BAGUIO CITY - Government roads have always been blamed for the deterioration of forests in Cordillera.

But the Department of Public Works and Highways has forwarded new technology that uses ?dehydrating? debris to stabilize the mountain walls and prevent siltation from polluting rivers.

The technology, which could be bankrolled by a proposed watershed tax, has been outlined as part of a Cordillera forest rescue plan, which would be discussed in a May 20 North Luzon water resources and environment summit.

Climate change experts and government planners from the Cordillera, the Ilocos and the Cagayan regions agreed on Wednesday to stage the summit, which had been postponed since 2008.

Good rains

The rains besetting the summer months of April and May have proven to be providential, said Undersecretary Hermenigildo Dumlao, executive director of the Office of the Northern Luzon Growth Quadrangle.

He said the unstable weather has been attributed to global warming, and it could have serious impact on denuded watersheds, as well as the food grown by farms that are irrigated by rivers harnessed by these watersheds.

Extending the life span of the forests beyond 30 years is crucial ?or else we will have no water to farm for the future Filipinos,? he said.

The summit was initially primed for the discussion of a watershed fee, which would be imposed on local governments to enable the Cordillera to finance forest rehabilitation.

Pollution tax

Both a pollution control tax or a users? tax could prove useful, if it could be harnessed for new technology, Dumlao said.

David Buliyat, Cordillera chief of the DPWH planning and design unit, said the agency has been using road materials that could act as ?cascading debris? and shore up eroding mountain walls.

The materials dehydrate and then harden quickly when drenched by rainwater, so they could act as ?benching materials? for the watersheds, Buliyat said.

Dr. Rowena Reyes-Boquiren, head of the social, economic, and policy unit of the Conservation International (Philippines), said the forest cover of the Cordillera measures 1.4 million hectares, more than 81 percent of its total land area [1.8 million hectares].

Critical state

?All of the forest reservations are now in a critical state,? Boquiren said in the book, ?Ti Daga Ket Biag (Land Is Life).?

Payments for watershed environmental services or penalties for watershed damages were embraced by the environment, agrarian reform and irrigation agencies of the Cordillera in their 2008 recommendations.