The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR-7) reiterated that a permit to cut is needed over the cutting of trees within private lands.

According to DENR-7 Regional Executive Director Dr. Isabelo Montejo, this is in line with Executive Order No. 23 or the moratorium on the tree cutting throughout the country.

“We are preserving a good balance of forest for perpetuity by shifting timber harvesting in tree plantations only,” said Montejo in a press statement.

In a memorandum dated February 13 signed by Montejo, provincial and community environment and natural resources officers in the four provinces are instructed to implement the order requiring a ‘permit to cut’ on requests on the cutting of trees within a private land.

Requirements for the issuance of clearance for a permit to cut are the following: letter request, local government unit clearance, inventory of tree requested to be cut with global positioning system (GPS) reading per tree, stand stock table, copy of land title or tax declaration, geotagged pictures, sketch plan, and tree chart.

“We will not issue a clearance unless these requirements are complied with and attached to the application for a permit to cut,” Montejo said.

He pointed out: “You cannot harvest what you did not plant.”

Natural and residual forests are forests composed of indigenous trees, not planted by man.

Montejo added that under a new regime in forest resource development, the country’s shift to tree plantation development has been given the needed push in recognizing the sustainability of tree plantations as a viable source of timber. (rmn/PIA7-Cebu with reports from DENR-7)

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