FOUR communal forests will be devolved to the different municipalities in Benguet this year.
The Benguet Provincial Environmental and Natural Resources Office said they have targeted this year four communal forests in the towns of Tublay and Buguias that will undergo physical inventory, assessment and documentation.
The four forests will soon be added to the six communal forests equipped with management plan ready to be devolved to the local government unit (LGU).
These forests include the Loo (Buguias) with 67.923 hectares, Atok (Poblacion) with 56 hectares, Bokod Central with 164 hectares, Ambassador(Tublay) with 34 hectares, Sagpat (Kibungan) with 21 hectares, and Sablan with 10 hectares.
Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Officer (Penro) Julio Lopez said they are working on the remaining 77 communal forests established in the region by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
"The management of communal forests is a devolved function under the local government code. The community will be equipped all the right to extract based on the communal forest management plan," said Lopez.
Lopez added that communal forests serve as watershed and source of logs. However, he acknowledged that squatting of illegal settlers and lack of budget have slowed down the pace of devolving management of communal forests to LGUs.
He said they have been negotiating voluntary demolition, but this was turned down by the settlers.
Benguet Penro Officer Julius Kollin said although they want to fast-track the turnover of communal forests to LGUs, they are still hampered by the lack of budget.