DENR, Dr. Jeckel and Mr. Hyde: On serving two Masters

Blogger's Note: Here we go again. Due to political pressures and the need to be confirmed, DENR Secretary Michael Defensor is backtracking on the logging ban. Senator Jamby Madrigal's soulmate needs to satisfy the whims of the logging clans-congressmen to be confirmed by the Commission of Appointments. This is the problem of appointing politicians rather than technocrats, they are fallable to pressures to look good in public. A friend of mine says that a child can wish to be a doctor, a forester, an engineer or businessman. But if a child wants to be all of that, he should wished to be a politician. A balimbing or chameleon if he wants.

Another thing that the two attached articles stresses is that the DENR is Janus agency, one component is to protect our natural resources and the other is to exploit our natural resources. Because of these conflicting roles, its actions and decisions are always blighted, sham and confusing. Its about time we cut the chord connecting Dr. Jeckel and Mr. Hyde. 8-)

AN AGENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION
Posted 00:11am (Mla time) Mar 09, 2005 By Amando Doronila, Inquirer News Service

THE DEPARTMENT of Environment and Natural Resources on Monday lived up to its notorious reputation as an agent facilitating environmental destruction by lifting the suspension of commercial logging in the heartland of the country's remaining and narrowly shrunk forest cover: Region 11 and Caraga, both in Mindanao.
Environment Secretary Michael Defensor issued a memorandum allowing the resumption of logging in Mindanao's timberland belt following a visit to Butuan City, where President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo announced the lifting of the total logging ban in Mindanao.

The President said she authorized logging in the two regions "because thousands of poor families are suffering in areas where alternate means of livelihood are not yet available." The ban was lifted apparently in response to the pressure of the Philippine furniture industry, which claimed that the ban endangered the jobs of 1.8 million workers in the industry. The interest group, Philippine Wood Industries Inc., hailed the lifting of the ban, saying it is "very good news for Mindanao, for the workers."

But having already been given a big bite, it clamored for more-the whole leg and arm. Saying the three-month ban has caused dislocation in the wood industry, its spokesperson expressed hope that the President would "lift the same in all areas," which means in the 14 other regions whose forests have been nearly totally depleted.

What was good news for the wood industries was bad news for the environmentalists, such as Greenpeace and Haribon. Greenpeace said selective logging was "business as usual," with logging now "more focused on [remaining] pockets of forests in the regions." Haribon said that "whatever we have left, just leave it alone."
The ban was lifted just three months after the disastrous floods and landslides last December in the provinces of Aurora, Quezon and Nueva Ecija, which killed hundreds of people. The disaster was blamed on logging in the Sierra Madre mountain range.

Caraga is made up of Agusan del Norte, Agusan del Sur, Surigao del Sur and Surigao del Norte, and Region 11 of Davao Oriental, Compostela Valley, Davao del Sur and Davao del Norte. The two regions are home to the economically powerful logging tycoons who have built political dynasties based on logging concessions, which for generations since the 1950s, prospered on timber exports, one of the top 10 export earners of the country in a period of heavy depletion of natural resources.

With the resumption of logging in the two regions, the administration finds itself in a difficult position to justify its decision. There are a number of issues that demand satisfactory explanations.

First, the remaining forest cover of the Philippines is 7.2 million hectares. The DENR deludes itself with the statistical data that the Philippines has a potential for reforestation of around five million hectares. The rate of replanting, under a forest management program, is ridiculously low. Only 400,000 hectares have been reforested under this program, whose success depends entirely on private forest concession holders' initiatives. The record of government forest replanting initiatives is something to be ashamed of.

Haribon argues that a 45 percent forest cover is needed to achieve ecological balance and that no less than a total log ban can save the remaining 20 percent forest cover.

Second, Defensor has a narrow view of forest resource utilization and is biased in favor of logging interests. He tried to assure critics that the government would not expand the lifting of the log ban to other regions. "They have our assurance," he said. "This will be limited to only three regions but those that can compensate the wood requirement." He is also considering resumption of logging in a third region, probably Region 9 (Zamboanga) or the Cordillera Autonomous Region.

The assurance leaves no room for comfort. According to Defensor, log production in Regions 9 and 11 would meet the wood industry's requirement of three million cubic meters a year. Considering the industry's appetite for wood and giving allowance for growth in the industry's output, its wood requirement is unlikely to remain static.

Third, Defensor invokes a weak argument for the lifting of the ban. He said the government could not maintain the total log ban because the law allows selective logging in the country. The total ban was imposed in December, with the argument that it was in response to a natural disaster. The government can always find a good reason for sustaining the ban on grounds of long-term national interests. The issue is not want of a good reason but want of political will.

The imposition of the total ban last December was partly a public relations gesture, to make it appear that the administration was sensitive to a human disaster and was heeding public opinion against the consequences of forest depletion. Defensor offers the lame excuse that the government could be sued by interest groups if it maintained the ban. But it has the means to defend itself from such capricious suits. And then he shifts the responsibility to Congress by saying, "If the lawmakers want a total log ban, they must first amend the law."

