Question & AnswerQ&A (DENR ADMINISTRATIVE ORDER NO. 60 s. 1993)
It is titled "Revised Industrial Forest Management Regulations."
The policies aim to ensure adequate supply of timber and forest products, promote sustainable and ecologically sound management of natural forests, and enhance the well-being of forest-dependent communities through equitable opportunities, income, and wealth distribution.
An IFMA is a contractual agreement between DENR and a qualified applicant that transfers responsibility to the applicant to invest, manage, protect land under DENR's jurisdiction, establish and manage industrial forest plantations, and sustainably utilize residual forests.
Type I IFMA Areas do not contain Residual Production Forest and are for plantation establishment and protection of Protection Forest. Type II IFMA Areas contain Residual Production Forest and are for plantation establishment, sustainable management of the residual forest, and protection of Protection Forest.
The minimum area is 500 hectares, while the maximum is 40,000 hectares, with some exceptions allowing variations on a case-to-case basis.
Qualified applicants include Filipino citizens of legal age, and corporations, partnerships, associations, or cooperatives registered under Philippine laws with at least 60% Filipino ownership or control, subject to proof of satisfactory past performance if previously holding relevant permits or licenses.
Management responsibility for these Type II IFMA Areas is assigned through public bidding based on the value of a performance bond covering the Residual Production Forest area.
The performance bond ensures IFMA Holders meet obligations concerning the management, protection, and improvement of Residual Production Forests. It serves as financial security against breaches or damage to forest resources.
Responsibilities include boundary delineation, submission and implementation of a Comprehensive Development and Management Plan, planting forest trees and suitable crops, managing natural residual forests sustainably, protecting forests from fires and illegal activities, reporting annually, and consulting with dependent communities including indigenous groups.
Grounds include obtaining the IFMA by fraud or misrepresentation, failure to settle forestry accounts, violation of terms and conditions, failure to submit required plans or inventories, illegal logging, failure to maintain performance bond, abandonment, or failure to protect the IFMA Area, among others.
Incentives include rights to harvest and utilize planted trees and crops, exemption from forest charges on plantation products, no restrictions on export of logs and lumber from plantations, entitlement to investment incentives under relevant codes, and payment terms for land rentals as per PD 705.
The RED identifies potential areas, conducts evaluations with field checks, demarcates suitable IFMA Areas on maps, notifies dependent communities, allows opportunity for objections, and ensures validation through resource inventory and management plans.
Disputes not settled by mutual agreement are referred to arbitration in accordance with the rules provided in RA No. 876.
Transfers or conveyances require Secretary’s authorization, compliance with various conditions including duration, compliance history, transferee qualifications, no speculative intent, assumption of obligations by transferee, financing consent, and consultation with indigenous claimants. Encumbrances like mortgages similarly require Secretary’s authorization.
IFMA Holders must convert Degraded Residual Forests to productive states through enrichment planting, timber stand improvement, assisted natural regeneration, or establishing plantations including clearing under strict environmental and operational conditions detailed in the Management Plan.