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Manila Prepares Master Plan for Forest Development
FOREST village as well
halting the plunder of Philippine trees
Communities which depend on forests for livelihood and corporations logging it for profit will work h (J In hand with the governm< .. to reduce the Philippines deforestation rate to about 4.000 hectares a year in the next 25 years.
This is an ambitious plan for a country which has a deforestation rate today of about 100.000 hectares a year.
But convinced that forests remain the nation's centrepiece in the preservation of its environment,, the government's new Master Plan for forest Development has much more in mind
Reforestation is Its major concern, enlisting the support of local communities by recognising their access to forest resources. It believes that placed tn the hands of capable managers — mainly communities and logging companies — a 4,000-hectare annual deforestation rate Is attainable.
Without the kind of interventions It recommends, the Master Plan estimates deforestation will drop to only about 60.000 hectares a year. According to the government, deforestation decreased in recent years, from 300.000 hectares a year in the late 1960s lo 150.000 hectares in the 1980s
One reason for this is the sharp increase In reforestation. In 1989. it hit the 100.000 hectare mark, exceeding the annual deforestation rate. A National Forestation Programme hopes to reforest another 1.4 million hectares of denuded areas by the year 2000.
■-ogglng is banned In critical areas, including virgin forests in mountain with slopes above
45 degrees and 1.000 metres above sea level. Out of 159 Timber Licence Agreements Issued, only 62 remain.
The Master Plan fof Forestry Development will try to make a coherent approach in forestry. It was drawn up by the Department of Environ-
ment and Natural Resources (DENR) with the assistance of the Asian Development Bank and the Ftnrlish International Development Agency (F1NNIDA).
The Master Plan was prepared Jointly by the DENR and a team of private consultants — Jaakko Poyry Oy of Finland and MADECOR of the Philippines. The Master Plan will be reviewed by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation
The Philippines is working overtime to regain Its forest cover, or at least protect the remaining ones, in 1945. more than half (55 per cent ). or 16.6 million hectares of the country's land area were covered with forests
Today, only about 6,69 million hectares remain. Virgin forests total less than a million hectares. Some 1.79 million hectares are non-productive.
Inadequate forest development., management, and conservation efforts — combined with rampant logging, slash-and-burn fanning and fuclwood colk-cBon^ — resulted in the devastation of the country's forests Soil erosion, filiation. flash floods and drought followed.
Philippine forestry, and the consequences of its destruction. reflects he region's dilemma: preservation of the environment or fast-track development. As the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific notes, "economic and social development In the region has proceeded in recent decades with little concern for the environmental consequences."
The environment will be one of the Issues which Will be tackled by the Fourth Aslan and Pacific Ministerial Confer-
ence on Social Welfare and Social Development, to be held October 7 11 tn Manila
In recent years, concerns have been voiced over the plunder of the nation’s forests. Which fa why the Philippine Master Plan for Forestry De-
the remaining productive forests — about 2.5 million
Logging, for example, will be banned In 980.000 hectares of old and critical forests. These Include old growth trees, mossy and marginal forests, mangroves, swamps and national parks and reserves.
be reduced from today’s 2.4 mlllfon hectares to fess than one million hectares. Areas covered by grasslands will be reduced from 1.5 million hectares to nearly half a million hectares.
As a result according to the Master Plan, there will be a significant drop in soil erosion, from 2.2 billion tons a year to 1.3 billion tons a year by 2015.
Plantation areas for timber will Increase lo about 3 million hectares by 2015. Timber forests will be managed through a mix of operator-managers from local communities and corporations.
About 192.6 billion pesos (US66.9 billion) will be needed to Implement the Master Plan over 25 years, from 1991 to 2015. This means an average cost of 7.7 billion pesos per year.
The government will shoulder less than one-fourth (22.5 percent) of the total cost. Foreign financial aid will be a big component for the entire 25-year period — nearly half (45 percent) of the total cost.