1. Sean McDonagh, a priest who worked in the area, said that decades of
deforestation Cagayan de Oro City and nearby provinces was to blame for the
scale of the disaster. Much of the region was converted from rainforest into
pineapple plantations.
“The deforestation was literally criminal,” he told The Universe Catholic Weekly. “If
the rainforest in the area had been left intact, even 12 hours of continuous rain
would not cause this devastation. The rainforest canopy would stop the torrential
rain from hitting the ground directly. Trees would also absorb the water.”
“The root cause is the denudation of our forests,” commented one
environmentalist. “This is a sin of the past that we are paying now.”
FOREST DESTRUCTION IN
THE PHILIPPINES

2.  Harold R. Watson, a former American agriculturist who had been
helping the locals in Mindanao, agreed. “When man sins against the
earth, the wages of that sin is death or destruction,” he
explained. “This seems to be universal law of God and relates to all of
God’s creation. We face the reality of what man’s sins against the
earth have caused. We are facing not a mere problem; we are facing
destruction and even death if we continue to destroy the natural
resources that support life on earth.”
 It is impossible to exaggerate the ecological debacle threatening
the Philippines. More than 90 years ago, the Philippines was almost
totally covered with forest resources distributed throughout the 30
million hectares. These resources provided income, employment,
food, medicine, building materials, and water as well as a healthy
environment.

3.  According to environmentalists, logging
operations – legal and otherwise – are mowing
down the country’s remaining forest cover. The
Rev. Peter Walpole, executive director of the
Ateneo de Manila University’s Environmental
Science for Social Change, said
the Philippines “trusted” logging companies to cut
down trees and manage the forest. “But they did
a very bad job,” he decried. “That started the
problem that we have now.”
 In 1989, the government imposed a lumber
export ban in an effort to save the country’s
forests from uncontrolled illegal logging. The
following year, the ban was quietly lifted, but was
reinstated after loud criticism.

5.  DENR, the lead agency responsible for the country’s
natural resources and ecosystems, is virtually powerless in
stopping rampant illegal logging. It has no guns, no radios,
no boats, and only few men to roam the jungles, where
they are usually terrorized by armed men or rebels.
 The country’s surging population has likewise contributed
to the problem. At least a fourth of the total population
lives in the upland areas, where most trees are
located. Most of them practiced slash-and-burning
agriculture (kaingin farming). “These migrant farmers
attack virgin forest lands to cultivate the rich soil, which
they quickly deplete,” observed Watson. “Then, they
move on, looking for more. One day, there is no more.”

7.  “Deforestation is a symptom of a bigger problem,” says Nicolo del
Castillo, an architect by profession who teaches at the University of
the Philippines. “I probably sound baduy (tacky and outdated) but I
see the problem in the prevailing system of values, that is, the greed,
the need to be the biggest, the wealthiest, and sometimes you feel
hopeless. I am an optimist, but possibly there will be more tragedies
and maybe then more people will wake up.”
 How many Ormoc tragedy – where almost 5,000 people perished
(almost half of them residents of Isla Verde – should happen before
Filipinos should heed the warning?
 “For over a century, we have waged a relentless assault against our
once majestic woodlands,” said ex-Senator Heherson Alvarez. “We
have laid to waste millions of hectares of forest land, as though
heedless of the tragic examples of the countries of Africa, the Middle
East and the Mediterranean, where large areas have become barren, if
not desertified. If we have not reached this state, we are almost at the
point of irreversibility.”

8. CAUSES OF FOREST
DESTRUCTION
 Urban Construction
Forests are cleared to make way for the expansion of urban areas. Trees are cut
down for lumber that is used for building materials, furniture, and paper
products which creates a major impact on forest life. This results in loss of
forest area and massive deforestation.

9. Agriculture
 Sometimes, forests are cleared to provide space for growing crops,
building farms, ranches and other lands for agricultural purposes.

10. Grazing Land
Forests are cut down in order create land for grazing cattle. Huge herds
of animals require food and forests are cleared out to make way for
grazing lands.

12. Use for Fuel
 Trees are cut down to be used as firewood or turned into charcoal,
which are used for cooking and heating purposes.

13. Commercial Purposes
 Deforestation can also be caused by clearing
forests for oil and mining exploitation, making
highways and roads, slash and burn farming
techniques, wildfires, and acid rain. Forest fires
can occur naturally or in most cases are deliberate
attempts by man to clear huge forests. These
forests can still recover, but usually the cleared
land is used for construction and agriculture
purposes. This leads to loss of forests and loss of
habitat for the local wildlife.

15. Illegal Logging
 Many government agencies are fighting illegal logging to
protect the forests. However, any type of logging legal or
illegal leads to deforestation. Trees are cut down
indiscriminately by logging companies, to fulfill the
demands of the wood market. This does not give a chance
to the local wildlife and trees to regenerate and sustain
themselves which leads to loss of wildlife forever.

17. Effects on Wildlife and Human
Society
Erosion
 When the soil is exposed to the sun upon deforestation,
it becomes very dry and infertile due to the loss of
nutrients. When there is rainfall, it washes away the rest
of the nutrients, which flow with the rainwater into
waterways.
 Replanting trees may not help in solving the problems
caused by deforestation. By the time the trees mature,
the soil will be totally devoid of essential nutrients. As a
result, the land will not be suitable for cultivation and
will become useless. Large tracts of land will be
rendered permanently impoverished due to soil
erosion.

