Contribution of Forestry to Poverty Alleviation - APFNet

Small-holder tree farms/private land tree plantations
Smallholder tree farming in upland areas are mostly under the tenure of Certificate of Stewardship
Contract (CSC) which was popularized in the 1980s. This was seen as an economic empowerment
program where farmers were encouraged to engage in the tree farming business. With the advent
of CBFM, many CSC holders opted to join POs, retaining their individual property rights over the
original CSC area. On the other hand, tree farming in private lands is popular in Mindanao, particularly
in the Agusan del Sur area. Falcata, gmelina, and rubber are the most popular tree crops planted.
Tree farming provides plenty of livelihood opportunities for local people, from seedling production to
planting, maintenance, harvesting, and marketing activities that entail hiring of local labor. Even the
communities dependent on traditional forestry benefit from employment in these tree farms as part
time labor during peak labor seasons of maintenance and harvesting.
Industrial Forestry
The wood-based industry was once a pillar of the national economy contributing around 5% to the
country’s gross national product (GNP) in the 1970s through forest charges, export earnings, and
generation of employment. Table IX.5 shows the country’s GNP and gross value added (GVA) in forestry
as well as the share of forestry to the GNP at constant prices. The GVA and percentage share of forestry
in the GNP declined since the 1970s. The percentage share of forestry in GNP dropped from 2.11% in
1981-1985 to 0.83% in 1990, and further dropped to only 0.06 % in 2001-2005 at current prices. This
decreasing importance of forestry as an economic sector in the economy as reflected in the GVA share
is somehow due to the continued strong growth in other economic sectors and the shrinking recorded
production in the sector, especially in the logging sector. From a total round log production of around
11 million cu m in the mid-1970s, total production shrunk to 1.4 million cu m in 2009 (FMB 2010).
Table IX.5. Gross national product (GNP) and gross value added (GVA)
Year GNP GVA in forestry % share to GNP
2006 6,570,310 4,342 0.07
2001-2005 4,768,244 2,820 0.06
1996-2000 2,842,264 3,412 0.13
1991-1995 1,566,769 5,278 0.36
1986-1990 802,559 10,790 1.41
1981-1985 419,318 8,862 2.11
1979-1980 241,282 5,931 2.45
in forestry, 1979-2006 (at 2006 constant prices, in million pesos)
Coordination Board 2007.ical (in million pesos)oss Value Added hectare)ated s Source: National Statistical Coordination
Board 2007.
In corporate forestry, there had been a steady decline on these types of tenure in terms of number and
area as shown in Table IX.6. From 8.04 million ha covered in 1980, it went down to 1.02 million ha in
2009. The gradual decrease in the number of TLAs is the result of a provision in the 1987 Philippine
Constitution that allowed only three modes of natural resources utilization, namely: joint venture, coproduction,
and production sharing with the government. The TLA is outside of these modes, hence, all
expiring TLAs were not renewed and no new agreements were issued since 1987. There are only four
remaining TLAs in 2009 and at present, no TLA is operating in secondary growth forests because of
EO 23 that effectively prohibited logging in second growth natural forests.
EO 23 also has profound implications on the employment situation in the uplands, as IFMA areas are
also affected. In the case study discussed in succeeding sections, there is a clamor from forest-based
dependent communities to lift or modify this EO so as not to deny these communities of sustainable
benefits from the harvesting privilege in “production residual forests.” It is assumed that with IFMA
holders strictly following the selective harvesting system, sustainability of resources management and
utilization can be ensured, hence, employment from all IFMA holders’ forest operations, together with
the dependent downstream industries, can be secured.
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