Buzz words sprout from the controversies of the day. From the impeachment of Chief Justice Renato Corona , \u201csubpoena\u201d and \u201calpha lists\u201d spilled into chatter at barbershops to diplomatic receptions.<\/p>\n
Emerging issues mint new buzz words. \u201cPeak timber\u201d is one of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cTropical countries should consider implications of \u2018peak timber\u2019 \u2026 even as it has become common to speak of \u2018peak oil,\u2019\u201d the journal \u201cBiological Conservation\u201d suggests. Today\u2019s 30- to 40-year logging cycles do not provide sufficient time for forests to recover.<\/p>\n
This rule of thumb stems from the 1950s preliminary research in fertile Basilan Island with abundant rainfall. Other provinces are less-favored. But Basilan 30- to 40-year yardsticks were applied nationwide. They\u2019re proving unsustainable.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeak timber\u201d shoves against forest limits. The trajectory clones the Hubbert curve in tracking oil, note Australian National University\u2019s Phil Shearman and Jane Bryan with William Laurance, James Cook University. Harvests first surge, peter out on a peak, then plunge into free fall.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeen there, done that,\u201d Filipinos would say with a shrug. In 1595, forests blanketed 27.5 million hectares here. Today, 7.7 million hectares are left, official data claims. That\u2019s probably an overestimate.<\/p>\n
Factor in unrecorded killer logs, unleashed by Typhoon Sendong. Most tumbled from \u201cthe mountains of Lanao del Sur. Kaingin-scarred slopes, converted into pastures or corn fields, have patchy vegetative cover. They can\u2019t stem soil erosion. Nor do they hold rainfall runoff. They result in massive soil erosion dumped.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thus, mud, rock and logs cascaded from plantations on vulnerable hillsides \u201cin Bukidnon towns of Manolo Fortich, Libona, Talakag and Baungon. In Cagayan de Oro and Iligan, people were smothered by waves of mud.\u201d<\/p>\n
The first Asian country to liquidate its forest wealth after World War II, the Philippines \u2014slammed into \u201cpeak timber\u201d early. From less than 500 thousand cubic meters in the late 1950s, log exports crested at 11.1 million cubic meters in 1974. Exports slumped to a mere 841 thousand cubic meters a decade later.<\/p>\n
It still has to recover. Forest cover skid, meanwhile, to 18 percent, far below the 30-percent safety benchmark. Loss of habitats threaten 89 species of wildlife. Most are endemic to the Philippines. \u201cA prima donna of log exporters in the 1970s, we became a wood pauper of the 1980s,\u201d observed \u201cViewpoint\u201d (Philippine Daily Inquirer \/Jan. 10, 2008).<\/p>\n
\u201cLeaks\u201d are all over, notes former United Nations forester Napoleon Vegara. Penury and hunger drive kaingineros to slash and burn trees for a harvest or two. Rapid population growth spurs upland migration. Confronting illicit loggers, who bankroll politicians, can be lethal.<\/p>\n
\u201cGreen priest\u201d Neri Satur was shotgunned to death in 1991 for confiscating truckloads of \u201chot logs\u201d in Bukidnon. Catholic radio journalist Dr. Gerry Ortega campaigned to protect indigenous communities and Palawan forests. He was gunned down last January.<\/p>\n
Botanist Leonard Co was shot while doing research in Leyte 2011. Co was \u201cprobably the last of classically trained botanists in plant taxonomy and systematics.\u201d Lt Gen. Jesse Dellosa, 43rd Armed Forces chief of staff, should resolve the glib claim that Co had been \u201ccaught in a cross fire with communist guerrillas.\u201d<\/p>\n
Peak timber is spurred by the slow growth rate of commercially viable species, scientists note. \u201cLogging in the tropics tends to focus on a small fraction of the trees.\u201d Abandoned tree stumps symbolize extensive \u201ccollateral damage.\u201d<\/p>\n
The \u201csecond wave clearance\u201d problem, cited by \u201cBiological Conservation,\u201d is a major glitch in Mindanao, Vergara adds. Roads bulldozed by loggers open once remote areas to a flood of land-hungry settlers, shifting cultivators\u2014and yet more illegal loggers.<\/p>\n
The impact of bulldozers and yarders dragging logs through fragile tropical soils is severe. In retrospect, it would probably have been better from an environmental perspective to rely on the carabao power that small-scale \u201cillegal loggers\u201d depend upon.<\/p>\n
Asia and the Pacific are starting to reverse forest loss, asserts the UN\u2019s Food and Agriculture Organization in \u201c2011: Forest Beneath the Grass.\u201d \u201cAsia gained 2.2 million hectares.\u201d Primary forests nonetheless continue to be chain-sawed. The last \u201cvirgin\u201d forests in Samar are being chopped down.<\/p>\n
Government reforestation efforts have been erratic and tree survival rates are low. Under the Arroyo administration, over 72 centavos out of every peso went for salaries in the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve long gone over the peak,\u201d says agro forestry specialist Patrick Dugan, co-author of \u201cForest Faces.\u201d We must \u201cnow focus on options for turning arpound he situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
To first step to climb back up the \u201cpeak\u201d is to adopt\u2014then enforce\u2014\u201cpolicies that create incentives for people to plant, harvest and sell trees.\u201d This would tamp down pressure to harvest from the natural forests.<\/p>\n
Second is to address the lack of tangible and sustained support to help millions of small-scale farmers living on steep slopes apply improved land use methods. Only then will they jettison the unsustainable but the only farming systems they have. That would crib \u201cthe prevailing attitude that any cutting of trees is ipso-facto a criminal act.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hopes for the future rest with people given a stake in planting and, thereafter, protecting forests, writes BBC\u2019s Mark Kinver. The alternative is an old buzz word: disaster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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