CHAPTER II

THE REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

The researcher perused literature and studies that have relevance to the proposed study.

The following have been found to have a bearing on the researcher’s proposed investigation.

Environmental Impact of Illegal Logging on Upland Forest

Illegal logging is one of the environmental threats around the globe. In Southern Nigeria,

timber concessionaires ranked first as an anthropogenic threat (Isikhuemen, 2020). Juniper forest

in Turkey has been eroded by anthropognic as well as natural forces leading to critical

environmental problems and illegal logging, for livelihood reasons, is one of the most important

anthropogenic threats identified. Other countries, including Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia,

Bangladesh, China, Sri Lanka, Laos, Nigeria, Liberia, Guinea, Ghana, and the Cote d' Ivore have

already lost large areas of their rainforest. Eighty percent of the forest of the Philippines

archipela still had four fifths of its original forest (Rex, 2003; Perez, 2020).

Illegal logging long thought to be the main reason for deforestation and forest

degradation (Perez, 2020; Carandang, et al., 2013), loss of biological and genetic diversity (Rex,

2003), and timber extraction (Grainger- Malayang III, 2006; Richards, et al., 2003).

Deforestation and Forest Degradation. The Philippines is paying a high price for the

destruction of its forests and a number of major problems confronting the nation can be traced

directly to deforestation and forest degradation (ESSC, 2011; Perez, 2020). The proximate

causes of relevance to illegal logging are limited to three major categories of activities: wood

extraction, agricultural expansion, and infrastructure extension (DENR, 2013). In many

erosion. The upland topography is mainly with a slope equal to or greater than 18% and these

areas make up 52% of total land area (ESSC, 2011). In the absence of forest cover and with

frequent heavy typhoon rains, soil erosion, mass wasting, and landslides are induced.

Deforestation takes second place to shifting cultivation by landless forest farmers-estimates to be

about 15 million worldwide (Rex, 2003).

Another, environmental conservation impacts of logging forest are the attendant loss of

biological and genetic diversity which is visible on Northern Sierra Madre Natural Park (Ploeg,

2012). Plants and animals vanish with the forest, likewise on mammals, birds and flowering

plants (Rex, 2003) including fungi (Denison 1990). A typical 1000-hectares patch of tropical moist

forest contains as many as 1,500 species of flowering plants, up to 750 species of trees, 400 birds

species, 150 kinds of butterflies, 100 different types of reptile and 60 species of amphibians, the

insects are too numerous to count.

Environmental Problems of the Governing Body on Illegal Logging: Philippine Setting

The Philippines is facing water insecurity because of degraded and poorly managed watersheds.

More than 57 % of the major watersheds are critically denuded, which means loss of water

infiltration and slow recharging of water tables. Nationwide, water quality has deteriorated and

cities like Manila, Cebu, Davao, and Baguio, are constantly facing water shortages. A country

that once exported some of the finest woods in the world is now a net wood importer.

Philippine Government Intervention and Problems Encountered towards Illegal Logging

by Executive Order No. 26 on 24 February 2011, in part to make amends to previous

overexploitation and restore the much-depleted forest in the country to a more acceptable state

(DENR, 2020).

Posted as the accomplishment at the end of the program in 2016 is the planting of 1.3

billion seedlings in around 1.7 million hectares and the creation of some four million jobs that

benefitted about 558,323 individuals as hired workers (FEEDI-ENGP, 2020). It made the

incentive to continue with the program that is now referred to as the Enhanced National

Greening Program (ENGP) by the current administration to rehabilitate all the forestlands,

estimated at 7.1 million hectares, from 2016 to 2028 (DENR, 2020). Such plans are laudable,

considering that the Philippines is among the four Asian countries with the largest annual loss of

forested areas at 157,000 ha per year from 2000 to 2005 (Wilkie, 2009). However, the NGP has

not been without controversy since there have not been good ground confirmations of the

reported successes in the areas of activities.

However, in the study of Perez, et.al. (2020) suggest that despite the massive number of

seedlings reported to have been planted, the state of the forest cover, at least in the greater Luzon

region, does not show significant improvement on a large as well as regional scale. Analysis of

Landsat data reveals significant losses in both open and closed forest cover during the same

period when NGP was ongoing. A slight increase in closed forest cover of 3% while the open

forest suffered a loss of about 10% was seen in site 1, where the data were collected. In Site 2,

there was a reversal in that the closed forest cover declined by about 9% while the open forest

cover increased by about 13%. In Site 3, closed forest cover declined by 22% while the open

forest increased by 31%. The net loss of open forest in Site 1 of about 1305 ha is acceptable,
especially since there is a gain of 625 ha in closed forest. However, although the results in Site 2

and 3 show net increases in forest cover, the significant losses of 9% for Site 2 and 22% in site 3

in the extent of closed forest are disappointing.

The governing agency, DENR, sincerely accepted that most provisions of the forestry

reformed code of the Philippines under PD 705 are no longer in tune with the 1987 Constitution

as well as current realities and conditions (DENR, 2013, 2020). In particular, climate change

mitigation and adaptation strategies, including REDD-plus, have to be incorporated into the new

forestry law.

The need for certification of wood and other forest products to ensure that they come

from sustainably managed forests has to be legislated. The new forestry law should ensure a

stable policy environment which is free from being arbitrarily changed at the whim of

administrators. It should safeguard the security of the rights and investments of the private

sector, communities, and indigenous people over their tenured areas.