DENR goes after suppliers of wood furniture makers
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Philippines—Did your wood come from legal sources?
More than 400 furniture shops and sash factories in Central Luzon have been dealing with this question as teams from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) have been going around the provinces of Bulacan, Pampanga, Tarlac and Nueva Ecija to inspect supplies and seek documents on wood sources.
The lumber inventory, which began two months ago, had been 60 to 70 percent finished, said Maximo Dichoso, regional executive director of the DENR, in a telephone interview on Monday. It covered lumber stocks, logs and flitches, he said.
The monitoring is done to check compliance with Executive Order No. 23, which President Aquino issued in February 2011. The directive imposed a moratorium on the cutting and harvesting of timber in natural and residual forests.
Wood stocks can either come from plantations that are not covered by EO 23 or from imported supplies from Malaysia or Papua New Guinea, Dichoso said.
“The documentary requirements [in the importation of wood] are submitted to our embassies,” he said.
Dichoso ordered the confiscation of all illegal lumber and the filing of charges under the Revised Forestry Code of the Philippines (Presidential Decree No. 705) and other laws.
Environment Secretary Ramon Paje said only 7.2 million hectares of the country’s 15.8 million ha of forest lands could be considered “forested.”
He said each of the 113 protected areas in the country needed to be properly demarcated. So far, only 13 protected areas have been covered by laws.
Sen. Loren Legarda said she would prioritize the approval of measures that would ensure the preservation of forests and other protected areas in the country.
“We need to ensure that our forests are restored to its old grandeur and richness to meet the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs,” Legarda said in a statement last week.—Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon
