The trees of the Lord are watered
abundantly,
the cedars of the country which he planted.
In them the birds build their nests;
the stork has her home in the fir trees.
I have lived with troubling vistas of a realm that once made me serene: a realm of trees, among them I considered the world's biggest and tallest and almost its oldest ... valleys and slopes and mountaintops of trees, the majestic view of Mount Mayon from afar, sheltering wildlife, nurturing lesser foliage, regulating watersheds of Mt. Isarog... mature giants of trees that once gave our continent the monarch forests of the world, but lately those forests have become so shrunken that creatures formerly thriving there are nominated for the endangered list.
Not long ago, I was one of the kids playing across the street every afternoon. Like ordinary kids, we would play hide and seek, karate-base, patentero, and a whole lot more. Witness to these youthful years was the huge acacia tree covering the entire playfield with his branches, protecting us from the rays of the sun. Our house was just adjacent to where the tree was. I have seen how tough he was to have endured strong typhoons, and to remain strong and firm after almost being burned because of lightning. More than just his being a witness to my childhood years, I was a witness to his struggles. That is why I felt so sorry that just a few months ago, the neighborhood decided to cut him down (for good), which until now, I don’t understand why. He does not cause disruption from the vehicles that were crossing. Neither does he give a threat to the kids that were playing under his strong and reliable branches. I kept on wondering, is putting at risk nature really the price of securing the human welfare?
The Philippines is marked by the abundance of natural resources. The country has a rich forest resources, mineral reserves, water reservoir, and energy resources. However, the country has always faced a problem on mismanagement. The regulations on the protection of the forests existed but not really implemented strictly. People make use of this as an opportunity to illegally provide themselves with extra income by making use nature which is the habitat to wildlife. Thus, this results to the nature’s destruction and the imbalance of the ecosystem, causing a lot of negative effects not just to forest animals, but to living organisms as a whole.
The Philippines is facing a lot of problems that the government has to address. But the government sees nothing but problems regarding to politics and nothing else. Government officials believe that it is the sole problem and if properly resolved, it would create a chain of outcomes, eliminating other ‘minor’ problems. I certainly disagree. For the past decades, a bulk of government’s attention focused on politics alone and nothing positive really transpired. Now, the country is still in a state of struggling to resolve problems on politics, particularly mismanagement and less control in the fiscal aspect leading to corruption. I think the Filipinos have had enough. It’s about time to think about what Vice President Al Gore said, saying that there is something out there that is far more important. And of that, he pertains to the global environmental catastrophes.
More than 7,000 islands make up the Philippines, but the bulk of its fast-growing population lives on just 11 of them. The Philippines has the highest birth rate in Asia, and forecasters say the population could double within three decades. Population problems lead to scarcity of natural resources to provide with each families. With a number of people residing in a certain locality, there is a lesser opportunity for each one to uplift their way of life. People end up hoping to grab each opportunity only to realize that they are not capable to work for it. Their insufficient literacy and lack of access to quality education makes their status stagnant, characterized by reliance on what they have and not aspiring for something more. They become hopeless and end up in the state of poverty long enough wishing someone would lift them up and save them.
The problem does not end there. People, to sustain their basic needs, resort to illegal acts like stealing. I believe we really couldn’t blame them because it is their response to provide themselves with something essential for living. Nevertheless, some would even resort to violation of laws on the environment like working for a company that utilizes illegally outsourced raw materials coming from Philippine forests. Some may even hunt animals, even those that are endangered and protected under government ordinance, just to sell to tourists and animal collectors. In the same way, fishermen would venture into illegal acts of fishing like the use of dynamite and cyanide to provide their families food at the end of the day.
There is a chain of outcome. One problem leads to the other. And the responsibility to act lies not to the government alone. The entire Filipino community must take part to eradicate the threat posed to the environment. Every Filipino, yes including you, has the responsibility to protect his motherland, to start a quest of transition of what the country used to be. The Filipinos must strive to go back to the era when the country still has more than 71% forest cover. After all, one may have earned much with the wrong way of utilization of the Philippine natural resources, but in the long run, it would backfire causing harm to the entire Filipino race. These harms were predominantly seen even as of today.
