Part II
COUNTRY BRIEFS (continued)

THE PHILIPPINES (continued)

In addition to the above, the following two studies provide forest area information on a countrywide basis (2) (12):

• forest condition map drawn at a scale of 1/50 000 in 1967–72 and based on aerial photo-interpretation;

• land cover class area assessment using computer assisted analysis of Landsat data.

The results of these two studies are tabulated below along with the BFD statistics for the years 1970 and 1979 in a comparable format.

The estimate of the commercial forest area given by the BFD in 1970 is rather close to that obtained from aerial photo-interpretation. The two differ mainly in respect of non-commercial forest areas termed as “reproduction brush”. this type of vegetation appears to have arisen due to past and current shifting cultivation. It may be noted that the Landsat figures tend to be systematically lower than both the BFD and the aerial photo estimates in respect of commercial as well as non-commercial forest areas. Keeping in view limitations of Landsat data, the BFD 1970 area estimate has been used as the basis and projected to 1980.

Areas of natural woody vegetation estimated at end 1980
(in thousand ha)

The following remarks are necessary for a proper interpretation of this table:

• forest types appearing as rows correspond to the BFD classification, whereas classes appearing in the colums refer to the classification of the woody vegetation used in this study;

• the 1980 area figures are derived by adjusting the 1970 values with the estimates of total change during the period 1970–80 as discussed in detail in section 2.1.1;

• the estimated area of virgin forest (3 million ha) is rather close to a recent BFD figure of 3.4 million ha but the area of logged over forests which are still forest (NHCf1uc) is only 3.7 million ha;

• the area under the class NHCf2i mainly consists of unproductive dipterocarp forests;

• the area under the class NHCf2r includes 0.31 million ha of national parks, 0.25 million ha of civil and about 0.13 million ha of military reservations, or a total of 0.69 million ha;

• NHCa includes all of the areas classed as “reproductive brush” by the BFD. A scrutiny of areas under this type on aerial photos shows evidence of past shifting cultivation.

Ownership and legal status

The ownership of forest areas in the Philippines is almost entirely vested in the state. Major changes in forest policy were introduced in 1975 by a Presidential Decree (No. 705) consolidating the four forest agencies in the country namely: the Bureau of Forestry, the Reforestation Administration, the Southern Cebu Reforestation Development Project and the Parks and Wildlife Office were actually merged into one agency now known as the Bureau of Forest Development (BFD) making it respondible for: (i) protection, development, management, regeneration and reforestation of forest lands; (ii) regulation and supervision of the operation of licensees, leasees and permittees for the taking or use of forest products therefrom or the occupancy or use thereof; (iii) implementation of multiple-use and sustained yield management in forest lands; (iv) protection, development and preservation of national parks, marine parks, game retuges and wildlife; and (v) implementation of measures and programs to prevent kaingin and managed occupancy of forest and grazing lands.

The Bureau of Forest Development is further mandated by law to effectively, efficiently and economically classify lands of the public domain in collaboration with other bureaus. All lands considered not needed for forest purposes are classified and certified as alienable and disposable and their administrative jurisdiction and management are then transferred to the Bureau of Lands for disposition in accordance with the provisions of the Public Land Act. In the case of mangrove areas and other swamp lands which are suitable for fishpond purposes, the administrative jurisdiction and management of such areas are placed under the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources.

The object of the present system of land classification is to retain at least 42% of the total land area (30 million ha) of the country as forest land making available the remaining 58% for agriculture, industrial, residential and other uses. In order to attain this objective, all lands over 18% (10°) slope are to be retained for forest purposes. Only areas below 18% in slope can be classified as alienable or disposable provided they meet other criteria set by law. Moreover, where the public interest so requires, areas previously classified as alienable or disposable may be reverted to the category of forest land.

Till 1979, some 9.3 million hectares have been classified as forest lands, and 13.0 million hectares as alienable or disposable. Still to be classified are some 7.5 million hectares of unclassified lands, about half of which have been programmed and predetermined to be classified as alienable or disposable. Of the total classified forest lands, 8.6 million hectares are forest reserves and timberland, 0.31 million hectares are national parks, 0.13 million hectares are military reserves and 0.25 million hectares are civil reservations (4) (22).

