Trees and Other Plants 10

Dt 17 U. P. President V. Sinco laying a wreath in front of the Collete Cenotaph on the Twentieth Forestry Day, November 30, 1959, in memory of those who died for the cause of Forestry. ' . ')··~ .. ,.-.·~ .. ·J I 1" .'. ""' ·II • 'f' ~ •• # Iii 1. FORESTRY PROPOSALS FOR THE PHILIPPINES Tom Gill 2. AN APPRAISAL OF FORESTRY IN THE PHILIPPINES Nicolas P. Lansigan 3. SELECTIVE LOGGING- NO LONGER A LIP SERVICE Amando M. Dalisay 4. POTENTIALITIES OF THE PHILIPPINE LUMBER INDUSTRY Antonio de las Alas 5. A NEW PERSPECTIVE IN STUDENT AFFAIRS Arturo M. Guerrero 6. KNOW YOUR CIVIL SERVICE OPINIONS AND RULINGS Teofilo A. Santos 7. ONE WAY TO PREVENT "KAINGIN" fN PUBLIC FORESTS Francisco A bi jay 8. WANTED: FORESTERS Eugenio dela Cruz 9. OFFICIAL COMMON NAMES OF TREES AND OTHER PLANTS 10. Students Section 11. Forestry in the News 12. FPRI Highlights 13. Campus Notes 14. From the Mailbag 15. Sunshine Corner 16. Editorials 17. Pictorials Forestry PropfJSals for the Philippines By TOM GILL General Situation the Philippines, literally thousands of small The forest problem of the Philippines clearings are hacked out annually and burr. centers about the rapid rate of forest des ed to create temporary farms which pock truction. Each year the pace of devasta mark both virgin forests and logged-over tion mounts. Each year the forests decline. areas. On some islands, forest denudation Already over wide areas they have been has progressed to the point where nothing wholly annihilated. The great bulk of this remains but snags and abandoned land that denudation is not primarily the result of is being taken ov~r by cogon grass or, even logging, for logging, when properly con worse, is being eaten away by erosion, ducted, is simply the harvesting of matm.·e The great area of abandoned _land is proof timber. The destruction that threatens the in itself that these soils were never suit future of the Philippine forests today re able for permanent agricuiture. For ka sults in great part from the widespread sys ingin is in effect an attempt to do the im tem of shifting agriculture known as "Ka possible - to force forest soils, often steep ingin." and infertile, to permanently produce food Under the practice of Kaingin, the crops. farmer fells and burns the trees on a few In the Philippines, the practice is made hectares, then selects the most promising even more wasteful by the custom of burn patches thus liberated to the sunlight and ing and clearing all of the ten or twelve temporarily enriched by wood ash to plant hectares usually allocated for each farm, his seed. For two years, or three, the land but planting only the one or two hectares may bear crops, but by that time soil ex that seem most promising. The rest is in haustion so depletes the harvests that the vaded by grass or destroyed by fire or ero farmer abandons his area and burns ano sion. ther part of the forests. Every few ~1ears, Archeologists ciaim that this practice of then, this process is repeated, and when shifting agriculture was responsible for the pursued by thousands, as in the Philippines, disappearance of the Maya civilization in it can wreck whole provinces. The proce<>s the highlands of Guatemala; it has ruined represents an enormous loss to the com or degraded fifty percent of the cultivable munity and the nation, while the benefit to land of Mexico. the kainginero is scant, for his harvest is In most countries, the harmful effect of_ pitifully small. shifting cultivation is a direct result of hea This age-old practice of carving small vy population pressures on the land; but farms out of the forest is common to the in the Philippines, though population pres tropics of both hemispheres. Actually, it sure is heavy, there is less clearing of Iand is not a system in the sense of any definite by bona-fide farmers today than by profes ly worked-out procedure, but has become sional squatters who make a business of a forlorn makeshift in which the farmer burning and clearing in order to establish fights a futile rearguard action against tin1£', title and then sell the land, move on, and and leaves behind him a trail of ruin. In clear again. FORESTRY DAY ISSUE, 1959 Page 1 Kaingin has spread rapidly since the promptly and courageously dealt with, all Second World War, and received impetus other attempts at forest management and from the "Land for the Landless" move forest protection will be nullified. For as ment of the late President Magsaysay. Ori a result of successfuI pressure to release ginally, this movement had as its humane forest land, great areas have already been objective an orderiy opening of true agri alienated and turned over to private own cultural land for permanent settlement. To ership regardless of their suitability for