ARMM forest cover increases, thanks to logging ban

COTABATO CITY – The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao has posted a six-percent increase in its forest cover since a region-wide logging ban was implemented in the aftermath of Typhoon Sendong in 2011, officials said.

ARMM Governor Mujiv Hataman said Executive Order 001, which he issued in December 2011, had apparently paid off.

The directive prohibited the cutting of naturally-grown trees in any area of the provinces of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.

ARMM Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Hadji Kahal Kedtag said that based on ARMM’s “precise geo-mapping, tagging and monitoring,” the region’s forest cover has increased to 53,000 hectares in the last quarter of 2015 from 50,000 hectares in about the same period in 2011.

Hataman and Kedtag said the massive greening program in the region, for which the ARMM government has initially provided P 1 million in local funds for seedling nursery development in Basilan, Lanao Sur, Maguindanao, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, had played a major role in the increase.

Under the greening program, each of the ARMM provinces were asked to grow seedlings of fast-growing tree varieties and reforest all seven major watershed areas.

Kedtag said Maguindanao alone has produced one million seedlings since 2011, many of which have been planted in three watershed areas in Dimapatoy, South Upi and Kabulnan.

He said also substantially reforested were Lanao del Sur’s areas – including a portion of the watershed in Lake Lanao; Basilan’s Biotic Area, and the Sulu and Tawi-Tawi Watersheds.

Kedtag said “the mandatory reforestation program of the DENR-ARMM also covers a portion of the Biotic Area Watershed in Lamitan, Basilan which is supposed to be under the operational jurisdiction of the national government.”

Hataman said the logging ban remains although it did not cover permits that the national government has granted to private companies for Integrated Forest Management Agreement (IFMA).

However, he said the regional government made sure that no IFMA project in the region traversed watershed areas.

, Inquirer Mindanao