own legal basis for thinking otherwise.

The protagonists can see-saw back and forth with their arguments until the public loses interest. And then they will shut up. Which is just as well because nothing is truly won by arguments where the bone of contention requires action. The bone of contention is environmental protection, an area of concern over which, ironically, the DENR leaves too many failed expectations.

The Cebu City government is just the latest in a growing list of debating partners of the DENR. It appears that on the matter of environmental protection, debating over legalities is the preferred mode the DENR wishes to employ against any and all comers. But the fight for environmental protection is far removed from the cities. The cities are only good for debating because of the presence of media.

The real fight should be taken to the countrysides. It is in the countrysides where, on the issue of trees, there are significant numbers to tilt the balance either way on the matter of environmental protection. If the DENR really wants to protect trees, it should protect the trees in the countrysides because that is where their presence or absence can spell the difference between whether we still have atomorrow or not.

The DENR can win all the legal arguments and court battles it can over seven trees in the middle of some busy city street. But that does not even account for a drop in the bucket in the overall scheme of things. The DENR should not be mesmerized by the antics of a few pseudo environmental activists who merely want to stay in the media limelight but have never even set foot in some mountain fastness where the real war for the environment should be waged.

Out there in the countrysides, in the mountain fastness of our many outlying provinces, the rape of our forests continues to this day. Everyday, hundreds of trees are felled illegally, with nobody taking up the cudgels to protect them. Neither the environmental activists nor the DENR is bold enough to make a stand there where it matters. They are afraid to face the consequences of standing up to the illegal loggers.

It is better to fight in the cities, where all that is required is verbal calisthenics and an adeptness at legal argumentation. Never mind if the business of daily life is compromised and put on hold just so no one touches a tree that is all by its lonesome in the middle of some polluted highway, a tree already so sick it is bound to topple over soon anyway. Fighting for that tree may not save the earth but it can make the news. Properly documented, it can secure a grant or promotion.