DENR blames NGOs for illegal logging

DAGUPAN CITY – The community’s apparent indifference toward preserving Pangasinan’s largest remaining rainforest in Mangatarem town has allowed illegal logging activities to thrive in the area, an environment official said.

Leduina Co, provincial environment and natural resources officer (Penro), said there were 12 non-government organizations (NGOs), composed of more than 400 members, operating around the 13,000-hectare rainforest, but hardly a whimper, much less a report validating timber poachers, has come from these groups.

The Penro taps the NGOs for seedling production and other forest protection activities, she said.

Last week, Co met with the NGO leaders and some members and challenged them to barricade roads leading into the forest, once they see equipment and trucks entering the forest. Illegal logging operations are usually well-equipped, she said.

Co said they could also transmit text messages to warn government forest guards, the police or the military about the presence of illegal loggers.

“[However] nobody committed [to help out]. Nobody even said a word. Parang wala silang pakialam [It looked like they don’t care]. Even if we explained the importance of forests, even if we told them that they would lose their source of water, [the information had] no effect on them,” she said.

The Penro said she suspects some groups benefit indirectly from illegal logging because fallen twigs and branches could be converted into firewood.

Co said not even the officials of Muelang and Bantocaling villages, which are near the rainforest, have been cooperating with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

She said it was possible that the villagers feared the timber poachers, who could be a neighbor and who may be backed by powerful government officials.

Because community members fail to provide evidence of illegal logging, the DENR has failed to file charges against timber poachers who have “built a system that nobody dares to cross,” she said.

“Even if only two NGOs would testify, we could build the case against [the organized illegal loggers],” she said.

Co said another road has been discovered leading into the interior woodlands—the fourth to be discovered by DENR.

“The road is not visible from Muelang village and I am afraid that because it did not rain for three days, the illegal loggers could be up there again,” she said.

She said the agency needed more policemen and military men to be stationed near the rainforest. She said the government’s Task Force Anti-Illegal Logging is drawing up a comprehensive plan to preserve the rainforest. Yolanda Sotelo, Inquirer Northern Luzon