Written by MindaNews
Sunday, 19 August 2007 10 38 08
MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/18 August) – Environmental disasters like droughts, floods and landslides should prod the government to make forest conservation a centerpiece program to mitigate the deleterious effects of global warming, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel Jr. today said.
In a statement, Pimentel urged President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to certify the log ban bill as an urgent measure or risk losing “more of our already depleted forests” and experiencing the tragedies that occurred in Aurora-Quezon in 2004 and Guinsaugon (
Citing warnings from environmental experts, the senator said that
Pimentel stressed the critical importance of conserving the lake due to the looming power crisis in the whole of
“Six hydroelectric power plants of the National Power Corporation depend on the waters of
He also hit the resurgence of illegal logging in the Sierra Madre mountain range which he said violated the “total log ban” policy of the President after flashfloods and landslides in December 2004 that caused massive destruction and killed at least a thousand people.
Pimentel said he has revived his proposal (Senate Bill 275) imposing a ban on commercial logging operations over a period of 25 years – the length of time it takes for hardwood trees to mature.
He predicted that within this period the country will be able to regain its lost forest cover.
”In 1900, an estimated 21 million hectares of the country’s total land area (30 million hectares) had forest cover. But based on available data, this has declined to 7 million hectares today. However, only about 800,000 hectares of this area consists of old-growth or virgin forests. About 200,000 hectares of forests areas are destroyed annually through legal and illegal logging, as well as slash-and-burn (kaingin) farming, according to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources” he said.
“It’s about time Congress mustered the political will to approve the log ban bill. We must put the survival of our forests and preservation of ecological balance over and above the selfish economic interests of a privileged few,” he added.
Pimentel’s bill bans the cutting of old-growth trees and requires the sourcing of the country’s wood requirements for construction, paper-making and other purposes from industrial tree plantations.
It also provides that any violator of the log ban law shall be punished with imprisonment from five years to 10 years. If the violation is committed by a juridical entity, its license or permit to do business in the country shall be automatically revoked. In addition, it shall be slapped a fine of P500,000 to P5 million, at the discretion of the court.
According to the bill, the chairman and/or chief executive or any other officer of the logging company responsible for violation of the law shall be imprisoned for not less than five years but not more than 10 years.
He accused powerful logging interests of repeatedly blocking his bill since 1987 “despite the urgency of a total log ban to give the forest a much-needed breathing space”. (MindaNews)
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