Forest management (6)

Most of the timberland administered by the Bureau of Forest Development, has been licensed to concessionaires for development and exploitation. The Bureau is, however, ultimately responsible for ensuring that the public forest land is managed under the concepts of “multiple use” and “sustained yield” and has the responsibility of prescribing the silvicultural systems to be adopted for ensuring the optimum sustained yield of raw material. It has also recently been given responsibility for providing guidance in the preparation of multiple use management plans, to be drawn up by the concessionaires and approved by the Bureau. At the present time Forest Management Plans, for which a basic format is laid down, are required from all concessionaires, and the intention is to expand these into Multiple-use Forest Management Plans, in due course. The main silvicultural systems in operation at present are the “modified selection system” in the dipterocarp forests and the “seed tree method” in the pine stands. The selection system is defined as “the systematic removal of the mature, over-mature and defective trees in such a manner as to leave uninjured and adequate number and volume of the desired species to ensure a future crop of timber and forest cover for the protection and conservation of soil and water”. The absence of silvicultural treatments and of detailed control of logging operations do not qualify significant forest areas as “intensively managed forests” in the sense used in this study (NHCf1m-NSf1m-0).

In order to monitor the effect of cutting practices a continuous forest inventory was introduced using a systematic grid of 0.1 ha circular plots over the whole of each concession area and a subsampling in quadrats to count regeneration. The number of plots is calculated from estimates of the variability of the forest, so as to give a 5% accuracy in the estimate of total volume. The plots are remeasured annually for the first three years, then at the fifth year, and thereafter at 5 year intervals. A considerable body of very valuable data has been accumulated from this inventory. These data are probably among the most comprehensive and prolonged measurements of the response of tropical forests to logging in the region, though the logging system used is more or less confined to the Philippines, and, in a modified form, to Indonesia. A set of volume tables for dipterocarp and non-dipterocarp species by region has been published, and these are used for predicting volume increment from the measurement of diameter increment.

Forest inventory (15)

The first national forest inventory, as mentioned earlier, was carried out during 1962–68 with the cooperation of the United States. A double sampling design was used. A large number of points on aerial photographs were examined and classified according to land use/forest types and stand size. Then a smaller number of these photo points were systematically selected, and verified and examined on the ground.

Forest growth/mortality was determined on the basis of the data from continuous forest inventory plots established within logged-over dipterocarp forests. These data are now being gathered and analysed by the Forest Research Institute. A special study on timber utilization by selected small, medium and large logging companies was conducted. Likewise, production figures based from scaling reports were compiled. These data were used to determine the timber drain as a result of logging.

A second nation-wide inventory is planned, which is expected to be implemented in the near future.

During 1965–69 forests of the whole country were mapped at a scale of 1:50 000 using aerial photographs at the scale of 1:15 000 showing various land uses, forest types and stand sizes. Another project on forest cover monitoring using Landsat CCTs was conducted in 1979 as cooperative effort between the Ministry of Natural Resources and the General Electric Company. A summary of area information obtained from the above three sources has already been presented above.

Forest utilization

Log harvesting

Forest utilization is entrusted entirely to private entrepreneurs through a system of licenses, leases and permits known as Timber License Agreement, Pulpwood License Agreement, A & D Timber License, Softwood Timber License, Minor Forest Products License Pasture Lease, Special Use License etc. (17). Today there are 8.19 million ha of such areas allocated to 284 license holders with an aggregate annual allowable cut of 17.45 million m³ of which 198 are holders of long term licence with an equivalent annual allowable cut of 13.74 million m³.

Timber License Agreements are usually executed on a long term basis (10–25 years) renewable upon expiration for an equivalent period but not to exceed 50 years. As a matter of policy, the minimum area granted under long term license is not less than 20 000 hectares with a minimum annual allowable cut of 25 000 m³. This policy was implemented in 1967 in accordance with presidential instructions for the merger or consolidation of smaller areas which are contiguous. The objective was to effect better management of the consolidated areas under one of the surviving corporate entity. License holders are authorized to export up to 30% of their lumber production and up to 70% of plywood production. For finished lumber products, up to 90% of the production may be exported (21).

Mention may be made of a private company “Paper Industries Corporation of the Philippines” holding a license of some 183 000 ha of forest area for a 25 year period, renewable for another 25 years. It has a total annual allowable cut of 1.8 million m³ and is owning a fully integrated wood industrial complex composed of a sawmill, two plywood plants, a veneer plant, a pulp and paper mill, a blockboard plant, series of dry kilns, wood-based power plants and other auxiliary facilities, with a total investment of US$200 million.