19. Disruption of the Water Cycle
 Trees help maintain the water cycle in various ways. They
absorb water through their roots, which is then released
into the atmosphere. A large part of the water that
circulates in the ecosystem of rainforests, for instance,
remains inside the plants.
 When these trees are cut down, the climate will get drier
in that particular area. The groundwater tables are
affected and will soon get depleted. The trees help in
prevention of running off of water and help the soil absorb
the flowing water. When there are no trees, water just
runs off, leaving no chance for the groundwater tables to
absorb more water which will eventually lead to reduction
in water resources.

21. Loss of Biodiversity
 Tropical rainforests only take up to 6 percent of the
surface area of the Earth, where about 80-90 percent
of the entire species of the world exist. Due to
massive deforestation, about 50 to 100 species of
animals are being lost each day. This leads to the
extinction of animals and plants on a massive scale.
The animals not only lose their habitat and protective
cover, but they are also pushed to extinction.

24. Flooding and Drought
 Forests can function to absorb and store great amounts
of water quickly when there are heavy rains. When
forests and trees are cut down, this regulation of the flow
of water is disrupted, which leads to alternating periods
of flood and then drought in the affected area, leading to
increased risks for people living nearby.

27. Climate Change
 Trees act as a storage place for carbon, since they absorb carbon dioxide
from the atmosphere, which is then used to produce carbohydrates, fats,
and proteins that make up trees. When deforestation occurs, many of the
trees are burnt or they are allowed to rot, which results in releasing the
carbon that is stored in them as carbon dioxide. This, in turn, leads to
greater concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

28. Solution / Prevention
 Farming
New methods for farming such as high-yield hybrid crops, greenhouse,
autonomous building gardens, and hydroponics are being developed
for more intensive farming.

29. Forest Management
 Since it has long been known that deforestation can cause environmental
damage enough in some cases to cause societies to collapse, several forest
management strategies have been implemented in several countries
throughout centuries.
 In Tonga, paramount rulers developed policies designed to prevent conflicts
between short-term gains from converting forest to farmland and long-term
problems forest loss would cause,

30.  During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in Tokugawa
Japan, the shoguns developed a highly sophisticated system of
long-term planning to stop and even reverse deforestation of
the preceding centuries through substituting timber by other
products and more efficient use of land that had been farmed
for many centuries.
 In sixteenth century Germany, landowners also developed
silviculture to deal with the problem of deforestation. However,
these policies tend to be limited to environments with good
rainfall, no dry season and very young soils(through volcanism
or glaciation). This is because on older and less fertile soils trees
grow too slowly for silviculture to be economic, whilst in areas
with a strong dry season there is always a risk of forest fires
destroying a tree crop before it matures.


31. Reforestation
 On the slopes of the volcano Mount Malindang on the island of
Mindanao in the Philippines Trees for All together with the local
population is restoring the forest. The remaining forest higher
up on the slopes has a very high level of biodiversity. By
planting a protecting ring of new forest around this remaining
old forest, the existing biodiversity will be conserved and other
species that were driven away will find a new habitat.
 The higher slopes were in 2004 reserved as a 'Natural Park' by
the government, however money for reforestation was not
available. In 2008, through the contribution of Trees for All this
reforestation could finally start. The project has started small
scale with 50 hectares per year, but with the option to extend,
even to surrounding volcanoes.
.

32.  The National Park has a surface of more than 53 thousand
hectares, of which only 33 thousand is remaining forest.
Around 4000 families still live in the Park under very
difficult conditions. The deforestation that took place in
the 20th century has led to big scale erosion, floods and
mud streams, which have been devastating for the
agriculture that takes place down slope.
 The trees will be planted and will grow into a forest, the
biodiversity will be restored but for the moment we will
not have the CO2 sequestered certified. The certification
process is very expensive and we want to keep the project
affordable.

34. Forest Plantations
 As suggested by forestry writers Botkins and
Sedjo, high-yielding forest plantations can meet
the world’s demand for wood. Calculation shows
that plantations yielding 10 cubic meters per
hectare annually could supply all the timber
required for international trade on 5 percent of
the world's existing forestland. By contrast natural
forests produce about 1-2 cubic meters per
hectare, therefore 5 to 10 times more forest land
would be required to meet demand.

36. EXECUTIVE ORDER NO.23
 Declaring a moratorium on the cutting and harvesting of
timber in the natural and residual forests and creating the
anti-illegal logging task force
Section 1. Definition of terms. For the purpose of this
Executive Order, the following terms shall be defined
1.1 Forest Land – it includes public forest or forest reserves,
and forest reservations.
1.2 Natural and Residual Forests – are forests composed of
indigenous trees, not planted by man.
1.3 Plantation Forest – is a forest where the trees were
planted pursuant to a management agreement with the
DENR.

37. 1.4 Integrated Forest Mangement Agreement (IFMA) – is a
production sharing contract entered into by and
between the DENR and qualified applicant wherein the
DENR grants to the latter exclusive right to develop,
manage, protect and utilize a specified area of forest
land and forest resources therein for a specified period
consistent with the principle of sustainable development
and in accordance with an approved Comprehensive
Development and Management Plan (CDMP)