MANILA, Philippines — Under Executive Order (EO) 23 issued on February 23, 2011, the Aquino administration committed itself to preserve the country’s remaining natural forest cover, by shifting timber harvesting only in tree plantations.

The recent massive floodings in the Visayas and Mindanao, however, left the public woning on whether President Benigno S. Aquino III’s directive was effective or not in stopping further forest destruction.

The December 16 flashfloods triggered by tropical storm “Sendong” (international name: Washi) left several communities in Northern Mindanao submerged, leaving over 1,000 people dead, and over 35,000 homeless, particularly in the cities of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan.

Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Ramon Paje said areas in Cagayan de Oro City that were submerged were previously declared highly-susceptible to floods in the geo-hazard map.

He stressed that despite EO 23 prohibiting the cutting of trees in natural forests, commercial logging still persists in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

Forest Management Bureau (FMB) Assistant Director Nonito Tamayo said the footages on television after the flashfloods show the extent of forest-related activities in Mindanao.

“Undeniably, television footages showed the disaster had something to do with logging. Secretary Paje had earlier claimed that illegal logging is happening outside the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) jurisdiction, which is in ARMM. Most of the logs swept away from the headwaters were actually from ARMM,” Tamayo claimed.

He noted that ARMM, being a sovereign region, has its own environment officials.

“The EOs being issued by President Aquino cover the ARMM, but the orders from the DENR secretary do not cover the ARMM,” Tamayo stressed, explaining that EO 23 should have been implemented in the autonomous region.

“Under EO 23 issued last February 4, the President declared a moratorium on all logging activities in residual and natural forests nationwide. We believe the ARMM is included because it is part of the Philippines,” he said.

EO 23 also prevents the DENR from issuing new logging permits.

Tamayo explained that in the 1990s, timber licensing agreements (TLAs) are granted to big corporations to cut logs from natural forests. Later on, the TLA was replaced by the Industrial Forest Management Agreement (IFMA), which basically requires the permit-holder to establish a forest plantation.

The IFMA replaced TLA, requiring to establish a forest plantation. If permit-holders were allowed to cut logs in old-growth forest under the TLA, they are only allowed to cut in the second-growth forest under the IFMA.

Based on last count, more than 1,000, but around 24 IFMAs nationwide are still operating, covering 1.02- million hectares of forestlands.

Earlier, Paje said that with EO 23, timber extraction is becoming a purely “what-you-plant-is-what-you-cut enterprise,” especially for the holders of the 25-year IFMAs.

Tamayo said Mindanao, especially the CARAGA Region, is the largest wood producer in the country, producing more than 50 percent of wood supplies nationwide.

The country consumes 1.3-million cubic meters of wood annually, but only 800,000 cubic meters is produced (70 percent from plantation, 30 percent from natural forest), while the remaining comes from other countries.

“Roughly 500,000 cubic meters are imported. Even without a logging ban, wood is produced from plantation because of the country’s limited natural forest cover,” he said.

At present, Tamayo noted that the country’s remaining forest cover is 7.16-million hectares out of 17.6- million hectares or 24 percent of the original forest cover in the 1930s.

But more than illegal logging activities, he said forest cover decline is basically triggered by population increase, land conversion, and upland migration.

However, intact forest cover still exists in Palawan, northeastern Sierra Madre mountain range, Kalinga, and Samar in Luzon, and the Visayas.

He said compared to Luzon and Visayas, “there are more intact forest covers in Mindanao, as well as in ARMM.

Though Mindanao produces a huge percentage of wood requirements in the country, it also recorded the most number of confiscated logs.

Tamayo said that as of last December 19, confiscation of illegally harvested logs from Region 10 alone reached 180,000 board feet this year, while 7-million board feet of illegally cut logs was seized from the CARAGA region over the same period.

The confiscated products are usually tanguile, lauan, bagtikan, yakan species, which are usually harvested from natural forests.

“We expected that forest protection will be a problem because of lack of wood supply, but high demand for it. It is more enticing for illegal loggers to continue their activities. But we were able to see a decline in the number of confiscated logs in the past months because of our serious forest protection,” he said.

“We are doing weekly monitoring of our forest. Before the issuance of EO 23, forest protection reporting is made only on a quarterly or semestral basis. We are monitoring compliancewithEO 23 on a weekly basis,” he said.