LUCENA CITY--An environmentalist group has expressed alarm over the resurgence of illegal logging operations inside the Quezon National Forest Park (QNFP).

Jay Lim, program officer of Tanggol Kalikasan (TK)-Southern Tagalog, said a team of provincial environment, police and military officials discovered on Friday remnants of freshly cut trees inside the mountainous area of the village of Sipa in Padre Burgos town.

"The stumps and the scattered flitches were barely a week-old," Lim said.

He showed to the Inquirer video footage of fresh stumps and several pieces of lumber strewn on the hilly slopes.

Lim said the team also found widespread charcoal-making inside the park.

Where there's charcoal...
"If there's charcoal making, there is always logging. It's a telltale sign," he said.

When contacted for comment, Diony Dapla, QNFP park area supervisor, said he would immediately investigate the report to find out if the area is inside the park itself or in its buffer zone.

"Even if the alleged illegal logging operations are outside the park, it should be immediately stopped," Dapla said in a phone interview.

He said he hasn't received reports of illegal logging inside the park in the boundary of the towns of Pagbilao, Atimonan and Padre Burgos.

Dapla admitted, though, the existence of charcoal-making inside the park by villagers living in its perimeters.

"It's part of their livelihood. Unless the government gives them alternative means of making a living, they will always resort to charcoal-making," he said.

Sea routes
Lim said the illegally cut forest products were being sneaked out of the forest park through a mountain river, which ends up in the delta of Tayabas Bay.

He said the sawn lumber will be brought to the Lucena coast in boats or ships after they reach Tayabas Bay.

The QNFP is a 983-hectare forest reservation declared a protected area by Proclamation No. 594 dated Aug. 5, 1940, and the National Integrated Protected Areas Systems Act (Republic Act No. 7586) dated June 1, 1992.

It is traversed by the zigzag road that is part of the national highway between Pagbilao and Atimonan.

The last time that illegal logging was reported inside the QNFP was in 2004.

The sawn forest products were then being smuggled out in the middle of the night with the help of volunteer flag men manning the zigzag road and acting as lookouts.

According to reports of former local environment officials, the illegal loggers were big-time syndicates who could afford to hire armed men with sophisticated weapons.