Logging Ban must include forest communities in decision making for effective implementation – Greenpeace

Press Release
January 19, 2011

QUEZON CITY  –  Greenpeace today commended President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III’s initiative to introduce a nationwide log ban and called upon him to be resolute and demonstrate that the Executive Order to implement such a ban ensures a tangible improvement in forest governance and law enforcement.

“Together with the logging ban, it is important that the Executive Order also considers a participatory land use planning process based on the needs and rights of forest dependent communities with a view to protecting the climate and biodiversity.  For the ban to be effective, investment in alternatives to logging that will support local development and sustainable forest use for the benefit of local communities is critical.  This can be achieved by establishing and ensuring the participatory management of protected forest areas,” said Mark Dia, Philippine Country Representative of Greenpeace Southeast Asia.

Forest destruction contributes one-fifth of the total global emissions – more than the emissions from cars, planes and trains around the world combined.

Last year, Greenpeace and other member organizations of the EcoWaste Coalition held a survey – the Green Electoral Initiative (GEI) – among Presidential aspirants, regarding their intentions for the environment.  Aquino had promised very concrete steps to stop illegal logging and curb the corruption that allowed loggers to circumvent environmental protection laws.  Aquino had indicated that his administration would “engage the police and military authorities, local communities and local government agencies in a sustained, vigorous campaign to seize illegally cut logs and prevent further clearing of primary forests.”

Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte had announced last weekend that the President is considering the possibility of an executive order for a total log ban nationwide.  The announcement was made following recent devastation brought about by heavy rains in a number of vulnerable areas in the country that suffered landslides and other debilitating effects from extreme weather events, soil erosion and other impacts of environmental degradation.

According to the United Nations International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), droughts and typhoons will intensify, putting the most vulnerable and least prepared countries at greater risk to impacts of climate change.  The Philippines has been ranked as seventh in a list of ten countries most vulnerable to extreme weather events.

Dia added that Aquino had made the commitment in the GEI survey that, for his first 100 days in office, he would push ‘to enact a law, as mandated by the Constitution, to delineate once and for all forest lines in the country, as a clear basis for crafting a comprehensive national land use policy, as well as for the definition of watersheds and fragile ecosystems.’