Forest Resources of the

Philippines
LESSON 4
Prepared by:

NAÑOLA, CENDERELLA
PONIO, CARLA JOY
SAN JOSE, ALLEYA JAYCIEL ANN
VILLAFLORES, JUNNELL
By the end of this lesson, the student will be able to:

Familiarize the forestry resources

available in the Philippines;
Learning
Appraise some of the initiatives to protect
the forest resources; Objectives:

Evaluate the importance of forestland protection.

 Quick facts about the current state of Philippine Forests
Ø As of December 2015, about one-fourth of the Philippines’ 30,000,000-hectare territory is forested 7,014,154
hectares;
Ø In December 1990, forest lands comprised about 15.9 Million hectares or 53% of the total land area of the
country. In a span of 25 years we wiped out our forest cover by 56% or roughly 9 million hectares or 355,433.84
hectares per year);
Ø Region 2 (Batanes, Cagayan, Isabela, Nueva Viscaya, Quirino) has the largest cover in the country covering 1,
050, 963 hectares while the smallest area is NCR (Metro Manila) covering only 2, 106 hectares (Region 11 ranks
5th with 400,613 hectares following Region 8 (511,962);
Ø The country has 147 Proclaimed Watershed Forest Reserve in 2018. Region 3 tops with 27 proclaimed
protected area, Region 11 has 4 proclaimed Watershed Forest Reserve (WFR) including Andap WFR of New
Bataan, Bagangga WFR of Bagangga Davao Oriental, Malagos WFR of Davao City and Mati Watershed WFR of
Mati Davao Oriental;
Ø In 2015 the Food and Agriculture Organization ranked the Philippines as the 5th worldwide in the greatest forest
area regain from 2010 to 2015 Source: Philippine Forest Statistics, 2018.
 CLASSIFICATION AND SURVEYS

Classification.
Section 13 of PD 705 states that the DENR Secretary shall determine which of the
unclassified lands of the public domain are needed for forest purposes and declare them
as permanent forest to form part of the forest reserves. He shall declare those classified
and determined not to be needed for forest purposes as alienable and disposable lands,
the administrative jurisdiction and management of which shall be transferred to the Land
Management Bureau.

It is also stated that mangrove and other swamps not needed for shore protection
and suitable for fishpond purposes shall be released to, and be placed under the
administrative jurisdiction and management of, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic
Resources. Those still to be classified under the Present system shall continue to remain
as part of the public forest.

Section 14 of PD 705 likewise states that forest lands which are not reservations and which
are the subject of pasture leases shall be classified as grazing lands and areas covered by
pasture permits shall remain forest lands until otherwise classified under the criteria,
guidelines and methods of classification to be prescribed by the DENR.
Concept of Forests and Forest Lands.

Public forests or forests reserves are not capable of private appropriation. A forested
area classified as forest land of the public domain does not lose such classification
simply because loggers or settlers may have stripped it of its forest cover. All lands
that were not acquired from the government, either by
purchase or by grant, belong to the public domain. An exception to the rule would be
any land that should have been in the possession of an occupant and of his
predecessors ininterests since time immemorial, for such possession would justify the
presumption that the land had never been part of the public domain or that it had
been a private property even before the Spanish conquest.

Topography. Section 15 of PD 705 states that no land of the public domain 18%
in slope or over shall be classified as alienable and disposable nor any forest
land 50% in slope or over as grazing land. Lands 18% in slope or over which
have already been declared as alienable and disposable shall be reverted to the
classification of forest lands by the DENR Secretary, to form part of the forest
reserves.

Exception - Unless they were already covered by existing titles or approved

public land applications, or actually openly, continuously, adversely and
publicly for a period of not less than 30 years as of the effectivity of the Code,
where the occupant is qualified for a free patent under Public Land Act.
 a. areas less than 250 hectares which are far from, or are not
contiguous with, any certified alienable and disposable land,

b. isolated patches of forest of at least five (5) hectares with rocky

terrain, or which protect a spring for communal use,
Areas Needed
for Forest c. areas which have already been reforested,

