GMSS Humanities: The Threat of Logging in the Philippines

Kalamansig in Sultan Kudarat, Mindanao, houses a populace of 48,000 people. Decades of unsustainable practices and illegal tree logging had taken tolls on their livelihoods and food security. About half of Kalamansig’s residents were engaged in illegal logging inside its 40,000 hectares (ha) of forestlands. Significant plots of the forestlands were converted into farmlands. These activities attributed to the drastic decline of Kalamansig’s forest cover from 36,705 ha in 1987 to only 10,000 ha in 2003. The annual clearance of forestlands brought about approximately 2,000 lowland residents to fall as victims to flash floods each year during the wet season.

The recent Typhoon Mashi that battered Mindanao on December 17, 2011, had raised concerns on whether illegal logging had been responsible for exacerbating the impacts that the typhoon entailed. The Philippines President Benigno Aquino ordered an investigation to check out if violations to the logging ban had aggravated the damages inflicted by Typhoon Washi. On Febrauary 2010, President Aquino III declared a total log ban in the Philippines, but illegal logging activities persisted in northern Mindanao. Aquino’s Executive Order 23 discontinued the issuance of permits to any individuals to log trees across the Philippines, in response to widespread flooding and landslides in Mindanao, Eastern Visayas and Bicol regions. Under the executive order, the environment department is prohibited from distributing logging permits and contracts in all natural and residual forests. The prohibition also includes the renewal of tree-cutting permits in all forests across the Philippines.

Rampant logging activities in the mountainous regions of northern Mindanao could have caused the heavy flooding that Typhoon Washi entailed. The dwindling forest covers in the area failed to decelerate the flow of rainwater downstream into rivers, attributing to flash floods in the low lying areas. As of December 18 afternoon, the National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (NDRRMC) revealed that a total of 332 people were pronounced dead due to flash floods caused by Typhoon Washi. The latest tally on December 21 showed a total of 1,102 people who were confirmed dead, including 650 in Cagayan de Oro and another 283 in Illigan city. The rest of the death tolls were logged in other southern and central provinces. Many victims were swept away by huge logs that were rolled down from denuded mountains facing the two cities that were badly hit by the typhoon. Experts highlighted that unmitigated logging and deforestation were responsible for soil erosion and triggered mudslides. Tampering with the watersheds and forests have revealed the vulnerability of the people in the Philippines during such events. Efforts in cracking down on illegal logging would have to be stepped up in order to prevent further disastrous impacts in the future.

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Friday, December 23, 2011

The Threat of Logging in the Philippines