Cutting trees

At the outset, allow me to state that I support the advocacy and intention of our friend Atty. Benjamin Cabrido when he asked the court to issue a Writ of Kalikasan, to stop the DPWH and the DENR from cutting trees.  After all, I did ask a lot of questions regarding that poor century-old tree near the Capitol which was decimated a couple of weeks ago.  I asked questions because there seems to be no palpable reason for doing so.

There are always differences of perspectives in any issue.  Ben and I and many others agree on the value of trees and what they represent of the entire environment itself, which nowadays is threatened by man and his “development.”  Someone said man is the only organism that thrives by destroying other species.  The number of plant and animal life threatened to extinction seem to validate that.  People are building cities – more and bigger, while leveling mountains and erasing rainforests forever from the face of the earth.

Allow me to state my perspective; hoping you will respect this, even as I will respect yours.  I am a believer of Scriptures; I believe that God created man in his own image to have a meaningful fellowship and relationship with him for all eternity.  He placed us over the entire creation to “rule and reign” and to be “fruitful.”  “The Lord God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed. Out of the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; …” (Gen. 2:8,9a).  “Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.” (Gen. 2:15).

From the beginning of time, man was designed by God to “tend” to trees and the whole of creation.  But certainly not for creation to be above man.  While God created man to care for trees, He gave us dominion over them.  “You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet,” (Psalms 8:6).  Man is above creation; he has both dominion and stewardship over it, and he must care for it, unless it threatens his own life.  If a tree is indeed life-threatening, then by all means, let us cut it, if there is no other way.  When God gave man the gift of knowledge of cultivation, He also gave the authority to harvest for man’s bodily needs.  Trees also serve man in his development and that has to be respected.

The problem is when people simply cut trees without explaining why, or not showing that it is the only available alternative.  They just cut and cut.  We should always remember that, while we have dominion, we are just but stewards of God’s creation.  We can cut when necessary and there is no other way.  And we should show to everybody that there is no other way.  More often than not, there is always another way.