Much of the country is mountainous and prone to earthquakes and eruptions from around 20 active volcanoes. It is often buffeted by typhoons and other storms. These storms and earthquakes are far stronger than those we had in the past. Considering Typhoon Reming which brought great destruction in Bicol, there is no doubt that today, the country is vulnerable against these natural phenomena. Landslides, such as the one which has buried an entire community in the central Philippines, are often blamed on human-made acts particularly logging. What experts did agree on was the probable impact of heavy rain in the low-lying areas. The lives of hundreds of villagers would be at risk if a major landslide would occur in these places.
Landslides, is one major effect of the destruction of our forest trees. As we all know, the most important ecological function of trees is protecting the land against erosion, the wearing away of topsoil due to wind and water. The trunks and branches of trees provide protection from the wind, and tree roots help solidify soil in times of heavy rain. In addition, trees and forests store water reserves that act as buffers for the ecosystem during periods of drought. In many areas the removal of forests has resulted in costly floods and subsequent droughts. Trees and forests also provide habitat, protection, and food for many plant and animal species. In addition, they play an important role in global climate and atmosphere regulation—the leaves of trees absorb carbon dioxide in the air and produce oxygen that is necessary for life.
More than just the ecological function of trees, it has many economic uses. Lumber from trees is the most widely used material in the building of homes and other structures. Many trees yield edible fruits and nuts such as guavas, mangoes, papayas, and whole lot more. Trees and their fruits are also the source of many commercial waxes and oils, including olive oil and coconut oil. Tree trunks are tapped for sap, which is used in making such products as maple syrup, rubber, and turpentine. The barks of certain trees are sources of cork and spices. Many trees yield important medicines, such as quinine. The bark of the yew tree is the source of the drug taxol, which in 1992 was approved for treating ovarian cancer.
Indeed, forests provide many social, economic, and environmental benefits. In addition to timber and paper products, forests provide wildlife habitat and recreational opportunities, prevent soil erosion and flooding, help provide clean air and water, and contain tremendous biodiversity. Forests are also an important defense against global climate change. Through the process of photosynthesis, forests produce life-giving oxygen and consume huge amounts of carbon dioxide, the atmospheric chemical most responsible for global warming. By decreasing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, forests may reduce the effects of global warming.
Our forest gives us too much ease our lifestyle. Yet, a number of Filipinos abuse this benefit and end up destroying our forests. Hugh Speechly, a forestry consultant who lived in the Philippines for 12 years, said that in fact much of the logging in the country had already taken place. Is this our way of giving back to the environment what it has bestowed upon us?
The entire world is very much concerned about this environmental dilemma. In 2005 the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations issued a major report, titled “Global Forest Resources Assessment 2005,” on the status of the world’s forests. Based on a five-year study, the report found that forested areas throughout the world were continuing to decline at a rate of about 7.3 million hectares (18 million acres) per year, an area equivalent in size to Panama or Sierra Leone. However, the rate of decline had slowed in comparison with the period from 1990 to 2000, when the world lost about 8.9 million hectares (22 million acres) of forested area per year. Africa and South America continued to have the largest net loss of forests, while forest loss also continued in North and Central America and the Pacific Islands. Only Europe and Asia showed a net gain in forested areas due to forest planting, landscape restoration, and expansion of natural forests. China, in particular, reported a large-scale afforestation effort. In 2005 the world’s total forest area was just less than 4 billion hectares (10 billion acres).
In the United States and Canada, and even in the Philippines, forests are threatened by extensive logging, called clear-cutting, which destroys plant and animal habitat and leaves the landscape bare and unproductive if not properly reforested. Small pockets of ancient forests from 200 to 1,200 years old still exist but are threatened by logging interests.
Until the 1990s, the U.S. Forest Service was directed by Congress to maximize the harvest of timber in order to provide jobs. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, however, environmentalists sued the government for violating the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and heavy logging was deemed unsustainable. As a result, the timber harvest was reduced and foresters were directed to follow a more sustainable policy called ecosystem management. This policy required foresters to focus on conserving natural habitats rather than maximizing tree harvest. Despite this change, many ancient forests remain unprotected.
Can the Philippines do the same thing? President Gloria Arroyo actually has suspended logging and vowed punishment for law-breakers. Permits to fell trees across the nation will no longer be issued, pending a review of the environmental effect. And illegal loggers would be punished like "terrorists and kidnappers", Mrs Arroyo said, visiting badly hit areas. She also revoked existing licences in the worst-hit areas. However, there are still a number of Filipinos ‘silently violating’ this law. As Bob Ong says, there would always be a way for Filipinos to cheat the law and ironic it may seem, they would even to rejoice whenever they were able to do so. Sigh.
