More than half of agricultural companies with Integrated Forestry Management Agreements (Ifmas) have failed to establish tree plantations and may eventually lose rights over vast tracts of land, an official of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said.
Director Nonito M. Tamayo, the director of the DENR’s Forest Management Bureau (FMB) told the BusinessMirror in a telephone interview that the agency is now collating audit reports and recommendations from various teams that were dispatched to Ifma areas as part of the comprehensive audit of the program.
A total of 89 Ifmas are covered by the nationwide audit following the flash flood that resulted in the death of more than two dozen people in Zamboanga del Sur in December last year.
One of several land tenurial instruments issued by the DENR to qualified beneficiaries, Ifma is a production-sharing contract entered into by the DENR through the FMB and a qualified applicant for a period of 25 years. The contract may be extended for another 25 years upon expiration.
It grants qualified applicants the exclusive right to develop, manage, protect and utilize a specified area of forestland and forest resources consistent with the principle of sustainable development and in accordance with an approved Comprehensive Development and Management Plan (CDMP) and under which both parties, the DENR and the contractor, share in its produce as provided for under DENR Administrative Order 99-53.
To recall, Environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu has ordered a comprehensive review of all existing Ifmas upon the instruction of President Duterte to stop the operation of big agricultural corporations with large forest-management concessions in Zambonga del Norte because of the tragedy.
The Dacon Group of Cos. and its subsidiaries, which operate tree plantations in Sibuco, Zamboanga del Norte, is being blamed for the destruction of the forest in the area that caused severe flooding at the height of Typhoon Vinta (international code name Tembin) last December. More than two dozen people died in Sibuco town as a result of the flooding.
However, Tamayo, eventually cleared the Dacon Group of liability, saying the flooding was caused by the degradation of the forest outside the Ifma areas.
But the incident paved the way for the comprehensive review of the 19-year-old program that is meant to make the country’s forest land productive through the establishment of industrial or agroforestry tree plantations.
“Some of the teams have arrived. It’s not yet complete but there are already initial reports. There are gross violations. Some Ifmas have not really commenced operation,” Tamayo said.
According to Tamayo, some of the Ifmas were awarded prior to the signing of Executive Order (EO) 23 which banned harvesting of timber from natural and residual forests.
Since then, he said, some Ifma holders have decided to cease operation. With EO 23 in place, the IFMA holders are supposed to establish tree plantations. But Tamayo said some were reluctant to invest in tree plantation because of peace and order problem.
“Some of Ifma holders said they were afraid to invest in tree plantation because of the presence of New People’s Army in the area,” Tamayo, speaking in a mix of English and Filipino said. “More than 50 percent have been found to commit a violation.”
According to Tamayo, another violation is the failure of Ifma holders to come up with their CDMP.
Tamayo said the failure to operate a tree plantation in the area covered by Ifma is a ground for cancelation of the contract.
Tamayo said the DENR is looking at awarding the Ifmas to other qualified applicants under the same program, granting that the applicants are willing and able to invest in tree plantation, precisely to make the lands productive.
Another option, he said, is to award some of the areas to qualified farmers under the Community-Based Forest Management (CBFM) program.
There is also a proposal to lease the areas to be freed from Ifma contracts to potential investors for power generation, particularly renewable energy.
“We will have to collate all data and come up with a recommendation to the DENR secretary for approval,” he said.