PRESIDENTIAL

DECREE
NO. 705
REVISED FORESTRY CODE
OF THE PHILIPPINES
FORESTS • They provide a range of
ecosystem services,
ranging from the
provision of food crops,
• Among the livestock and fish to
most valuable providing recreational
natural experiences
resources in the
Philippines

• Serve as significant carbon sink and are vital

for biological conservation and environmental
protection, locations for education and
research, habitat for indigenous flora and
fauna, and resettlement areas
 FOREST
The Forest Management Bureau
(FMB) of the Department of
Environment and Natural
Resources (DENR) defines
“forest” as land with an area of
more than 0.5 hectare and tree
crown cover (or equivalent
stocking level) of more than 10
percent. The trees should be
able to reach a minimum height
of 5 meters at maturity in situ
(original position/location).
STATE POLICIES

• Multiple uses of forest lands

• Land classification
• Wood-processing plants
• Protection, development
and rehabilitation
DEFINITION OF TERMS

- Public Forest - Tree farm

- Permanent forest or forest reserves Forest lands - Selective logging
- Forest reservations - Lease
- Alienable and disposable lands - License
- Grazing land - License Agreement
- Mineral lands
- Permit
- National park
- Ecosystem
- Game refuge or bird sanctuary
- Silviculture
- Marine parks
- Private right
- Seashore park
- Watershed reservation
- Watershed
- Critical watershed
- Mangrove
- Kaingin
- Forest product
- Industrial tree plantation
ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE
- amended by EO 192 (Reorganization of the DENR)
- creation of Bureau of Forest Management (Forest
Management Bureau)
a. supervision and control of the DENR Secretary
b. all actions and decisions subject to review, motu proprio or upon appeal by the
DENR Secretary
c. exhaustion of administrative remedies
d. finality of administrative decisions

- Jurisdiction of Forest Management Bureau

a. responsible for the protection, development, management, regeneration, and
reforestation of forest lands;
b. regulation and supervision of the operation of licensees, lessees and permittees for the
taking or use of forest products therefrom or the occupancy or use thereof;
c. implementation of multiple use and sustained yield management in forest lands; the
protection, development and preservation of national parks, marine parks, game refuges
and wildlife;
d. implementation of measures and programs to prevent kaingin and managed
occupancy of forest and grazing lands;
e. the effective, efficient and economic classification of lands of the public domain; and
f. the enforcement of forestry, reforestation, parks, game and wildlife laws, rules, and
regulations.
FELIPE YSMAEL, JR. & CO., INC. v. THE DEPUTY EXECUTIVE
SECRETARY, et al. - GR No. 79538

• A long line of cases establishes the basic rule that the courts will not
interfere in matters which are addressed to the sound discretion of
government agencies entrusted with the regulation of activities coming
under their special technical knowledge and training.

AQUINO v. MUNICIPALITY OF MALAY AKLAN - G.R. No. 211356

• Aside from complying with the provisions in the FLAgT granted by the
DENR, it was incumbent on petitioner to likewise comply with the no
build zone restriction under Municipal Ordinance 2000-131, which was
already in force even before the FLAgT was entered into.

REPUBLIC v. CA and BERNABE - G.R. No. L-40402

• A parcel of forest land is within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Bureau of
Forestry and beyond the power and jurisdiction of the cadastral court to
register under the Torrens System.
 CLASSIFICATION and SURVEYS

- The DENR Secretary shall study, devise, determine and prescribe the
criteria, guidelines and methods for the proper and accurate classification and
survey of all lands of the public domain into agricultural, industrial or
commercial, residential, resettlement, mineral, timber or forest, and grazing
lands, and such other classes as may be provided by law rules and regulations.
- Forests and Forest lands
- Public forests or forests
reserves are not capable
of private appropriation
(Regalian Doctrine)
HEIRS OF AMUNATEGUI v. DIRECTOR OF FORESTRY
GR No. L-127873

• 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. Parcels of land classified as forest land may actually be covered
with grass or planted to crops by kaingin cultivators or other farmers. "Forest
lands" do not have to be on mountains or in out of the way places. Swampy
areas covered by mangrove trees, nipa palms, and other trees growing in
brackish or sea water may also be classified as forest land. The classification is
descriptive of its legal nature or status and does not have to be descriptive of
what the land actually looks like. Unless and until the land classified as
"forest" is released in an official proclamation to that effect so that it may
form part of the disposable agricultural lands of the public domain, the rules
on confirmation of imperfect title do not apply.

