As it aims to preserve the remaining vegetation of the country, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) on Thursday said it will no longer issue permits for logging activities in all natural forests.
"To avoid further depletion of our country's forested areas, we will no longer sign any new permits for tree-cutting and logging permits in natural forests," Environment Secretary Ramon Paje said.
He said a number of hectares of primary forests "have already been heavily degraded." Industry data showed that less than 16 million hectares in the country were identified as forestland.
Paje said he has issued a new guideline to all regional offices for the abolition of all non-critical checkpoints in exchange for the installation of closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras in all wood-processing plants in the country.
"Some 60 to 70 percent of the total number of checkpoints will be abolished. We will only retain the highly critical checkpoints," he said.
"But in exchange for this, we will be requiring all wood-processing [permit holders] to install at least one 24/7 CCTV camera in their processing plants to monitor the entry of illegally cut logs or naturally grown logs in processing plants," he added.
CCTV cameras would enable the DENR to witness wood companies that are processing illegally cut timbers.
Paje challenged logging companies to prove that they are not buying illegal logs, saying that "if they want to prove to us, they should show us their processing 24/7."
Meanwhile, the DENR also Thursday earmarked some 15,000 hectares of upland areas for high-value agricultural crops under the Aquino government's National Convergence Initiative or NCI.
Paje said that he has already directed all DENR regional executive directors to identify at least 200 hectares of land per province — or some 15, 000 hectares nationwide — for the agriculture development under the NCI. —JE, GMANews.TV
Source: http://www.gmanews.tv
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