Haribon chief decries continuing deforestation
ENVIRONMENT group Haribon Foundation Chief Operating Officer Anna Varona said that at least 7,517 deforestation alerts were recorded in a span of two weeks as illegal logging activities persist in the country.
Appearing in SMNI’s “Business and Politics” program hosted by The Manila Times Chairman and CEO Dante “Klink” Ang 2nd, Varona cited the data from the Global Forest which showed that between
and Nov. 13, 2022, at least 7,517 deforestation warnings covering at least 92 hectares were recorded.
“The top areas with loss are Palawan, Surigao and parts of Davao. Areas responsible for the 53 percent of tree cover loss are Palawan, Agusan del Sur, Zamboanga del Norte,” Varona added.
In an earlier interview with The Manila Times, Environment Undersecretary Jonas Leones said that the DENR has not issued any logging concessions.
Varona said admitted that there are very few DENR personnel to protect the country’s forests.
“The national government is not equipped. They could put support more on that area for monitoring. We really have to empower our forest rangers, so they could help us monitor and watch the activities in the forests,” she said.
She also blamed poverty as the root cause of the illegal logging activities.
“They need to know the benefits of keeping the trees, keeping the forests,” she said.
Varona said illegal logging activities continue at Sierra Madre, the country’s largest mountain range, spanning Regions 1 and 2, the Cordillera Administrative Region, and Central Luzon.
“There is illegal logging [at the Sierra Madre]. Policy should be implemented because, for instance, there are some areas in the Sierra Madre that are considered as key diversity areas but are not protected, so we should really push for that,” she noted.
Haribon Foundation has partnered with about 500 communities at Sierra Madre to protect the forests.
“Haribon has been working at the Sierra Madre for more than a decade. We have also planted more than 1 million trees in the area and, of course, it cannot be just planting trees, we have to take care of the community because if the community is not empowered, it is going to cut down the trees,” Varona said.
Varona noted that the Sierra Madre protected the country from recent Super Typhoon “Karding” as it weakened when it crossed the mountain range.
She added that the National Greening Program of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has failed to improve the country’s forest cover.
“Again, monitoring is important. They need to have people to take care of the ground work. What they can do is work with us because we have the communities trained or work with other CSOs (civil society organizations) who are doing the same thing ... they cannot expect to do everything by themselves,” Varona added.
For 2023, the DENR proposed P2.5 billion to fund the National Greening Program.
Varona added that aside from monitoring, the success of tree planting efforts of the DENR depends on if it is planting the right trees.
“The intention is good, so please don’t judge them for that. Except the methodology was wrong. There is an advantage to native trees being planted over foreign species,” Varona explained.
She said native birds are attracted to native trees.
“Birds live in native trees. They eat from [a native tree], they live in it, they get to multiply in it. It is the same thing with our coral reefs; if there are no native trees, birds, bats and insects lose their housing. Our parks should still have native trees because you’d still want the birds there. There is a difference between a park with native trees and exotic trees,” she noted.
She cited as an example the mahogany trees planted at Rizal Park.
“If you try to look at it, if you sit down there, you don’t hear birds, you don’t hear too many insects. The mahogany trees should be replaced, especially those trees that are parasitic. They will really suck up the nutrients of the earth and then other native trees cannot grow,” she said.
On the other hand, Varona reiterated the importance of biodiversity in the country.
“We have different species all over the country, the terrestrial, trees, flora, fauna, marine species. We have about 52,177 endemic species in our country alone which cannot be found in other parts of the world. Biodiversity means all parts of an ecosystem. So, all of these parts are essential to the ecosystem to keep it healthy and running,” she said.
“What people don’t seem to realize, each area in our country has a different ecosystem. When we destroy one ecosystem, the others get affected as well,” she noted.