Self-help doctrine urged for forest protection
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 06:08:00 09/01/2008
LA TRINIDAD, BENGUET—The Department of Environment and Natural Resources may lack forest rangers to look after communal forests but a judge said the community could do a lot by resorting to an old but legally accepted measure in civil law.
Through the so-called doctrine of self-help, Judge Agapito Laoagan of Buguias Regional Trial Court said the province’s indigenous communities could join hands and protect their forests from intruders without the need for a court order or deputation from environment officials.
“It’s a form of self-defense of property,” Laoagan told members of the provincial peace and order council in a recent meeting here.
The meeting came following reports that timber poaching and expanded vegetation continued to threaten the province’s forests.
The province covers 265,538 hectares, of which 120,285 ha are considered national parks and 94,485 ha are forests reserves.
But Octavio Cuanso, DENR senior forestry management specialist, said a DENR directive had already devolved to towns the responsibility of managing communal forests and watersheds that are below 5,000 ha.
He said Department Order 30 was issued in 1992 but many local governments were unaware of the order or complained that they did not have the means to guard their forests.
This meant that the communities and their officials were still highly dependent on the DENR for measures to safeguard the forests, Cuanso said.
Julius Kollin, Benguet environment and natural resources officer, said the province has 84 communal forests covering 3,199.74 ha.
Laoagan said through the doctrine of self-help, the towns could act on their own to protect their forests without waiting for the DENR to do the job.
“The possessor or owner of a land can use reasonable force like people power or the people themselves to protect the forest instead of waiting for someone to do the job,” he said.
The mayor, as representative of the people who own the communal forest, could rally for people power to protect the forest, he said.
Manuel Pogeyed, provincial environment officer, said forests are considered communal when they are traditionally owned and accessed by a community through established practices.
These types of forests, he said, are usually covered by a presidential proclamation.
Cuanso said the self-help doctrine could help the DENR protect forests since it lacked forest guards. He said the ideal ratio is one forest ranger to every 2,000 ha.
Benguet, he said, only has 42 forest rangers or one for every 6,238 ha. Delmar Cariño, Inquirer Northern Luzon
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