By Armando A. Mortejo
Last of 2 Parts
“Migration accounted for the bulk of the upland population growth,” said Ma. Concepcion Cruz, who made an extensive study on upland migration in the country. “The highest rates of population growth in the uplands were in municipalities with logging concessions.”
“Poverty, lack of jobs and wages, and absence of farm lots in the lowlands have forced some people to invade the forest,” commented former Senator Heherson Alvarez, who served as environment secretary during the administration of Corazon Aquino.
Consequences
“For sin pays it wage… death,” said the Holy Bible. “When man sins against the earth, the wages of that sin is death or destruction,” explained Watson, who received the 1985 Ramon Magsaysay Award for peace and international understanding. “This seems to be a universal law of God and relates to all of God’s creation.
“Today, we face the reality of what man’s sins against the earth have caused. We see land degradation expressing itself in destruction of forests, loss of topsoil, pollution of streams and even the air we breathe. We are facing not a mere problem; we are facing destruction and even death if we continue to destroy the natural resources that support life on earth.”
As a consequence of the continuous removal of forest cover, particularly in the uplands, the Philippines now reels from various environmental problems. “Most of these were not seen in such intensity and magnitude before our time,” said Roy C. Alimoane, the current MBRLC director. “The signs cry out for immediate nationwide attention.”
Soil erosion is one of the most prevalent problems of deforestation. “Soil erosion now is an extremely serious problem in the country,” Alimoane said. “It does not only result in increasing the impoverishment of the Filipino farmers, but also destroys other things down under.”
Siltation, caused by erosion, shortens the productive life spans of dams and reservoirs. The Magat resevoir, for instance, has been cut its probable life span of 100 years to 25 years. The Ambuklao Dam reservoir had its life halved from 60 to 32 years as a result of siltation.
Another consequence: water shortage. “Without vegetative cover, especially the trees, the land’s water absorption capacity is greatly reduced,” said Ines Basaen, who once did a community-based environment impact assessment for indigenous peoples’ project.
Deforestation also threatens the country’s wildlife resources. The Philippine eagle has become an endangered species but of the destruction of their natural habitat — the tropical rainforest — that is the principal cause of their rapid disappearance.
The natural habitat of Philippine eagle consists mainly of old-growth forests from 100 meters to 1,000 meters above sea level. Unfortunately, these are the habitats that are also fast disappearing due to deforestation.
“Deforestation is terrible,” deplored Dennis Salvador, the executive director of the Philippine Eagle Foundation, Inc. “The Philippine eagle has become a critically endangered species because forest destruction has made it lose its natural habitat.”
Food and wood together
All is not gloomy, however. The MBRLC has developed a farming model system that integrate tree planting into the agricultural production. It’s called Sustainable Agroforest Land Technology or SALT 3. Actually, it is a modification of the internationally-known Sloping Agricultural Land Technology (SALT). SALT 2 stands for Simple Agro-Livestock Technology (SALT 2) which integrates goat raising into the SALT system.
“Where can you find in the world a farming system that combines food production and trees together?” asked Alimoane. “In our model, we plant food crops at the lower portion of the farm. In planting the crops, contour hedgerows are still dominant in order to control soil erosion. Also, crop rotation is still practiced.”
Mulching is also a contributing factor in the sustainability of the farm. The hedgerows are cut every 15 days and the cutting serve as mulching materials for the growing crops. “We also plant fruit trees and other permanent crops on every third strip,” Alimoane said.
The upper portion of the farm is planted with different trees — in different zones. Timber trees like acacia occupy the higher areas. The middle portion is allotted to trees that can be harvested within 10-15 years like mahogany. The lower part is planted to trees that can be used for firewood and charcoal. As a buffer between the trees and crops, bamboo is planted.
Good news
Although people think the country’s forest cover continues to dwindle, it’s actually on the contrary, according to Dr. Rodel Lasco, Philippine coordinator of the World Agroforestry Center.
In a span of 10 years, from 1998 to 2008, the total forest area in the country has actually increased… according to the official data of the government, said Dr. Lasco, who is also the dean of the College of Forestry of the University of the Philippines at Los Baños .
Dr. Lasco quoted a report released by the Forest Management Bureau (FMB), a line agency of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, which showed that from 6.48 million hectares in 1998, the forest cover increased to 7.168 million hectares in 2003, 7.391 million hectares in 2005 and finally 7.8 million hectares in 2008.
“The State of the World’s Forests 2011,” released by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, showed the extent of the forest area in the Philippines at 7.66 million hectares as of 2010. The Philippines is one of the only two countries in Southeast Asia to have an increase in forest cover. Both the Philippines and Vietnam have increased forest cover by an annual average of 55 hectares and 207 hectares, respectively.
Curbing climate change
This increase of forest cover in the country is indeed a good news as forests have been cited as one of those that can curb climate change. “Our forests harbor one of the highest biodiversity resources in the world,” Dr. Lasco said. “They are also significant carbon sinks able to absorb all our greenhouse-gas emissions from fossil fuels, making us almost carbon neutral.”
In fact, reducing deforestation in the tropics would significantly cut the amount of carbon dioxide — the primary culprit of global warming — emitted into the atmosphere. Scientists from the Universities of Edinburgh and Leeds estimate that if all human-related deforestation of the tropics were to stop, the forests could absorb more carbon than at present, equivalent to one-fifth of global emissions.
Their study, published in “Global Change Biology,” claim carbon emissions from tropical forests will increase as the climate warms, as rising temperatures accelerate the decay of dead plants and trees, giving off more carbon dioxide. Global temperatures are forecast to rise by two degrees by the year 2099, which is predicted to increase annual carbon emissions from the forest by three-quarters of a billion tons.
Carbon sequestration
Trees can help sequestered carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere. Carbon sequestration describes long-term storage of carbon dioxide or other forms of carbon to either mitigate or defer global warming and avoid dangerous climate change. Carbon dioxide, in the form of gas, can be sequestered out of the atmosphere through photosynthesis. The carbon dioxide is converted into sugar by the plant or emitted back to the air through perspiration.
Julius Cawilan, chief of the forest research conservation division of the DENR in the Cordillera, told a news daily a couple of years back that a healthy, single and mature tree could store about six kilograms of carbon yearly while a hectare of trees can also absorb carbon emitted by a car traveling 1,600 kilometers.
According to the DENR, a single mature tree can absorb carbon dioxide at a rate of 21 kilograms a year and release enough oxygen back into the atmosphere to support two persons. For every ton of new wood that grows, about 1.5 tons of carbon dioxide are removed and 1.07 tons of life-giving oxygen are produced.
Red Constantino, executive director of the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities, urges: “Climate-change adaptation measures, including those that pertain to securing our forests, should be integrated into national policies, particularly Philippines faces critical environmental challenges and is already a victim of global warming.”
While it is true that “only God can make a tree,” to quote the words of Joyce Kilmer, people can plant a tree – or billions of trees. Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai, who is internationally known for her persistent struggle for democracy, human rights and environmental conservation, once told a reporter, “When we plant trees, we plant the seeds of peace and seeds of hope.”