REPUBLIC v. NAGUIAT - G.R. No. 134209

• Public forest lands or forest reserves, unless declassified and released by
positive act of the Government so that they may form part of the disposable
agricultural lands of the public domain, are not capable of private
appropriation.
Topography
• No land of the public domain 18% in
slope or over shall be classified as
alienable and disposable.

• 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, to form part of
the forest reserves, unless they are
already covered by existing titles
approved public land application, or
actually occupied openly,
continuously, adversely and publicly
for a period of not less than 30 years
as of the effectivity of this Code,
where the occupant is qualified for a
free patent under the Public Land
Act.
AREAS NEEDED FOR FOREST PURPOSES

The ff. lands, even if they are below 18% in slope, are needed for forest
purposes, and MAY NOT, therefore be classified as alienable and
disposable land:

1.) Areas less than 250 hectares which are far from, or are not
contiguous with any certified AaD land;
2.) Isolated patches of forest of at least 5 hectares with rocky terrain, or
which protect a spring for communal use;
3.) Areas which already been reforested;
4.) Areas within forest concessions which are timbered or have good
residual stocking to support an existing, or approved to be established,
wood processing plant;
5.) Ridge tops and plateaus regardless of size found within, or
surrounded wholly or partly, by forest lands where headwaters
emanate;
6.) Appropriately located road-rights-of-way;
7.) 20m strips of land along the edge of the normal high waterline of
rivers and streams with channels of at least 5m wide;
8.) Strips of mangrove and swamplands at least 20m wide, along
shorelines facing oceans, lakes, and other bodies of water, and strips of
land at least 20m wide facing lakes;
9.) Areas needed for other purposes, such as national parks, national
historical sites, game refuges and wildlife sanctuaries, forest station
sites, and others of public interest; and
10.) Areas previously proclaimed by the President as forest reserves,
national parks, game refuges, bird sanctuaries, national shrines,
national historic sites.

 In case an area falling under any of the foregoing categories shall

have been titled in favor of any person, steps shall be taken, if public
interest so requires, to have said
title canceled or amended, or the
titled area expropriated.
 Mangrove swamps are in the
category of forest lands
• Forest lands are not registrable
SERAFIN B. YNGSON vs. THE HON. SECRETARY OF
AGRICULTURE and NATURAL RESOURCES
G.R. No. L-36847
• It is elementary in the law governing the disposition of lands of the
public domain that until timber or forest lands are released as
disposable and alienable neither the Bureau of Lands nor the Bureau
of Fisheries has authority to lease, grant, sell, or otherwise dispose of
these lands for homesteads, sales patents, leases for grazing or other
purposes, fishpond leases, and other modes of utilization. The
Bureau of Fisheries has no jurisdiction to administer and dispose of
swamplands or mangrove lands forming part of the public domain
while such lands are still classified as forest land or timberland and
not released for fishery or other purposes.
Reservations in Forest Lands and Off-shore
Areas
- The PRESIDENT of the Philippines may establish within any
lands of the public domain, FOREST RESERVE and FOREST
RESERVATION for the national park system, FOR
PRESERVATION AS CRITICAL WATERSHEDS, or for any other
purpose, and MODIFY BOUNDARIES of existing ones.

- 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 ERDS.
 UTILIZATION AND MANAGEMENT

• The numerous beneficial uses of timber, land, soil, water, wildlife,

grass and recreation or aesthetic value of forest lands and grazing
lands shall be evaluated and weighted before allowing their
utilization, exploitation, occupation or possession thereof, or the
conduct of any activity therein.
• Only the utilization, exploitation, occupation or possession of any
forest lands and grazing lands, or any activity therein, involving one
or more of its resources, 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.
• All forest reservations may be open to development or uses not
inconsistent with the principal objectives of the reservation.
• Timber license is not a contract
• Principle of inter-generational responsibility

OPOSA et al. v. FULGENCIO S. FACTORAN, JR. et al

G.R.No. 101083
• The Supreme Court in granting the petition ruled that the children had the legal
standing to file the case based on the concept of “inter-generational
responsibility”. Their right to a healthy environment carried with it an
obligation to preserve that environment for the succeeding generations. In this,
the Court recognized legal standing to sue on behalf of future generations.

