Quezon City, Philippines — After the landmark approval of House Bill No. 8179  in the House of Representatives during its third reading, members of the Society of Filipino Foresters (SFFI), Forest Management Bureau (FMB), and the Department of Natural Resources (DENR) quickly reassembled to discuss the revisions for the said substitute bill. 

Key points in the bill were discussed:

How the forestry sector could contribute to the national economy. The delineation and demarcation of production areas for investments have very good potential. It could increase the national GDP by 0.4% which could amount to trillions of pesos.

Sections in the bill pertaining to the inclusion of eco-tourism outside of NIPAS areas, land administration per tenure, and environmental impact or climate change were also discussed.

Arzel Manalili, SFFI Deputy Secretary-General stressed that the benefits of the SFM Bill to the common people must be well presented in order to make it an inclusive legislation.

However, it was pointed out that the corporate sector must also be considered and not give complete focus on the household level. As a matter of fact, it is the corporate sector that will handle the investments and larger pieces of land, including the tree plantations

Several issues were also brought out, most notable of which was the questionable credibility of the methodology used to identify the 25 million households in forest areas, using only images of rooftops in satellite photos and was done in the 1980s. Statistics and sampling may have been inaccurate.

Another issue was the apparent confusion in the terminology being used in the bill which included the following definition and classification terms; old growth, primary growth, secondary growth, open canopy, and closed canopy, among others. Likewise, the delineation between production forests and protection forests remained unclear. 

As for the existing old-growth forests, other questions were also brought up, “We are very protective of our old-growth forests and yet we have not identified where they are” 

Do we need to consider/ protect the old-growth?

Are they even well identified?

Arzel Manalili suggested that FMB must recommend a more appropriate set of terminology and all participants unanimously agreed.

The adoption of the Forest Investment Roadmap for the Philippines was in 2019 by DENR Secretary (Cimatu) was also pointed out.

— SFFI/Advocacy Towards the Passage of the SFM Bill – Phase 2_11 February 2021