I am quite reluctant to write
something around this topic because to me this a complex issue that
even today no single model actually exists. For years, this has been
the subject of debate and discussions among natural

I am quite reluctant to write
something around this topic because to me this is a complex issue that
even today no single model actually exists. For years, this has been
subject of debate and discussions among natural resource practitioners,
loggers and community leaders. 



While waiting for a ...

Philippine forest policy has gone towards a couple of directions, the past few years. One towards log ban whether total or selective and the other towards devolution of forest management. A no. of provinces has implemented a logging moratorium and have shown modest outcome. On the other hand, efforts in community manage forest show promising results for forest conservation and economic upliftment of the communities living near forests. Let us discuss log ban first.

The total log ban bill along with the selective log ban bill is an old story in the Philippine legislature. The first bill was filed under the Aquino administration by Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr. mandating a 25-year countrywide logging ban. After the Pimentel  bill, other bills sprouted advocating selective log on areas with 40% forest cover , with 30% forest cover and yet another bill for areas with 50% forest cover. Other lawmakers suggested a 12 year log ban. After years of debate and deliberation that even caused personal friction among legislators, a logging ban bill was never passed into law.

 After more than a decade, Senator Pimentel again filed a bill to ban all commercial logging for 25 years. The bill was passed after a   landslide in Quezon-Aurora that caused deaths and took nationwide attention. The landslide was mainly attributed to logging activity in the upland watershed. The resurrection of the bill meets opposition and difficulties.

I have no doubt on the intention of the bill in arresting the country old problem of deforestation and environmental degradation. There some points to ponder though.

Foremost is the plight of the IPs who cut and utilized trees in the forest. Their methods may no longer be sustainable due to already scarce resources and perhaps limited skills. Their timber utilization practices although tiny dot compared to the impact of the past logging concessionaires is always seen and environmentally destructive  and is always blamed for environment destruction.

Another challenge for a log ban policy is the effect it will it will cost to the wood industry. When logging was banned, thousands of jobs were lost and this contributed to the already cancerous problem of unemployment in the country. It also cause more dollar loss because we became an importer of wood raw materials for domestic consumption rather than exporter of raw material and finished wood products.

I am in favor of total commercial log ban if this means that all logging companies will be closed for operations. These should include the plantation forests set up by the logging companies as consolation for the enormous wealth they grabbed. The policy should only exempt privately owned or titled land with plantation trees. The government should recognize the IPs authority to utilize forest resources, including timber. Prohibiting them to utilize their resources they have protected only endangers the forest we protect. It will then open to indiscriminate illegal harvesting since local communities will have no stake in these resources.

My exposure with the Indigenous Peoples (IPs) in one CBFM site in Lantapan, Bukidnon and the retired logging employees of Lianga, Surigao del Sur has drawn me to the persisting issue of defining, who the community is in Community- based Forest Management programs?

In Mt Kitanglad there’s a conflict between two IP peoples organizations (PO), both claiming authority over a CBFM site. One PO claims they have greater authority as they are actual occupants of the contested area.  The other PO claims leadership over the entire IP territory of Mt Kitanglad and since the CBFM area is within the claimed territory the actual occupants of the contested site have to submit to this bigger IP leadership.

In addition, there are issues between tenured migrants being considered under the program as a legitimate community for forest management.  Some groups of IPs contested this because they claim themselves to be the “community” with rightful claim in the management forests.

The question of “who is the community in CBFM” is getting more and more attention today not only from different community forestry practitioners but more so with the government. There is now more literature about redefining the “community” and a continuous review of this definition along with the evolution of community forestry in the country.

The CBFM under the SAMMILIA federation of Surigao del Sur also underwent different conflicts in defining the “community” in CBFM Program. Locals argue that the rightful claimants or the “community” are the actual occupants of the area while others said that the IPs should have more legitimate claim. Still others contested that the displaced laborers of the previous company are the legitimate claimants because they are the “community” affected by the conversion from TLA to CBFM and that they are more adept in managing the area than any other groups or communities.