Log production data for the country from 1956 to 1975 on a 5-year basis, and from 1976 onward on an annual basis is given below (14):

Log production 1956–80
(in thousand m3)

Allowing an arbitrary 30% reduction for logging loss and hidden defects, the estimated average recovery of commercial dipterocarps for the main regions is (8):

Mindanao supplies approximately three quarters of the total registered commercial log production for the country. The utilization of the licensed allowable cut is also much higher in Mindanao than in the rest of the country.

Other forest products

Fuelwood and charcoal production is estimated for 1978 at 24.5 million m³ by the FAO Yearbook of Forest Products, and that of other industrial roundwood at 1.9 million m³. Rattan and bamboo cottage industry is playing locally a significant role.

1.1.3 Present situation of the growing stock

The following table gives an an idea of stem distribution in the unworked virgin forests of the four climatic regions mentioned in the introduction (18):

Philippine virgin stand table
(number of stems/ha per climate type)

Logging operations are reported to inflict considerable damage to residuals and seedling regeneration. The following table gives an idea of typical stands after logging for the major geographic regions:

Summary of residual stands
(commercial species only)

The distribution of growing stock in the various forest and stand types, based on the national forest inventory data is estimated as follows:

It may be mentioned here that the first nationwide inventory provides estimates of the sound and cull volume/ha for various forest types and stand sizes for trees more than 15 cm DBH. The volume /ha overbark of trees more than 10 cm DBH (VOB) has been obtained in three stages: (i) adding the sound and cull volumes per ha; (ii) extrapolating the volume for trees more than 15 cm DBH to trees more than 10 cm DBH by multiplying the former with a factor of 1.04 based on experience of other forest inventories and finally (iii) the underbark volume was converted into overbark volume by multiplying the former with 1.08, a factor again based on experience with other inventories.

Using the forest area figures of 1980 and the growing stock/ha just given, following estimates for the growing stock by end 1980 have been obtained.

Growing stock estimated at end 1980
(totals in million m³)

1.2 Plantations

1.2.1 Introduction

Plantations in the country were started as early as in 1910. However it was only after 1960 that they were given adequate importance. The country entered a new phase of intensive plantations in 1976 by enlisting the cooperation of the private companies, individuals and other government agencies in addition to the BFD main agency responsible so far. During this year a “Programme for Ecosystem Management” (PROFEM) was launched which requires all citizens over 10 years old to plant trees at the rate of one tree a month for five years. Earlier to this, in June 1974, the World Bank approved a development loan of US$ 2 million for the use of the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) to encourage communal tree farming (CTF) projects for the production of Albizia falcataria for newsprint pulp. Results of this programme are reported to be so encouraging that in 1979 the DBP opened a new credit line of P 30 million to boost the smallholder tree farming programme. The latest emphasis is on the growing of Albizia falcataria and Gmelina arborea for pulpwood and particle board and of Leucaena leucocephala (giant ipilipil) for firewood, pulpwood, charcoal or leaf-meal production.

1.2.2 Areas of established plantations

The BFD (18) gives areas of plantations in the country yearwise since 1960. There is, however, complete lack of information about the actual stocking of the plantations. In this paragraph the situation of the plantations is received by main group, i.e. industrial plantations, and plantations raised for protective purposes and for firewood and leaf-meal production. The plantations raised by concessionaires and by private and community farmers, are mainly for industrial utilization. All other plantations, namely those raised by BFD, the other government departments and the private citizens under PROFEM are mainly for protective and aesthetic purposes. BFD's stress has always been on the reforestation of the denuded and barren lands in the critical watersheds. According to (10) “the potential of these plantations for producing commercial timber is so small that it can safely be disregarded in a national resource statement”.

Industrial plantations

In the following statement two estimates are given, one for gross areas (in brackets) and the other for net areas (without brackets). For converting the gross areas into net a reduction factor 0.50 has been used for the period prior to 1976 and 0.77 for the period 1976–1980. It may be noted that the latter factor (i.e. 0.77) is likely to undergo further reduction in course of time on account of mortality. For long-term prediction a factor of 0.50 is expected to be more realistic. Results obtained in this way are compatible with data from other sources. For example, (14) mentions the area of industrial plantations of PICOP by end 1978 as 23 000 ha and those of the small farmholders as 15 000 (these two programs are consituting the largest part of the industrial plantations), whereas the figures quoted here at end 1980 is 50 000 ha.

