DENR heightens crackdown on illegal chainsaws to protect Pampanga forests

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO –– The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in Pampanga on Friday reported confiscating 11 unregistered chainsaws last year, bringing the haul to 29 in three years.

Laudemir Salac, DENR provincial officer, said the seizure of illegal chainsaws was part of the agency’s strategies or innovations to curb timber poaching in forest lands in the province.

“Instead of the traditional approach of apprehending suspected illegal loggers while transporting forest contrabands, we go after those unregistered chainsaws, which may be used in illegal cutting of trees,” Salac said in a statement.

The Chainsaw Act of 2002 (Republic Act No. 9175) requires the registration of chainsaws with the DENR. It carries a penalty of six years in prison or a fine of P30,000.

The 11 chainsaws are estimated to be worth P124,000.

Pampanga has a few forest patches, mostly destroyed by Mt. Pinatubo’s June 1991 eruption, slowly regenerating on their own or through limited reforestation projects by local governments and non-government organizations with Aeta, an indigenous people. INQ

LZB