Manila Bulletin, Philippines : Gozun suspends licenses to cut trees

01/15/2003

Gozun suspends licenses to cut trees

By Edmer F. Panesa

Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Elisea G. Gozun has ordered the suspension of all licenses to cut trees in areas covered by community-based forest management agreements (CBFMA) earlier issued by the government.

In an effort to combat illegal logging in the country, Gozun ordered all regional offices to suspend all resource use permits (RUPs), whether old or new, following reports that RUPs are being abused by some of the recipients.
“In view of persistent reports and allegations on abuses committed in the issuance and operations of RUPs, the issuance of new RUPs is hereby suspended. Likewise, all timber harvesting operations in both forest plantations and natural forests under existing RUPs are hereby suspended immediately,” Gozun said in a memorandum.
Gozun asked the Forest Management Bureau (FMB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the agency’s operations offices to assess the RUP permitting process in the context of the original intentions of the CBFM strategy and to evaluate the RUP issuance by their respective offices in the last five years.
The CBFM was created in 1995 by then President Fidel V. Ramos as the “national strategy for sustainable forestry and social equity” to address rural-upland poverty, inequity and forest depletion, based on the concept of “people first and sustainable forestry will follow.”
It gave organized communities the right and responsibility to directly manage and benefit from forest resources.
CBFM, which covers 25 years and renewable for another 25, is a pact between the DENR and people’s organizations. It is aimed at providing tenurial security and incentives to develop, use and manage specific portions of forest lands.
The program met relative success through the years, except for some cases where CBFMs were abused by profiteering illegal loggers and, sometimes, by the people’s organizations themselves.
However, with Gozun’s new DENR order, RUP holders are allowed to dispose of existing timber stocks that have already been harvested, provided that a stock inventory and verification, including validation of the legitimacy of market outlets under each RUP are conducted by regional personnel of the DENR.
“The assigned regional staff of the DENR tasked to do the inventory will be fully responsible for the integrity of the inventories and validation reports, and shall be liable for any deliberate distortion of data,” Gozun said.