Areas of established industrial plantations estimated at end 1980 ¹
(in thousand ha)

¹ Distribution by age classes until 1975 is only tentative

Other plantations

Most of the plantations of this group have been established for watershed protection by BFD. It is only recently (mostly after 1975) that plantations for firewood and leaf-meal production through private and community efforts have been started. Their areas by end 1980 are not expected to be significant (say more than 1 000 ha). Therefore, this area has been merged with protection class.

There are two main problems in the estimation of areas of plantations for protective purposes. Firstly, the effective rate of establishment has been reported only as a fraction of the original planting, since a substantial part of effort is used to replant the failed areas as the following data indicate:

Progress of established plantations
(in thousand ha)

Secondly the stocking of the established plantations appears to be much lower than that of a fully stocked stand. A general remark in this connection is reproduced: “The Bureau reports to have accomplished 202 714 ha of such planting (viz. for protection purposes), as at 30 June 1975. However, only a small portion of this area can be identified as effective adequately stocked forest capable of yielding commercial timber”. Keeping this in view the ratio between gross and net area is being assumed as 3:1 on a purely ad-hoc and uniform basis for plantations until 1975. For those planted in the last five years, i.e. under the supervision of BFD, a global ratio of 0.77 has been used, as indicated in document (22). On a long term basis, however, the net survival rate may settle down to 0.50 as noted earlier.

Areas of established non-industrial plantations estimated at end 1980 ¹
(in thousand ha)

¹ Proportions of non fast-growing hardwoods (PHL2), fast-growing hardwoods (PHH2) and softwoods (PS.2) are tentatively estimated as 37.5%, 37.5% and 25%

All plantations

Areas of established plantations estimated at end 1980 ¹
(in thousand ha)

¹ Proportions of “other plantations” by categories are only tentative (see footnote of preceding table).

1.2.3 Plantations characteristics

Some observations in respect of the stocking of plantations in the protection areas has already been reproduced. The rotation and expected mean annual increment of fully stocked stands has been estimated as follows in a recent report (14).

2. Present trends

2.1 Natural woody vegetation

2.1.1 Deforestation

Expansion of agriculture and shifting cultivation are the two main causes of the shrinkage of forest areas. During 1952–70 there were several official releases of large areas of forest land for agriculture as indicated below (2):

The BFD case study using sequential aerial photography, though conducted over a small area of 6451 ha in Valencia, Bukidnon province, provides some confirmation of the above:

Following data (13) (16) on the total planted areas (under agriculture crops) in the Philippines since 1930 give a broad idea of rate of change on a nationwide basis:

As the total planted area includes a small fraction of the double cropped areas and excludes fallow lands, it cannot be taken as equal to the total area under agriculture land use. The above data, however, do show up the fast rate of expansion of agriculture in the recent years in the Philippines. The transfer of land from forest to non-forest land use during 1970–79 was 3.2 million ha as reported by the BFD (2) (17) of which 1.5 million came from the commercial forests and 1.7 million from non-commercial forests (termed as “reproduction brush”, classed under NHCa). During 1980–85 it is projected that the total forest area would decrease by about 1.5 million ha, of which 0.4 million ha would be contributed by the commercial forests and 1.1 million ha by the non-commercial forests. This represents an annual increase of area under agriculture by 2.5% as compared to 3% in the past.

A main reason for the large expansion of agriculture is the growth of population as indicated hereinafter: the FAO Production Yearbook (vol.33) reports that the economically active population in agriculture increased from 7.4 million in 1970 to 8.0 million in 1979 or an average annual increase of 0.9% during this period.

The main reason for the loss of the commercial forest areas is shifting cultivation. A detailed and interesting study on this was conducted during 1966–70 by a FAO project (4) in a selected catchment of central and northern Luzon covering 4.2 million ha or 14% of the whole country. The basic information on “kaingin” as the practice is locally called, is given in the table of the next page.

