Dead end

The fires that razed 50 hectares of forests on Mount Banahaw in Quezon Province late March have flickered out. Mindanao has less than 10 percent of forest cover left. Will a Bangsamoro regime reverse that skid, assuming the 11-step transition roadmap is completed?

And is “reforestation in Central Visayas paying off?”, as the Department of Environment and Natural Resources claimed in a Cebu Daily News report. Forest cover in the region ticked a 15 percent surge over the last three years.

Siquijor doubled reforested areas, followed by Cebu with a 28 percent increase. Forest cover spread from 155,373 hectares in 2010 to 178,682 hectares last year. Credit people’s organizations, local government to Executive Order 23’s ban, DENR says. There’s little left to ban anyway.

“Maybe the public has grown more “environmentally conscious”, an official mused.

Maybe.

But doubt would dissipate if DENR released what we understand is a completed independent review. Tree planting under the National Greening Program has been “relatively high”, it concludes. But the jury is still out on long-term survival. Maintenance under the NGP remains a chink in the armor.

“We’re not talking about rice or corn but trees,” e-mailed forester Patrick Charles Dugan. “Planting is glamorous.” But for saplings to mature into forests it takes years of maintenance. Millions of seedlings shrivel due to neglect, especially failure to prevent fire.

“In Danao, Bohol last week, a councilor fingered a hill planted under the NGP. But like Mount Banahaw forests, it was razed. “Typical,” Dugan snapped. That happens repeatedly all over the country. Without sustained community support, replanting is a “waste”. When, if ever, will the public, church, environmental NGOs and press appreciate that reality?

“It’s not impossible to achieve high percentage increases – when the forest area baseline is low as in Central Visayas,” wrote Food and Agriculture Organization regional forester Patrick Durst. “The make-or-break test is if those planted areas survive, then thrive. This is not a guaranteed outcome, especially given the historical track record.”

Long after aid from Japan Fund for Global Environment and FAO ended, the Danao project on assisted natural reforestation (ANR) is thriving, Dugan said. It banks on local native species and support from local government and people.

Durst confirms that assessment. Trees tower up to 10 meters plus in height in many areas. That’s not as fast like planted forests of exotic imported species. Sure. Nonetheless, the bill for regeneration is approximately half the cost of conventional reforestation. It also pays off in terms of biodiversity.

Flying to Tagbilaran this month, “I was struck by the increased tree cover,” Durst adds. “My point of reference is my Peace Corps volunteer work 1978-1980. There is considerably more tree cover than 35 years ago. And largely in better condition. This is true in expansion mangroves along much of southern Bohol’s coast.”

“This is the first time Cebu has struck me similarly. Still not great, but highly encouraging. Consider that things could have gone in the opposite direction.”

Wait. Isn’t assisted natural reforestation what DENR is supposed to be doing? ANR, however, “petrified for eight years before emerging anew,” notes a paper by an Environmental Science for Social Change. ESSC is based at the Manila Observatory in Ateneo de Manila.

In 2004, DENR issued Memo Circular No. 6. State policy is to manage and restore “forests approximate their original structure and functions, and conserve the biological diversity.”

Deeds, however, deviated from the words. Denuded areas were instead planted to fast-growing exotic species: from big-leaf mahogany, teak to Moluccan sau or falcata and eucalyptus.

Such plantations tend to be biodiversity-poor, the study warned. They become vulnerable to pest attacks, as what happened in Brazil, Indonesia and parts of the Philippines.” Worse, they fail to restore the old, endemic rainforest species. Zoologist Lawrence Heaney dubs them the “Galapagos Times Ten”, since they are among the world’s highest in biodiversity.

DENR secretary Ramon Paje is trying to catch up. The plan is to plant 1.5 billion trees in about 1.5 million hectares by 2016. That’s when President Aquino steps down. And reforestation unshackled from petrification would be an additional feather in the cap.

DENR finalized pacts with civil society groups to supply 50 million seedlings of native tree species. If achieved, that’d be a surge from seven percent to a full quarter in use of indigenous species. After harvesting, DENR pledged to swap mature exotic-species stands with indigenous species.

It won’t be a walk in the park. It takes years to develop, say nurseries or test soil conditions. These aspects are rarely stitched into major projects, let alone pork barrels of Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada, Bong Revilla & Co. “Orders come down to plant trees.” Staff on the ground grab whatever seedlings are on hand, and stick them into the ground. Follow-up is the exception.“

“There is a general lack of diversity knowledge,” the ESSC note adds. “This is true within the staff of DENR. Many national parks lack staff that know the local trees and could source appropriate seeds.” And all too often, trees are planted on public land and then abandoned. Beyond report writing, there is patchy follow-up.

But there can be no return to past forest petrification. That’s a dead end. As Alvin Toffler wrote in “Furure Shock”: “Change is the process by which the future invades our lives.”