• The complaint focuses on one specific fundamental legal right — the right to a
balanced and healthful ecology which, for the first time in our nation's
constitutional history, is solemnly incorporated in the fundamental law. Section
16, Article II of the 1987 Constitution explicitly provides:

• Sec. 16. The State shall protect and advance the right of the people to a balanced
and healthful ecology in accord with the rhythm and harmony of nature.

• The right to a balanced and healthful ecology carries with it the correlative duty
to refrain from impairing the environment. Also, the Court said, the law on non-
impairment of contracts must give way to the exercise of the police power of the
state in the interest of public welfare.
License Agreement, License, Lease or Permit
• No person may utilize, exploit, occupy, possess or conduct
any activity within any forest land, or establish and operate
any wood-processing plant, unless he has been authorized to
do so under a license agreement, lease, license, or permit.
• No more TLAs
• Pursuant to DAO 99-53, TLAs may be converted to IFMA
• License agreement may be:
a. IFMA – Integrated Forest Management Agreement
b. CBFMA – Community Based Forest Management Agreement
• A license agreement is not a contract protected by the non-
impairment clause.
 TIMBER

• Duration of license agreement or

license to harvest timber in forest
lands - The maximum period of any
privilege to harvest timber is twenty-
five (25) years, renewable for a
period, not exceeding twenty-five
(25) years, necessary to utilize all the
remaining commercial quantity or
harvestable timber either from the
unlogged or logged-over area.
• 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 fifty (50)
years.
FOREST PROTECTION

All forest lands MUST be protected

Control of concession areas against kaingin,
squatting, insect infestation, etc.
QUALIFICATIONS OF
CONCESSIONAIRES

 Use of forest lands to be

DIFFUSED to as many
qualified users

 Filipino
equity preferred (60%
owned by them)

 Financial and technical

capabilities
CRIMINAL OFFENSES

cutting, gathering and/or collecting timber or other products

1.
without license

2. unlawful occupation or destruction of forest lands

3. pasturing livestock

4.illegal occupation of national parks system and recreation

areas and vandalism therein

5. survey by unauthorized persons

misclassification and survey by government official or

6.
employee
OFFENSES PUNISHED UNDER SECTION 68, PD
No. 705 as amended
• In People vs Que, the court explained there are two (2) distinct and separate offenses
punished under Section 68 of P.D. 705, to wit:

• (1) Cutting, gathering, collecting and removing timber or other forest products
from any forest land, or timber from alienable or disposable public land, or from private
land without any authority; and

• (2) Possession of timber or other forest products without the legal documents
required under existing forest laws and regulations.

• In the first offense, one can raise as a defense the legality of the acts of cutting, gathering,
collecting or removing timber or other forest products by presenting the authorization
issued by the DENR.

• In the second offense, however, it is immaterial whether the cutting, gathering,

collecting and removal of the forest products is legal or not. Mere possession of forest
products without the proper documents consummates the crime. Whether or not the
lumber comes from a legal source is immaterial because E.O 277 considers the mere
possession of timber or other forest products without the proper legal documents as malum
prohibitum.
Search and seizure without warrant
G.R No. 104988, June 18, 1996 257 SCRA 430

In Mustang lumber, Inc v. vs Court of appeals, it was held that

the seizure of petitioners truck and its cargo consisting if lauan
and almagica lumber which were not accompanied with the
required invoices and transport documents, was held to be a
valid exercise of the power vested upon a forest officer by
section 80 of P.D 705, as amended by P.D NO. 1775, the search
was conducted on a moving vehicle which could be lawfully
conducted without a search warrant.
Under Section 68 of PD No. 705, as amended the regional trial court has
jurisdiction to order the confiscation of the timber or forest products as well
as machinery, equipment, implements and tools illegally used in the are
where the timber or forest products are found.

Under Section 68-A of PD No. 705 as amended by E.O no. 277, the DENR
secretary or his duly authorized representative has jurisdiction to order
confiscation and disposition of all conveyances -- by land, water, or air used
in illegally cutting, gathering, removing, possessing or abandoning forest
products.
END!!
THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

OOPs. That is not me. 