This report stresses the fact that “the shifting cultivator population (kaingineros) is made up of several cultural subgroups. Each subgroup must be recognized in any programme aimed at reducing the adverse effect of this practice. The least destructive of these subgroups and the most difficult to cope with is the indigenous tribesmen living deep in the forest. Their number is dwindling and, as they move from one spot to another, the forest can be naturally re-established. The major problem groups are the rural unemployed and under-employed who move up from the lowland into the open land and recently cutover forest lands in their attempt to obtain the basic food supply for family needs. This group is growing in number and is a significant factor in reducing the area of productive forest. It is the activity of this group which is also a major cause of erosion and impaired hydrologic performance of upland watersheds”.

“A total of around 6 000 ha of timberland is cleared annually by the kaingineros in the three river basins of the project area. This represents only the clearing of standing forest and does not include clearings of brush, cogon (Imperata cylindrica grasslands) or open lands or reclearing of the old clearings. The estimated total number of all types of kainginero families is around 21 000. However, about 10 000 settled part time kainginero families clear only 500 ha of timberland annually, which is less than 10% of the total timber land cleared. The remaining 11 000 families, consisting of full time and semi-nomadic types, clear around 5 500 ha which is over 90% of the total timber land cleared. Settled full time kaingineros, estimated to be around 5 000 families and concentrated mostly in the Mt. Province (some are in North Viscaya and North Ecija), destroy an estimated area of 1 000 ha of timberland annually. The remaining 6 000 kainginero families of semi-nomadic type clear an area of 4 500 ha of timberland annually. Among all types of kaingineros, the largest aggregate forest area cleared is by the seminomadic immigrant native kaingineros, estimated at 2 500 families, who clear around 2 500 ha, or more than 40% of the total. From the standpoint of damage, per kainginero family, to timber and especially to soils, the immigrant lowlanders (around 1 000 families clearing over 1 000 ha) are more destructive than the other types of kaingineros”.

General pattern of kaingin practices in the project area by type of kaingineros ¹

¹ Based on field observations and on a limited number of interviews

The project reported that a typical kainginero family (consisting of an average of 6.2 persons) cultivates 1 ha of land in a year - 0.5 ha derived from fresh clearings and 0.5 ha from the previous year. The root crops (sweet patatoes, cassava) constitue the main crops planted followed by rice and corn. Yield per ha from root crops generally varies from 4 to 6 tons and from paddy around 1 ton. Sweet patato, as a representative kaingin crop, requires 50 man-days for clearing and 100 man-days for cultivation i.e. total of 150 days. The average size of land owned varies from 4–5 ha per family.

According to a BFD survey (19) there were around 379 000 kainginero families in 1977 living on 2.01 million ha of forest land. It is further reported that about the same number of families live and practice shifting cultivation outside forest land (e.g. brush land, grassland, etc). Forest clearing for shifting cultivation in 1978 and 1979 is reported as 68 857 and 62 197 ha respectively (20). Another source estimates the area cleared annually (around 1978) as 80 000 ha and still another source (19) as 90 000 ha.

The following estimates have been derived from the above data and other documents consulted.

Average annual deforestation
(in thousand ha)

The development of shifting cultivation in the Philippines is closely linked with the advance of logging as reported below (4):

“Without going into a discussion of why loggers do certain things and not other things, it appears, from actual observations in the field, that most of the loggers are not particularly interested in protecting the logged-over areas in their concessions. The fact is, however, that these areas are most critical and vulnerable from the standpoint of kaingin activities because they are easily accessible since the logging roads are already constructed, they require less effort on the part of the kainginero to clear since big trees are already removed, and they usually have gentle slopes since even the logger prefers to log over the easily accessible portions of this concession. In the case of clearcutting of alienable and disposable forest lands, it was observed that a large number of 30–50 cm diameter trees with seemingly good form and having at least reasonable commercial value - not first or second class - are left uncut by the loggers. These relatively low economic values trees are left for the kaingineros to destroy. The loggers, in general, seem to spend all their protection efforts, however meagre they may be on untouched forests in their concessions in order that they can remove the maximum number and volume of valuable logs before the threat of kaingin destruction. In an extreme case, one concessionaire in Isabela was helping and encouraging kaingineros in his area by providing them his own transportation to move them from untouched forest to his recently logged-over sites. His argument, however, was quite reasonable under the existing circumstances. Since he could not get rid of the kaingineros completely, he might as well stop them from destroying potentially valuable timber, thus, at the same time, protecting his future profits”.