Fourth, Defensor cites a study by the Asian Development Bank indicating that the country needs only 1.5 million to 2.3 million hectares of forest for its wood requirements. The brunt of this demand falls on the three regions forming the county's last forest frontier. The emphasis of policy is to shrink the forest reserves further. Scarcely anything is mentioned about leaning on concessioners to replant their areas, under the so-called "sustainable forest management" scheme.

©2005 www.inq7.net all rights reserved
This story was taken from www.inq7.nethttp://news.inq7.net/opinion/index.php?index=2&story_id=29859

ENVIRONMENTAL DEPARTMENT HAS CONTRADICTORY FUNCTIONS
Posted 00:36am (Mla time) Mar 09, 2005 By Neal Cruz, Inquirer News Service
THE FEW filthy rich loggers have won over the rest of the Filipino nation who want to save the remaining forests in the Philippines. Environment Secretary Michael Defensor has lifted the total log ban imposed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo last Dec. 8 after the floods and landslides that wiped off the face of the earth villages in Quezon, Aurora and Nueva Ecija and killed hundreds of people and rendered tens of thousands more homeless.
The disasters were caused by rampant logging on the mountains, as did the flood that also buried Ormoc earlier. But the dead have been buried and the disasters are no longer on the front pages, so it is now safe for Defensor to allow logging again, with nary a whimper from the President who had imposed the total ban.

Besides, Defensor has no choice. The loggers and wood producers have been waging a campaign for the resumption of logging, and among their most ardent defenders and boosters is Surigao Rep. Prospero Pichay.
Who is Pichay? Why, he is the chair of the Commission on Appointments. And Defensor has not yet been confirmed by the CA. In fact, the two of them went together to the Caraga Region in Mindanao to lift the suspension of logging there and in Regions 9 (Davao provinces) and Region 11 (Zamboanga Peninsula). Some of the country's biggest loggers are in Surigao, Pichay's home province.

Defensor said he chose to allow logging in the three regions because "they enjoyed constant rainfall, which helps in the natural growth of forests." That is the environment secretary speaking. But any student will tell him that there is plenty of rainfall in tropical rainforests precisely because the forests are there. The trees give off plenty of oxygen, which rises to the sky and forms the clouds that condense into rain. Cut the trees and the rains will stop.
So when logging is allowed in the three regions, there won't be "constant rainfall to help in the natural growth of forests." That is why denuded areas become semi-deserts. That is basic science.

There's another thing Defensor should know. In a photograph accompanying Monday's story on the lifting of the log ban, Defensor and reforestation czar Victor Corpus were shown loading seeds on a dispenser fitted on a Philippine Air Force helicopter in preparation for aerial seeding at the Angat watershed. What's wrong with that?
Well, it's the beginning of summer, which means this is the wrong time for seeding. The right time would be in late May, just before the rainy season. Every student also knows that, and therefore the environment secretary and reforestation czar also should. The rains will water the seeds and make them grow so that when the next dry season comes around, they will be big enough to withstand the heat and lack of water. Plant the seeds or seedling in summer and you only waste time, money and effort.

Defensor and Pichay, by the way, were invited to last Monday's Kapihan sa Manila media forum along with Rep. Juan Miguel Zubiri and Blas Tabaranza Jr. of Haribon, precisely to discuss the pros and cons of the log ban, but as I said, the two had to go to Mindanao to lift the log ban. The loggers were more important to them than explaining to the people why the suspension of logging is being lifted. Besides, it is difficult to defend that lifting against environmentalists Zubiri and Haribon.

Zubiri warned that because of the resumption of logging, more disasters would visit the Philippines. "Mark my words," he said, "when the heavy monsoon rains come in June and July, more villages will be devastated. Nature is already punishing us."

Tabaranza said that scientists all over the world consider the Philippines to be "on the verge of environmental collapse." In every international conference on the environment, delegates talk about the Philippines as a "hot spot," with about 190 species of birds on the verge of extinction. "We are in the top five disaster areas in the world," he added.

Tabaranza said Mindanao could no longer afford to lose its remaining forests. We have barely six million hectares of forests remaining all over the Philippines, which is long past the threshold of sustainability. "Regardless of their geographic or regional location, our remaining forests are in critical condition -- any further reduction can trigger major catastrophes," he said.

He said that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) failed to consider that these three regions "have many disaster prone areas." They also "hold 14 biodiversity areas (and) serve as the last frontiers of the Philippine eagle."

Instead of region-based logging, Haribon proposed:
1. A total ban on commercial logging nationwide.
2. Establishment of tree plantations to supply our domestic wood needs.
3. Vigorous reforestation to rehabilitate degraded watersheds.
4. Pursue a comprehensive land use program to determine possible timber production areas outside of the natural forests.
5. That the DENR stops being a mere regulatory agency and become a developmental one by catalyzing stakeholders, including LGUs, in forest conservation.

I think the original sin was combining "environment" and "natural resources" in one agency. The two have contradictory purposes: one protects the environment while the other exploits natural resources. The DENR has a split personality, a Jekyll-and-Hyde personality. Like the United States, we should have an Environment Protection Agency under the Office of the President whose main duty is to protect and preserve the environment.

©2005 www.inq7.net all rights reserved
This story was taken from www.inq7.nethttp://news.inq7.net/opinion/index.php?index=2&story_id=29864