By Cha Monforte
jan 29
TAGUM CITY- An official of the environment department here admitted that city and provincial environment officials have no inventory yet on heavy equipment such as backhoes, bulldozers, rickers and others running inside the forest in Davao del Norte that are used in big-time commercial logging but which are reportedly used by illegal loggers in raping the remaining forest of the province.
“We have no information about that. We will look into that,” Tagum city environment officer Julius Valdez said during yesterday’s Kapihan sa Kapitolyo media forum at the media center in Capitol at Barangay Mankilam.
Provincial environment officer Felix Abangin was also mum on the report relayed to them about unnamed loggers with dubious permits who have long been deploying fleet of various heavy equipment numbering about 100 units deployed in various locations in the province’s remaining forests.
Valdez however said that in Davao del Norte “only Alcantara (company) has legitimate tree-cutting permit” while “there are five private land timber permits in Laak (in Compostela Valley )”.
He added that throughout the country only Region XI and Caraga region have been allowed to have cutting of forest trees.
He said that wood processors in the city procured wood products cut by virtue of private land timber permits from the Davao del Norte, Agusan del Sur, Compostela Valley and Davao Oriental.
“We issued one private land timber permit in Maco (in Compostela Valley), two in Baganga and four in Lupon (both in Davao Oriental),” he bared.
Compostela Valley has also Community Based Forest Management (CBFM) areas where wood products are legitimately procured, he added.
“There’s no move here to declare the province to have a total log ban. It’s good that there’s now a move of a boardmember in Davao Oriental for his province to have a total log ban. It’s different in Bukidnon where the provincial government initiated the total log ban which it has now,” Valdez said.
Davao City has no tree-cutting permit and it has only receives wood products from provinces, it was learned. (Cha Monforte/Rural Urban News)
Filed under: environment officer Julius Valdez, Provincial environment officer Felix Abangin, environment officer Julius Valdez, Provincial environment officer Felix Abangin
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