The SAMMILIA federation of primary cooperatives from four different municipalities covered by the claim now holds the legal rights to manage the CBFM area under the program. The federation, under the provisions of the program, is the “community” in CBFM. SAMMILIA is said to represent the communities since it is a federation of peoples cooperative and they said that IP community is part of the federation and well represented. On the other hand, accusations that most of these leaders and managers do not occupy any area in the CBFM continues. In addition, some said that most of these cooperatives are inactive or even non-existent at present; therefore the federation has no representation from the real “community”. The SAMMILIA leadership is said to have managed and resolved these conflict through the help of DENR and some politicians. They are said to have proven to be rightful community in CBFM.

    After a couple of days in Surigao, I continued my trip to Compostela Valley where I get to visit another CBFM site. I have been here a year ago. From the municipalty of Marihatag, my next stop was San Francisco, Agusan del Sur. San Frans as it is called by  locals is a lot different than it was years ago. There are more business establishments, clean wide road, more banks, more people and it seems that the local economy is booming. I heard it is going to be a city soon. Though it took me hours to get an air-conditioned  bus from the terminal, it pays to wait; it is a good cape from the dusty road of Surigao del Sur. I slept on my way toCompostela Valley. Actually, even in my sleep, I would know when I am already Comval. The temperature is quite different, its cooler, I do not know why, perhaps due to its higher elevation and higher density of vegetation.

    Comval gives me a feeling as if I am in the countryside of the US; maybe with more trees and rivers, it would feel like I’m in West Virginia. Comval has big four-lane road, not much residential houses along the road, there are sprouting seedling vendors, many big trucks passing by, and it’s foggy specially if you arrived late in the afternoon.  It is a very calm, still and cool place.

     There were however, some things I observed peculiar, there are more piled logs on the road now than before. There is only maybe an interval of 100 to 200 meters and there’s another   pile of cut logs on the road ready to be hauled. In fact, I saw many laborers loading trucks with logs and few trucks transporting them. Most of these logs were owned by big businessmen and other private individuals. Some people said  these logs came from privately owned lands. However, some of the informants I met that said that most of these came from the public land or from the TLA area of the previous companies.

    The increased demand for seedlings is perhaps the reason why many individuals ventured into selling seedlings. These seedling vendors along the road are privately owned and others are from cooperatives just like the one owned by SAROMCO. 

     After a short rest at Comval  hotel I visited the San Roque Multi –purpose Cooperative or SAROMCO. The cooperative is a CBFM holder in San Roque,Nabunturan, Compostela Valley. This cooperative gives a good impression to community forestry researchers. They seemed to have a successful CBFM program because they already have a  sawmill, they have implemented several government forestry programs and they have been assisted by organizations from the previous programs and projects. Lending institutions   offered and showed confidence for them, they have also a considerable stand of wood stocks ready for utilization, and perhaps they are one of the first CBFM holders having issued a Wood Processing Permit or (WPP). 

     At the back of this facade are terrible problems, anyone would not expect from a simple peoples organization. They are now facing a case filed against them for cuddling an illegal bandsaw and case from a certain businessman who lost his truck during one of their business operations. Aside from these, are other complications brought about by other business deals between them and other big-time businessmen. 

    Another problem they have is their RUP. They applied for RUP to utilize their harvestable gmelina yet they were trapped with bureaucracy and did not get the permit until now. According to them, the previous document needed was the stand and stock table, which they had a hard time completing. Today, the situation got even worst; they were required to present the tally sheet of the whole 30-50 hectares of gmelina plantation. This means that they need to scale again, rewrite, and collate the dimension and other statistics of every tree standing. That is no joke, each tree standing in harvestable stage has to be scaled. All these are expected to be completed by the grassroots cooperative without assistance fro m DENR. I ask why they would not request DENR’s help. They said that they have no money—and it is literally needed when you ask for help.

    Prior to the start of the plantation program, the common slogan “plant a hectare of gmelina tree for a million tomorrow” encouraged them to participate. Today, members are impatient and could no longer wait for their RUP.