Legal and illegal logging is blamed for worsening the impact of the storms, which have left 1,000 dead or missing. It leaves animals to lose their natural habitat. It poses a threat to mankind who relies on the benefits they get from our forests. Isn’t these consequences enough?
I view Filipinos to find more voices calling for new approaches to the problem. I view them to get involved. It is true that the vision of sustained yield enlarges to embrace sustained ecological systems. But we work with an ever shrinking resource, with fading options. Are we already too late?
While we pursue hopeful visions, our options shrink daily, and somewhere in what remains there stands a tree of no return. It is not a specific spruce or fir but a specific number in the sequence of cutting, beyond which the remaining old growth will have shrunk below what natural processes can repair. Then creatures and plants dependent on the ancient woodland's moist multilayered canopies and rich ground covers, on the shelter and nurture bequeathed by its fallen patriarchs, will limp toward extinction amid the once great forest's crazy-quilt vestiges.
So how much is enough? This question looms over all the old forests of the U. S. and Canada. “The truth is that there isn't that much left to protect,” said Brock Evans. He leads the National Audubon Society, a member of the Pacific Northwest's Ancient Forest Alliance of 80 environmental groups. They have fostered a bill in Congress that would stop all cutting of old-growth forests on federal lands.
Now is the time to take action. It is a challenge for us to act to resolve the logging problem once and for all. Let us unite and secure a better future for our next generation. After all, we wouldn’t want our children to blame us for not acting on this, would we? You see, since logging started here few decades ago wildlife has decreased. We have fewer tamaraws, fewer agilas, and fewer mayas. If the logging continues, none will be left for our children.
“We've been too generous, too gentle,” said Alex Short, speaking hesitatingly but with deep feeling. “We've been sleeping. Now all must help.”
Protect the environment. Plant more trees. Practice proper waste disposal. Make use of the 3Rs. Live an environment-friendly life. The fate of our forests is in our hands.
Sources:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2007. © 1993-2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
abundantly,
the cedars of the country which he planted.
In them the birds build their nests;
the stork has her home in the fir trees.
I have lived with troubling vistas of a realm that once made me serene: a realm of trees, among them I considered the world's biggest and tallest and almost its oldest ... valleys and slopes and mountaintops of trees, the majestic view of Mount Mayon from afar, sheltering wildlife, nurturing lesser foliage, regulating watersheds of Mt. Isarog... mature giants of trees that once gave our continent the monarch forests of the world, but lately those forests have become so shrunken that creatures formerly thriving there are nominated for the endangered list.
Not long ago, I was one of the kids playing across the street every afternoon. Like ordinary kids, we would play hide and seek, karate-base, patentero, and a whole lot more. Witness to these youthful years was the huge acacia tree covering the entire playfield with his branches, protecting us from the rays of the sun. Our house was just adjacent to where the tree was. I have seen how tough he was to have endured strong typhoons, and to remain strong and firm after almost being burned because of lightning. More than just his being a witness to my childhood years, I was a witness to his struggles. That is why I felt so sorry that just a few months ago, the neighborhood decided to cut him down (for good), which until now, I don’t understand why. He does not cause disruption from the vehicles that were crossing. Neither does he give a threat to the kids that were playing under his strong and reliable branches. I kept on wondering, is putting at risk nature really the price of securing the human welfare?
The Philippines is marked by the abundance of natural resources. The country has a rich forest resources, mineral reserves, water reservoir, and energy resources. However, the country has always faced a problem on mismanagement. The regulations on the protection of the forests existed but not really implemented strictly. People make use of this as an opportunity to illegally provide themselves with extra income by making use nature which is the habitat to wildlife. Thus, this results to the nature’s destruction and the imbalance of the ecosystem, causing a lot of negative effects not just to forest animals, but to living organisms as a whole.
