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Sunday, December 12, 2004
Deforestation: Of flashfloods and death
By Henrylito D. Tacio
HISTORY repeats itself. That is what happening to our country once more. The typhoons that came one after another--Unding, Violeta, Winnie, and Yoyong-left many people homeless; hundreds, if not thousands, are dead or missing.
A "nightmare happening all over again," one expert commented, referring to the tragedy that befell Ormoc City in November 1991. Some 5,000 people were reportedly killed as a result of landslides and floods caused by typhoon.
"We're reliving a nightmare," he pointed out. "It's all because we're losing our forests."
"Our forests are denuded, so that when it rains, the water go straight to the rivers and homes, causing flashfloods," Hernando Avellaneda, the mayor of General Nakar, told GMA Network's radio station zdBB.
He said that almost 40 percent of the people in his town depend on illegal logging for a living.
"The local government could only do so much to provide the people with honest jobs," he was quoted as saying by a national media.
Senate Minority Leader Aquilino "Nene" Q. Pimentel Jr. has the same idea in mind when he said: "We should have imposed a total log ban a long time ago to stop the loss and degradation of our forests. As a consequence of incessant forest destruction, our people are paying a heavy price in terms of loss of lives and properties."
President Arroyo readily agrees. "The series of landslide and flashfloods that hit several parts of the country should serve as a wake up call for us to join hands in preserving our environment and stepping up reforestation."
Generally, people equate flashfloods with deforestation. Is this true? Dr. Patrick Durst replies: "Whenever there is a catastrophic flood, people frequently jump to blame deforestation as the cause. This is rarely the case, although deforestation can exacerbate the impact.
"The usual basic cause of floods/landslides is simply too much rain occurring in too short a time," explained the regional forestry officer of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Bangkok.
This is the case with all major flooding in large river systems in China such as Yangtze and Mekong.
When the ground becomes fully saturated, no amount of vegetation can prevent water runoff, the FAO official said. Landslides are also common under such conditions, especially on steep, geologically unstable sites.
"Although deep-rooted trees can help secure soil and can help avoid landslides in some areas, certainly not every landslide is a result of having cut trees from an area," said Dr. Durst, who once served as a US Peace Corps volunteer in Bohol.
The reality is that with increased population, there are more and more people living and building infrastructure in areas that are highly vulnerable, he added. "This is why it appears that disasters are now more frequent and serious than in the past," he pointed out.
"Unfortunately, politicians, officials, journalists, and foresters too often jump to conclusions about such events without proper study and analysis of the real issues and circumstances surrounding them," he concluded.
Almost treeless
Meanwhile, the Philippines is almost treeless. Records from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) show that in the 1950s, three-fourths of the country was covered with forest.
When the late Ferdinand Marcos declared Martial Law in 1972, the figure had shrunk to half, and by 1988 only one quarter of the country's total land area was wooded--and less than a million hectares was considered virgin forest.
Today, the country is losing 119,000 hectares of its forest cover, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), an international group of environmentalists.
By the year 2014, there might be no more forest to speak of unless the situation is reversed. "Where have all our forests gone?" wondered Dr. Warlito Laquihon, former associate director of the Mindanao Baptist Rural Life Center (MBRLC) in southern Philippines.
"Never has this country been more in need of forests. Never have the forests been under greater pressure than they are today."
Logging, whether legal or illegal, has been cited as one of the primary culprits of the forest denudation in the country. "The attitude of loggers in this country has always been: get the trees before someone else does," commented one environmentalist.
This attitude puts a premium on short-term profits, but its effect is long-term irreversible environmental damage like decreased soil fertility, loss of groundwater, extended dry seasons, and flashflood.
"Logging is most ecologically destructive in the mountains, where most of our remaining forests can be found," said Dr. Laquihon. "It is next to impossible to replant trees on rocky mountainsides once their thin skin of topsoil has been washed away."
Vice President Noli de Castro urged Filipinos to learn from the past, particularly the lesson from the Ormoc tragedy. "Illegal logging was found to be the main contributor to that disaster," he reminded.
Armed forest rangers
"Illegal logging must now be placed in the order of most serious crimes against our people," said Arroyo in a statement. She directed the national police and the military to conduct "a nationwide crackdown on illegal loggers and their financiers."
To do this, police has decided to arm forest rangers in the country to deter illegal loggers. "This will be a deterrent. Now they [illegal loggers] will think twice," Philippine National Police (PNP) Director General Edgar Aglipay told reporters. "We will try to arm as many forest rangers [as we can] from our inventory."
Earlier said than done. In earlier news reports, Rep. Juan Miguel Zubiri of Bukidnon said that there are not enough forest rangers to watch the country's forestlands.
On the average, he said, there are only 300 forest rangers in each region. "Imagine an area the size of Mindanao having only 1,800 rangers in the whole island and you get the alarming picture," he said.
Not only that, they also lack the equipment to carry out their tasks. "Ninety nine percent of them don't have a vehicle; 99 percent don't have guns; 99 percent don't have firefighting equipment. They lack radios. They're only armed with rosaries," he said.
Other culprits
Aside from logging, other causes of deforestation in the Philippines are farming, forest fires, mining operations, geothermal explorations, dam construction and operation; and land development projects such as construction of subdivision, industrial estates, and commercial sites.
Volcanic eruptions have also devastated some of the country's forests. Ditto for typhoons, which have devastated considerable hectares of forest cover. The country's surging population has also contributed to the problem. At least a fourth of the total population live in the upland areas, where most trees are located.
Dr. Ernesto Guiang, of the Development Alternatives, Inc., urges: "We are now at the eleventh hour. We have to pay attention to the handwriting on the wall with respect to our forests."
(December 12, 2004 issue)
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