Purposes
The following lands, even if they are
d. areas within forest concessions which are timbered or have
good residual stocking to support an existing, or approved to
be established, wood processing plant,
below eighteen per cent (18%) in

e.
slope, are ridge tops and plateaus regardless of size found within, or
needed for forest purposes, and may surrounded wholly or partly by, forest lands where headwaters
not, therefore, be classified as emanate,
alienable and
disposable land, to wit
f. appropriately located road-rights-or-way,

g. twenty-meter strips of land along the edge of the normal high

waterline of rivers and streams with channels of at least five (5)
meters wide,
 h. strips of mangrove or swamplands at least twenty (20) meters
wide, along shorelines facing oceans, lakes, and other bodies
of water, and strips of land at least twenty (20) meters wide
facing lakes,

Areas Needed
for Forest i. areas needed for other purposes, such as national parks,
national historical sites, game refuges and wildlife
Purposes sanctuaries, forest station sites, and others of public interest,
and
The following lands, even if they are
below eighteen per cent (18%) in

j.
slope, are areas previously proclaimed by the President as forest reserves,
national parks, game refuge, bird sanctuaries, national shrines,
needed for forest purposes, and may national historic sites:
not, therefore, be classified as In case an area falling under any of the foregoing categories
shall have been titled in favor of any person, steps shall be
alienable and
taken, if public interest so requires, to have said title cancelled
disposable land, to wit or amended, or the titled area expropriated. Mangrove swamps
or Manglares are within the public forest lands of the
Philippines and not subject to private appropriation.
Reservations in Forest Lands and Off- Shore
Areas
The DENR Secretary may reserve
and establish any portion of the
public forest or
forest reserve as site or
experimental forest for use of the
Forest Research Institute.
Offshore area needed for the
preservation and protection of its
educational, scientific,
historical, ecological and
recreational values including the
marine life found therein, shall
be established as Marine parks.
Multiple use
Only the utilization, exploitation, occupation
or possession of any forest lands and
grazing lands, which will produce the
optimum benefits to the development and
progress of the country and the public
welfare, without impairment or with the least
injury to its
resources, shall be allowed. No person may
utilize, exploit, occupy, possess or conduct
any activity within any forest and grazing
land, or establish, install, add and operate
anywood or forest products processing plant,
unless he had been authorized to do under a
license agreement, license, lease or permit.
A Timber License is an
instrument by which the
State regulates the utilization
and disposition of forest
resources to the end that the
public welfare is promoted. A
timber license is not a
contract, within the purview
of due process clause; it is
only a license or a
privilege, which can be
validly withdrawn whenever
dictated by public interest or
welfare.
The granting of license does
not create irrevocable rights;
neither is it property or
property rights.
 The duration of the privilege to harvest timber in any

Timber particular forest land under a license agreement or license

shall be fixed and determined in accordance with the
allowable cut therein, the established cutting cycle thereof,
the yield capacity of harvestable timber, and the capacity of
healthy residuals for a second growth.

The privilege shall automatically terminate, even before the

expiration of the license agreement of license, the moment the
harvestable timber have been utilized without leaving any
logged- over area capable of commercial utilization.

The maximum period of any privilege to harvest timber is 25 years,

renewable for not exceeding 25 years, necessary to utilize all the
remaining commercial quantity or harvestable timber either from the
unlogged or logged- over area. It shall be a condition for
the continued privilege to harvest timber under any license agreement
that the licensee shall reforest all the areas which shall be determined
by the Bureau.
Size of Forest Concessions

Forest lands shall not be held in perpetuity. The size of the forest lands which may be the subject
of timber utilization shall be limited to that which a person may effectively utilize and develop for a
period of 50 years.

Wood Processing / Log Production and Processing

Unless otherwise directed by the President, upon recommendation of the Department Head, the
entire production of logs by all timber licensees shall, beginning January 1, 1976 be processed
locally. Total log export of timber licensees shall not exceed twenty-five percent (25%) of the total
national allowable cut.
Reforestation: Industrial Tree Plantations, Tree Farms and Agro-forestry Farms
A lease for a period of 25 years and renewable for another period not exceeding 25 years, for the
establishment of an industrial tree plantation (100 hectares min. area) or a tree farm (10 hectares min. area)
may be granted by the DENR to any qualified person, qualified to develop and exploit natural resources, over
timber or forest lands of the public
domain.
Section 36 of PD 705 enumerates the incentives granted to Industrial Tree Planting
and or tree farming. Including among others (paragraph l) importation ban of wood,
wood products or wood-derived products including pulp, paper and paperboard if the
same are available in required quantities and reasonable prices, as may be certified by
the DENR from artificial or man-made forests, or local processing plants manufacturing
the same.