day, it has largely been perverted to spe agriculture. Indeed, the question of agri culative and land-grab ends, until "Land cultural suitability or nonsuitability simply for the Landless" has become in actual fact does not enter: the deciding factor seems "Land for the Lawless". to be the political strength of the demand. Most of the clearing is now being done The impermanence of the government by squatters on government-owned forest3, forests under these conditions makes man who destroy the timber and occupy the land agement next to impossible, creates serious without the least vestige of legal right. obstacles for the fogging and lumbering These professional squatters seem to be operators, and endangers the entire future well organized, often under the direction of economy of the Filipino people. If this loss land speculators and private surveyors liv of timber and soil resulted in any tangible ing in nearby towns. Meanwhile, the belief addition to the food supply, there might be is being fostered that under the "Land for some possible justification; but the fact that the Landless" policy all forested areas in the land is not suitable for agriculture is the Philippines are to be released for home borne out by the negligible amount that re steading. mains in cultivation. The overwhelming Thus encouraged, the squatter crowdc; remainder has been abandoned. in and occupies land originally dedicated Progressive forest devastation is now so by the government to permanent forest common that in virtually all of the tree purposes, either for soil protection or for covered areas of the Philippines fires Jf the perpetual production of forest products. new clearings dot the hills throughout the Yet in spite of the fact that these areas are dry season, and smoke covers the blacken federal property, reserved for forest growth, ed countryside for miles. the squatters by weight of numbers and In the Philippines, as in most of Asia, through poiitical influence create pressures the need for increased food production can to release the land from forest administra not be denied, but this need could be far tion and open it to agriculture. The pre better met by more complete and intensive sure, carefully manipulated, is usually suc use of agricultural land already cleared, as cessful. Many squatters seem to be skill well as by the introduction of high-yieid fully directed toward selecting strategic ing food crop varieties, than by clearing sites best calculated to render areas unfit forests from slopes that may be sterile, all for forest management, and so force their for the sake of two or three problematical release. .Most often at this point the or harvests before abandonment. The sole ganizing parties step in and take over the reason why these forest soils produce even land, and a vaiuable forest potential has one harvest lies not in the fertility of the been destroyed under the pretext of in soil itself: it lies in the nutrients - rapid creasing food population. ly exhausted after forest removal- Iaid This ever-widening expanse of destruc down by decades of forest litter. tion left by the kainginero, then, consti No one can even guess the loss entail tutes 90 percent of the forest problem of ed in soil and forest values by years of the Philippines, and unless the problem is unrestricted kaingin. Already forest des- Page 2 FORESTRY LEAVES truction is jeopardizing the future of the work will not be wiped out before results lumber industry, the third major export can be obtained. industry of the nation, and through erosion At this juncture one may ask, "But and water shortages is menacing many a what about the laws? Are there no penal hectare of true agricultural land in the val ties for this illegal destruction of govern leys below. Over large areas the forests ment property? Laws do exist. They are have been as utterly destroyed as in Ko wholly inadequate from the standpoint of rea or North China. For miles the land penalties invoked, but the chief difficulty has been degraded from a permanent na Iies in securing convictions. Local law of tional asset into a permanent liability, for ficers openly sympathize with and encour it is unlikely that within the foreseeable age the kainginero, and on the least pre future much of this land can be economical text dismiss the case against him. Law ly reforested. yers and local politicians vie with each Today, with the present attitude of gov other for the privilege of defending him, .b ernment and the apathy of the public, no order to gain his favor or his vote. Under part of the "permanent" forest is safe from these circumstances, the case against the alienation and clearing. Even areas under squatter usually drags afong for year;;;.

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