The Philippines is facing a lot of problems that the government has to address. But the government sees nothing but problems regarding to politics and nothing else. Government officials believe that it is the sole problem and if properly resolved, it would create a chain of outcomes, eliminating other ‘minor’ problems. I certainly disagree. For the past decades, a bulk of government’s attention focused on politics alone and nothing positive really transpired. Now, the country is still in a state of struggling to resolve problems on politics, particularly mismanagement and less control in the fiscal aspect leading to corruption. I think the Filipinos have had enough. It’s about time to think about what Vice President Al Gore said, saying that there is something out there that is far more important. And of that, he pertains to the global environmental catastrophes.
More than 7,000 islands make up the Philippines, but the bulk of its fast-growing population lives on just 11 of them. The Philippines has the highest birth rate in Asia, and forecasters say the population could double within three decades. Population problems lead to scarcity of natural resources to provide with each families. With a number of people residing in a certain locality, there is a lesser opportunity for each one to uplift their way of life. People end up hoping to grab each opportunity only to realize that they are not capable to work for it. Their insufficient literacy and lack of access to quality education makes their status stagnant, characterized by reliance on what they have and not aspiring for something more. They become hopeless and end up in the state of poverty long enough wishing someone would lift them up and save them.
The problem does not end there. People, to sustain their basic needs, resort to illegal acts like stealing. I believe we really couldn’t blame them because it is their response to provide themselves with something essential for living. Nevertheless, some would even resort to violation of laws on the environment like working for a company that utilizes illegally outsourced raw materials coming from Philippine forests. Some may even hunt animals, even those that are endangered and protected under government ordinance, just to sell to tourists and animal collectors. In the same way, fishermen would venture into illegal acts of fishing like the use of dynamite and cyanide to provide their families food at the end of the day.
There is a chain of outcome. One problem leads to the other. And the responsibility to act lies not to the government alone. The entire Filipino community must take part to eradicate the threat posed to the environment. Every Filipino, yes including you, has the responsibility to protect his motherland, to start a quest of transition of what the country used to be. The Filipinos must strive to go back to the era when the country still has more than 71% forest cover. After all, one may have earned much with the wrong way of utilization of the Philippine natural resources, but in the long run, it would backfire causing harm to the entire Filipino race. These harms were predominantly seen even as of today.
Much of the country is mountainous and prone to earthquakes and eruptions from around 20 active volcanoes. It is often buffeted by typhoons and other storms. These storms and earthquakes are far stronger than those we had in the past. Considering Typhoon Reming which brought great destruction in Bicol, there is no doubt that today, the country is vulnerable against these natural phenomena. Landslides, such as the one which has buried an entire community in the central Philippines, are often blamed on human-made acts particularly logging. What experts did agree on was the probable impact of heavy rain in the low-lying areas. The lives of hundreds of villagers would be at risk if a major landslide would occur in these places.
Landslides, is one major effect of the destruction of our forest trees. As we all know, the most important ecological function of trees is protecting the land against erosion, the wearing away of topsoil due to wind and water. The trunks and branches of trees provide protection from the wind, and tree roots help solidify soil in times of heavy rain. In addition, trees and forests store water reserves that act as buffers for the ecosystem during periods of drought. In many areas the removal of forests has resulted in costly floods and subsequent droughts. Trees and forests also provide habitat, protection, and food for many plant and animal species. In addition, they play an important role in global climate and atmosphere regulation—the leaves of trees absorb carbon dioxide in the air and produce oxygen that is necessary for life.
More than just the ecological function of trees, it has many economic uses. Lumber from trees is the most widely used material in the building of homes and other structures. Many trees yield edible fruits and nuts such as guavas, mangoes, papayas, and whole lot more. Trees and their fruits are also the source of many commercial waxes and oils, including olive oil and coconut oil. Tree trunks are tapped for sap, which is used in making such products as maple syrup, rubber, and turpentine. The barks of certain trees are sources of cork and spices. Many trees yield important medicines, such as quinine. The bark of the yew tree is the source of the drug taxol, which in 1992 was approved for treating ovarian cancer.
Indeed, forests provide many social, economic, and environmental benefits. In addition to timber and paper products, forests provide wildlife habitat and recreational opportunities, prevent soil erosion and flooding, help provide clean air and water, and contain tremendous biodiversity. Forests are also an important defense against global climate change. Through the process of photosynthesis, forests produce life-giving oxygen and consume huge amounts of carbon dioxide, the atmospheric chemical most responsible for global warming. By decreasing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, forests may reduce the effects of global warming.