Deforestation is facilitated by the speculation created by the land classification as reported below by the FAO study: “Ideally, it would have been expected that the Bureau of Forestry complete the classification of all public forest lands and release such areas as found alienable and disposable to the Bureau of Lands or to CNI before such lands are physically occupied by the squatters. In reality, however, since the Bureau of Forestry cannot complete the classification of the whole country in a short time and the people do not or cannot wait for the result of such classification, they occupy and partly clear forest lands which they think are potentially alienable and disposable. After this, they may apply to the Bureau of Forestry for the classification of the area. This means, therefore, that, even before a survey party arrives at a certain forest area for proper classification, the area is mostly already occupied and the people occupying these areas have already established certain, though not quite legal, rights on the land which they are interested to acquire if and when it is legally available. Almost all of these people are landless tenants, farm labourers, land speculators or simply land grabbers. Very few of them, if any, are the real native kaingineros. This situation creates the problem of systematic and proper settlement of the real kaingineros in such areas because such lands are already occupied and claimed, one way or the other, by other people and, therefore, are not available for such settlements. In fact, out of 250 000 ha of forest land classified as alienable and disposable in the project area alone since 1955, only 819 ha most of which are not fit for cultivation, have been given to only 8 native Igorot kainginero families. This indicates that releasing of more forest lands for agricultural use under the present system will not help to ease the kaingin problem at all. As long as there are thousands of landless people and farmers with insufficient land and land speculators in the country, there will not be an end to their demands for more agricultural lands”.

2.1.2 Degradation

There is evidence of intensive land use development in the country, but there are also many indications of the degradation of the natural woody vegetation and the soils. The shifting cultivation and uncontrolled logging are no doubt the main contributing factors. Large tracts of cogon grasslands (Imperata cylindrica) occurring in the country are examples of a one-time indiscriminate use of the land. In 1970 the extent of such areas has been estimated as much as 6 million ha (about 20% of the total land area). Whitford (1) describes the process of conversion of forest lands into grassland in the following words:

“Cogonales originate in the following manner, and remain as such so long as fires prevail. Usually a small portion of original or second-growth forest is cut during the dry season, the timber and brush are allowed to dry, and are then partially burned. The area thus prepared is planted with rice, sweet potatoes, corn, or other crops. Cultivation then practically ceases, and the jungle growth, consisting of grass, weeds, and trees species, quickly gains ascendancy over the planted crops, and at the end of the first, second, or third year the caingin maker abandons his clearing for a new one in another patch of forest. If the jungle growth is set on fire, as is frequently done, nearly all plants except the grasses are killed. In this way through many years vast areas of forest lands have been converted into congonales, and repeated firings have prevented any change in their vegetation. Abandoned areas, formerly more intensively cultivated, have also become changed to grasslands in the same way. It is surprising how quickly this grass will become dry enough to burn. Three or four rainless days will permit it to burn with sufficient heat to kill nearly all the seedlings of woody species. Grasslands are prevalent on land of nearly all types of topography, from sea level to the tops of the mountains. In the pine region of central and northern Luzon other species of grasses frequently take the place of cogon, although these grasslands originated in the same way. The grasslands are a detriment rather than a help to agricultural development. They seem to be the favourite breeding places of grass-hoppers which frequently destroy growing crops. It is very expensive to bring them under successful cultivation, for they form dense masses of roots and underground stems which several plowings will not entirely kill. Many Filipino farmers prefer to prepare for cultivation the land covered by virgin or second-growth forests. Indeed, in some instances they will first plant a grass area with seeds of some small rapid-growing trees, allow them to grow and shade out the grass, then cut and burn the wood, and plant their crops. The cogon grass is so coarse that it cannot be considered a good forage crop unless it is kept closely cropped, in which case other grasses better for forage gain a foothold.”

Similarly uncontrolled logging leads to severe damage to the natural woody vegetation. A FAO study (18) estimated that on an average 31% of the surface area was bared of forest growth by logging on the thirteen set-ups studied. The actual values ranged between 17% to 46%. The Philippines is, with Sabah, the tropical country where logging intensity is the highest and cannot be assimilated to a simple “creaming” as in most other tropical areas.

2.1.3 Trends in forest utilization

In view of the recent stress of the government of local processing of logs rather than export combined with continued reduction in commercial forest areas, the level of log production during 1981–85 is expected to remain at the same level as 1976–80, i.e. around 40 million m³ in total.