QuestionsQuestions (PRESIDENTIAL DECREE NO. 1559)
Under amended Sec. 3: (a) Public forest is mass of lands of the public domain not yet classified for forest purposes and not otherwise classified; (b) Permanent forest/forest reserves are lands of the public domain already classified and declared not needed for forest purposes; and (c) Alienable/disposable lands are lands of the public domain already classified and declared not needed for forest purposes. These definitions guide which lands can be regulated as forest resources.
Forest lands include public forest, permanent forest/forest reserves, and forest reservations. Grazing land is a portion of public domain set aside—based on suitability of topography and vegetation—for raising livestock.
Forest reservations are forest lands reserved by the President for specific purposes. A watershed reservation is a forest land reservation established to protect or improve water yield conditions or reduce sedimentation.
Multiple use requires evaluating and weighting beneficial uses (timber, land, soil, water, wildlife, grass, recreation/aesthetic) and allowing only those producing optimum benefits without impairment or with least injury to resources. Restrictions: critical watersheds, national parks, and established experimental forests cannot be subject to commercial logging or grazing; game refuges and bird sanctuaries (and marine/seashore parks) cannot be subject to hunting/fishing and other commercial activities.
No person may utilize/exploit/occupy/possess or conduct any activity within any forest and grazing land—or establish/install/operate processing plants—unless authorized under a license agreement, license, lease, or permit. Exception: when national interest requires, the President may amend/modify/replace/rescind any contract, concession, permit, license, or privilege. The President may also order summary suspension upon recommendation of the appropriate agency, pending hearing, for violations of conditions.
Dipterocarp forest: selective logging with enrichment or supplemental planting when necessary. Pine or mangrove forest: seed tree system with planting when necessary (subject to Department Head approval for alternative systems based on research).
No authorized person may cut/harvest/gather timber or other products unless he plants three (3) times the same variety for every tree cut or destroyed. Violation is sufficient ground for immediate cancellation of the license/agreement/lease/permit.
It is determined based on area size, volume and kind of harvestable timber/products and healthy residuals, seed trees and reproduction, as well as the established cutting cycle and rotation. No person may cut/harvest/gather specified forest products unless authorized under Sec. 20 and the particular annual allowable cut has been granted.
Pending completion of review and amendment, existing annual allowable cut not sufficiently supporting wood/forest products processing plants or that will support duly approved processing expansion/new processing projects may continue without change.
Expansion/integration/new processing plants are encouraged but locations and operations must be regulated to rationalize the industry. No expansion/integration or new plant establishment is allowed unless environmental considerations are taken into account and adequate sustained-yield raw material supply is assured.
As a condition to exercise of privileges under licenses/leases/permits, processors (and licensees/lessees/permittees without processing plants) must jointly adopt feasible scheme(s) other than log supply contracts—subject to approval by the Department Head—for raw material sourcing (e.g., industrial plantations/tree farms/agro-forest farms and similar arrangements). No grant or renewal is allowed unless the scheme(s) are submitted and approved.
Unless otherwise directed by the President, entire production of logs by all timber licensees must be processed locally starting January 1, 1976. Export of a portion may be allowed but total log exports by these timber licensees must not exceed twenty-five percent (25%) of the total national allowable cut.
Export permits may be granted if the licensee has (1) existing viable processing plants, or (2) processing projects duly approved by the Department Head, or (3) viable processing machinery that will become operational per an approved schedule, or (4) export support aligned with government-approved trade agreements. No export permit if replanting/reforestation requirements are not complied with.
Examples: (1) bare or grass-covered forest tracts; (2) brushlands/brush-covered tracts needing development; (3) open tracts interspersed with patches of forest; (4) denuded/inadequately timbered areas proclaimed by the President as forest reserves/reservations as critical watersheds/national parks/game refuge/bird sanctuaries/national shrines/national historic sites; (5) inadequately-stock forest lands within forest concessions; (6) portions covered by pasture leases/permits needing immediate reforestation; (7) river banks/easements/road rights-of-way/deltas/swamps/former river beds/beaches.
Lease term: fifty (50) years. Minimum area: one hundred (100) hectares for industrial tree plantations and agro-forestry farms; and ten (10) hectares for tree farms. (The actual size depends on capability of the lessee to convert/develop the area within the lease term.)
Incentives include: nominal filing fee of P0.50 per hectare; no rental for first 5 years; P0.50/ha annual rental years 6–10; P1.00/ha thereafter (with longer exemption for long denuded areas up to a maximum 25-year duration, and no rental if schedule of development is substantially met). Forest charges on timber/products grown/cut in plantations are 25% of regular forest charges. Exemption from percentage tax and certain sales/local taxes and real property tax under PD 853. Also exemptions from certain withholding tax obligations on interest on borrowings for development/operation.
They shall not be prosecuted if they entered without permit/authority before May 19, 1975, provided they do not increase their clearings, and they undertake within two months activities imposed by the Bureau under a management plan conserving and protecting forest resources. If best land use demands, they can be ejected and relocated to the nearest accessible government resettlement area.
It is punished with the penalties under Articles 309 and 310 of the Revised Penal Code. The Court shall order confiscation in favor of the government of the timber/forest products and also machinery/equipment/tools used, and forfeit improvements in the area. Timber/products from a license area are delivered to the licensee/permit holder free from claims of the illegal cutter but subject to payment of corresponding forest charges; if licensee refuses, products may be confiscated for disposition per law.