On laws regulating the modern-day wood butcher

(First of two parts)

OPA Hazendonk, my husband’s maternal grandfather, is quite the go-getter.

Instead of paying exorbitant gas expenses to keep the heater on in his house during The Netherlands’ cold months, Opa prefers to set ablaze pieces of wood in the small hearth in his living room. He regularly replenishes his stock of wood by cutting trees at the nearby forest.

On one of his trips to the forest, a municipal officer informed Opa that he could not cut any of the trees marked for disposal by the municipality since only a duly authorized person can do so. Opa did not have the corresponding permit so he went home… and came back to the forest 30 minutes later with his chainsaw. The municipal government will save more of the taxpayers’ money since he can cut these trees for free, instead of another person specifically hired for that purpose, Opa reasoned out.

While Opa’s garden shed overflows with chopped wood, pertinent laws continue to regulate tree-cutting activities in the Philippines.

Under the Forestry Reform Code, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ (DENR) Forest Management Bureau (FMB), then known as the Bureau of Forest Development, shall be responsible for, among others: (a) the implementation of multiple use and sustained yield management in forest lands; and (b) the regulation and supervision of the operation of licensees, lessees and permitees for the taking or use of forest products therefrom or the occupancy or use thereof.To this end, the FMB shall assess and consider the numerous beneficial uses of timber, land, soil, water, wildlife, grass and recreation or aesthetic value forest and grazing lands before they may be allowed to be utilized, exploited, occupied or taken into possession. Only such use of these lands, involving one or more of its resources, which will produce the optimum benefits to the development and progress of the country and the public welfare, without impairment or with the least injury to its resources, shall be allowed.

All forest reservations may be open to development or uses consistent with the principal objectives for their establishment. But, critical watersheds, national parks and established experimental forests shall not be subject to commercial logging or grazing operations.

A person may utilize, exploit, occupy, possess or conduct any activity within the forest or grazing land, or establish, install, add and operate any wood or forest products processing plant only after having been authorized to do so under a license agreement, license, lease or permit. In this regard, the DENR shall consider an application for a tree cutting permit upon submission of the following requirements: (a) duly accomplished application form; (b) authenticated copy of ownership to the land; (c) prescribed inventory fee under DENR Administrative Order (DAO) No. 2004-16; (d) Harvesting Development Plan; (e) endorsement from the appropriate barangay captain, municipal or city mayor, or provincial governor; and (f) Initial Environmental Examination (IEE), on which the Environmental Compliance Certificate shall be based.

This authority, however, does not preclude the President from amending, modifying, replacing or rescinding the corresponding contract, concession, permit, license or other form of privilege, when the national interest so requires.

Moreover, the appropriate measures shall be taken to achieve an approximate balance between growth and harvest or use of forest products in forest lands. Thus, a silvicultural and harvesting system that will promote optimum sustainable yield in any logging operation in production forests within forest lands shall be practiced. For instance, selective logging with enrichment or supplemental planting may necessarily be conducted in a dipterocarp forest or one composed of tall trees from which resin and timber products are obtained. Meanwhile, a seed tree system with planting may be implemented in a pine mangrove forest.

A person’s authority to cut, harvest or gather any timber, pulpwood or other logging products subsists for as long as he plants three times of the same variety for every tree cut or destroyed such logging or removal of logs. Failure to do so may lead to the immediate cancellation of the license, agreement, lease or permit.