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Thursday, December 15, 2005
Environment cancels 276 forestry deals
REGIONAL executive directors of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) nationwide have been ordered to scrap the contracts of erring timber companies operating in their areas of jurisdiction.
At least 276 forestry contracts nationwide have been ordered withdrawn by DENR Secretary Michael Defensor, after concerned firms were found to have violated what was stipulated in their contracts, to include poor reforestation performance, abandonment and failure to implement preparedness measures for forest fires. These contracts last up to 25 years.
"We are canceling tenurial agreements with corporations and individuals because some of them are not complying with DENR regulations. We hope that by next year, we can cancel the contracts of all violators and all those who abuse the regulations of the Department so that we can efficiently protect our forests," Defensor said.
Last year, Defensor ordered for an in-depth evaluation of existing tenurial instruments to weed out delinquent holders of Industrial Forest Management Agreement (IFMAs), Industrial Tree Plantation Lease Agreements (ITPLAs), and Community-Based Forest Management Agreements (CBFMAs).
The Regional Public Affairs Office of the DENR, in a press statement, said that around 233 of the 276 cancelled contracts are CBFMAs, 37 are IFMAs and six are ITPLAs.
The holders were found to have failed in conducting development and forest protection activities in their respective areas resulting to incidents of timber poaching and even forest fires.
Regions 11 and 2 were found to have the most areas with delinquent contracts.
The CBFMAs, it explained, are issued to organized upland communities, giving them the privilege to tap forest resources for livelihood activities in exchange of implementing forest conservation programs inside their concession areas.
ITPLA and IFMA, meanwhile, are issued in open and denuded public forests, including former logging concession areas operated by holders of Timber License Agreements.
Under these schemes, (contract) holders have to grow timber plantations and are allowed to harvest only what they planted, leaving the remaining trees left by former TLAs untouched.
The program has been established to restore the vegetative cover in denuded areas to increase supply of wood for forest-based industries.
The DENR said the country's total log production is 505,703 cubic meters while it spends about 347-million US dollars yearly to meet local wood demand. (JC)
(December 15, 2005 issue)
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