Our forest gives us too much ease our lifestyle. Yet, a number of Filipinos abuse this benefit and end up destroying our forests. Hugh Speechly, a forestry consultant who lived in the Philippines for 12 years, said that in fact much of the logging in the country had already taken place. Is this our way of giving back to the environment what it has bestowed upon us?
The entire world is very much concerned about this environmental dilemma. In 2005 the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations issued a major report, titled “Global Forest Resources Assessment 2005,” on the status of the world’s forests. Based on a five-year study, the report found that forested areas throughout the world were continuing to decline at a rate of about 7.3 million hectares (18 million acres) per year, an area equivalent in size to Panama or Sierra Leone. However, the rate of decline had slowed in comparison with the period from 1990 to 2000, when the world lost about 8.9 million hectares (22 million acres) of forested area per year. Africa and South America continued to have the largest net loss of forests, while forest loss also continued in North and Central America and the Pacific Islands. Only Europe and Asia showed a net gain in forested areas due to forest planting, landscape restoration, and expansion of natural forests. China, in particular, reported a large-scale afforestation effort. In 2005 the world’s total forest area was just less than 4 billion hectares (10 billion acres).
In the United States and Canada, and even in the Philippines, forests are threatened by extensive logging, called clear-cutting, which destroys plant and animal habitat and leaves the landscape bare and unproductive if not properly reforested. Small pockets of ancient forests from 200 to 1,200 years old still exist but are threatened by logging interests.
Until the 1990s, the U.S. Forest Service was directed by Congress to maximize the harvest of timber in order to provide jobs. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, however, environmentalists sued the government for violating the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and heavy logging was deemed unsustainable. As a result, the timber harvest was reduced and foresters were directed to follow a more sustainable policy called ecosystem management. This policy required foresters to focus on conserving natural habitats rather than maximizing tree harvest. Despite this change, many ancient forests remain unprotected.
Can the Philippines do the same thing? President Gloria Arroyo actually has suspended logging and vowed punishment for law-breakers. Permits to fell trees across the nation will no longer be issued, pending a review of the environmental effect. And illegal loggers would be punished like "terrorists and kidnappers", Mrs Arroyo said, visiting badly hit areas. She also revoked existing licences in the worst-hit areas. However, there are still a number of Filipinos ‘silently violating’ this law. As Bob Ong says, there would always be a way for Filipinos to cheat the law and ironic it may seem, they would even to rejoice whenever they were able to do so. Sigh.
Legal and illegal logging is blamed for worsening the impact of the storms, which have left 1,000 dead or missing. It leaves animals to lose their natural habitat. It poses a threat to mankind who relies on the benefits they get from our forests. Isn’t these consequences enough?
I view Filipinos to find more voices calling for new approaches to the problem. I view them to get involved. It is true that the vision of sustained yield enlarges to embrace sustained ecological systems. But we work with an ever shrinking resource, with fading options. Are we already too late?
While we pursue hopeful visions, our options shrink daily, and somewhere in what remains there stands a tree of no return. It is not a specific spruce or fir but a specific number in the sequence of cutting, beyond which the remaining old growth will have shrunk below what natural processes can repair. Then creatures and plants dependent on the ancient woodland's moist multilayered canopies and rich ground covers, on the shelter and nurture bequeathed by its fallen patriarchs, will limp toward extinction amid the once great forest's crazy-quilt vestiges.
So how much is enough? This question looms over all the old forests of the U. S. and Canada. “The truth is that there isn't that much left to protect,” said Brock Evans. He leads the National Audubon Society, a member of the Pacific Northwest's Ancient Forest Alliance of 80 environmental groups. They have fostered a bill in Congress that would stop all cutting of old-growth forests on federal lands.
Now is the time to take action. It is a challenge for us to act to resolve the logging problem once and for all. Let us unite and secure a better future for our next generation. After all, we wouldn’t want our children to blame us for not acting on this, would we? You see, since logging started here few decades ago wildlife has decreased. We have fewer tamaraws, fewer agilas, and fewer mayas. If the logging continues, none will be left for our children.
“We've been too generous, too gentle,” said Alex Short, speaking hesitatingly but with deep feeling. “We've been sleeping. Now all must help.”
Protect the environment. Plant more trees. Practice proper waste disposal. Make use of the 3Rs. Live an environment-friendly life. The fate of our forests is in our hands.
Sources:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2007. © 1993-2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
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