Section 43 of PD 705: Swamplands and Mangrove Forests shall be maintained and

shall not be alienated. Therefore, it shall not be subject to clear- cutting operation.
Mangrove and other swamps released to the BFAR which are not utilized, or which
have been abandoned for 5 years from the date of such release, shall revert to the
category of forestland.
 Authority of Forest Officers

When in the performance of their

official duties, forest officers, or
other government officials or
employees duly authorized by the
Secretary or Director, shall have
free entry into areas covered by a
license agreement, license, lease,
or permit.
Mineral Reservations Special Uses
No forestland 50% in slope or over may be
Mineral reservations which are not the subject
utilized for pasture purposes. The Bureau
of mining operations or where operations have
shall, in the preparation of multiple- use
been suspended for more than 5 years shall
management plans, identify and provide for
be placed under forest management by the
the protection of scenic areas in all forest
Bureau. Mineral reservations where mining
lands which are potentially valuable for
operations have been terminated due to
recreation and tourism, and plan for the
exhaustion of its mineral shall revert to the
development and protection of such areas to
category of forest land, unless otherwise
attract visitors there to and meet increasing
reserved for other purposes.
demands therefore.
What is “Timber”?
While the law does not define “timber”, such word
should be taken in its ordinary meaning. In the
absence of legislative intent to the contrary, words
and phrases used in a statute should be given their
plain, ordinary and common usage meaning.
“Timber” in its common acceptation refers to “wood
used for or suitable for building or for carpentry or
joinery”. (Sison, 2018)

Forest products means timber, pulpwood,

firewood, bark, tree top, resin, gum, wood, oil,
honey, beeswax, nipa, rattan, or other forest
growth such as grass, shrub, and flowering
plant, the associated water, fish, game, scenic,
historical, recreational and geologic resources
in forest lands.
Unlawful Occupation or Destruction of Forest Lands

For any person who enters, occupies, possesses, or makes

kaingin for his own private use or for others, any forest land without
authority or in any manner destroys such forest land or part thereof, or
causes any damage to timber stand and other products and forest
growths found therein, the Court shall further order the eviction of the
offender from the land and the forfeiture of the government of all
improvements made and all vehicles, domestic animals and
equipment of any kind used in the commission of the offense.
In case the offender is a government official or employee, he
shall, in addition to the above penalties, be deemed automatically
dismissed from office and permanently disqualifies from holding any
elective or appointive position Pasturing Livestock Imprisonment, fine,
and confiscation of livestock and all improvement in favor of the
government shall be imposed upon any person, without the authority
under a lease or permit, graze, or cause to graze livestock in forest
lands, grazing lands, and alienable and disposable lands which have
not as yet been disposed under CA 141. In case the offender is a
corporation, partnership, or association, the officers and directors
thereof shall be liable.
 Illegal Occupation of National Parks System and Recreation Areas and Vandalism
Therein

Any person who, without proper

Any person, without permit,
permit shall hunt, capture, or kill
occupy for any length of time any
any kind of bird, fish,
portion of the national
or wild animal life within any area
park system or shall, in any
of national park system.
manner, cut, destroy, damage, or
Survey by Unauthorized Persons
remove timber or any species
Any person who shall, without
of vegetation of forest cover and
permit to survey from Director,
other natural resources found
enter any forest lands,
therein, or shall mutilate,
whether covered by a license
deface or destroy objects of
agreement, lease, license, or
natural beauty or of scenic value
permit, or not, and conduct or
within areas of national parks.
undertake a survey for whatever
purpose.
References:
Caballero, Jeremiah N. PD 705 Revised Forestry Code extracted from
https://www.academia.edu/36616843/PD_705_REVISED_FORESTRY_CODE

Domingo, Sonny N. and Manejar, Arvie Joy A., Forest Protection in the Philippines, PIDS.
Discussion Paper Series No. 2018-53

Executive Order No. 277 July 25, 1987 https://www.lawphil.net/ executive/

execord/eo1987/eo_277_1987.html

Philippine Forest Statistics (2018) downloaded from https://forestry.denr.gov.ph/index. php/

statistics/philippines-forestry-statistics

Republic Act No. 7161 https://lawphil.net/statutes/repacts/ra1991/ra_7161_1991.html

Sison, Jose C (23008) A Law a day (keeps trouble away), Timber!!

https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2008/07/29/75828/timbe

File content from Prof. Josephine P. Aloc’s file

THANK YOU