     They wanted to reap from their hard labor of planting and maintaining these trees before they die—other members already died before they could even see the logs cut. The biggest worry today is that, by the time the RUP is granted all the harvestable trees might already been illegally cut and sold.

How long will SAROMCO  have to endure the cycle of red tape and legal battles? As of now the biggest question they have in order to comply with the technicalities required for their RUP is, how long it will take them finish the log tally sheets? They already consumed about 500 pages of yellow paper already and lots of tuba wine. Anyone please help!

A second thought on federation

    Most of the CBFM areas I have been to are  logged over areas of big logging companies with Timber Licence Agreements.  A TLA is a licence to utilize timber within government-declared timberland. Most, if not all, these TLAs were given to big corporations and businessmen. The document gave them the rights to cut, transport, and sell a certain volume of timber from the forest. They were also obligated to manage the area especially in replacing timber resources they extracted through the concession.

These corporations invest technology, big equipment and large financial capital for huge expected returns. They hired local people especially IPs living in the concession area to serve as laborers of the concessions. They paid dues to the tribal elders and taxes to the government. They also maintained the roads and bridges going to their concessions in order to make a smooth operation of harvesting and transporting logs. The concessions were accountable only to the national government who gave them the permit for the said venture. There are logging companies that did not comply with the agreed responsibilities. Others cut timber outside their allowed area of extraction. Others cut bigger volume of timber far beyond what is  allowed by the government. Still others have problems with the laborers because of the low wages they gave to their employees.

    The defunct Lianga Bay Logging Company Incorporated used to be one of the biggest TLA concessionaires in the province of Surigao del Sur. The company operated with decent profit and good reputation with the local people. According to the local people of the place, the company used to pay their workers higher than what the government offered for their own employees. Some people also said that the company owner was conscious of the impact that the enterprise gave to the environment and was very careful with the harvesting and transportation processes in order to reduce environmental damage.

    After some internal problem, the LBLCI was sold to other owners including a Marcos crony. Subsequently it was  sequestered by the government under the Aquino administration and eventually awarded to SAMMILIA under the Community Based Forest Management Program.

    The times for the TLAs are now gone and the forest management in the Philippines is going on the direction of decentralization and devolution through the Community-Based Forest Management (CBFM) program.

    SAMMILIA is a federation of cooperatives in the Municipalities of San Agustin, Marihatag, San Miguel and Lianga, which is now the CBFMA holder, who have the right to manage the 59,000 hectare of previously LBLCI logging concession area.

    According to the SAMMILIA leadership, they are not really earning the same way as the TLA holder who used to operate in the area. One reason is the very limited and irregular Allowable Cut that the government granted them. Another is the long processing of their Resource Use Permit, a periodical document necessary to continue the harvesting operation. The long wait of approval and the red tape and corruption within the DENR made it more difficult to profit with the enterprise. The lack of financial capital made it hard for them to dictate the price. They became dependent with the price imposed by the buyer who provided the operational capital.

     Despite this, the federation was able to maintain the roads and bridges going to their concession, which benefited upland communities within their concession area. They were also able to provide employment for people now working with their office, their nursery, reforestation, and with the harvesting of the timber.

    However, the federation is accused of being like the logging company who used to operated in the area and even worse. Local people accused the federation of many things like; harvesting beyond the allowed cutting limit, cutting timber outside the area allowed of operation, under pricing their timber, and being a dummy of a big businessman and politician.

     Like the logging corporation, few people run the federation and the members of the different cooperative have no say with the operation because of the lack of venue for member’s participation. The local communities within the CBFM Area, especially the IPs, have no participation except as laborers of the federation during harvesting and reforestation activities. On top of these, most of the planners and leaders of the federations lived at the town centers and most of them are logging executives during the heights of TLA concessions in the area.

 
    According to most of the local informants, “the federation is very much like TLA except for the name.” Some literally said that it is “the same dog with different collar.”