http://www.manilatimes.net/sunday-times/sunday-magazine/sagip-gubat-pushes-for-forest-resources-bill/

By Aira Simon Haribon Foundation

ON April 27, 2011, Sagipin ang Ugat ng Buhay at Tubig (Sagip GUBAT), a national network of forests conservation advocates promoting management of forest resources through the passage of Forest Resources Bill (FRB) was launched.

The campaign was convened by Haribon Foundation, Greenresearch Environmental Research Group, Sagip Sierra Madre Environmental society and Save Sierra Madre Network and joined by various civil society groups and individuals. Speakers during the event include: professor Blas Tabaranza Jr., Haribon Foundation’s Technical Adviser, congressmen and principal authors of FRB: Rep.Teddy Brawner Baguilat, Rep. Arthur Defensor Jr. and Rep. Mel Senen Sarmiento, Greenresearch’s Gwen Borcena, Save Sierra Madre Network’s chairman, Father Pete Montallana, Green Convergence’s Nina Galang, Phil. Association for Intercultural Development’s Samson Pedragosa and Environment Sec. Ramon Paje.

Sagip GUBAT aims to raise awareness on the urgency to protect our remaining natural forests and value its ecological services instead of exploiting it for profit. It chiefly calls for the enactment of sustainable Forest Resources Bill (FRB). According to Defensor, “Forest Resources Bill is not only an environmental conservation cause . . . it starts with the basic understanding and appreciation of a vital resource, which is water, and centered on the attainment of the most important of all social conditions, which is food security,” and added, “one of the biggest problems our county is facing today is water, either the lack of it, or too much of it . . . it is only through water control and utilization that we are able to achieve genuine food security. Verily, the Forest Resources Bill, and the conservation and protection of the watershed it ensures, is the keystone of any water control and utilization policy”.

As for Baguilat, who also chairs the National Cultural Communities committee of the House of Representatives, forests not only provides water but serves as home to Indigenous Peoples, “Deforest the remaining watersheds and we scatter the Mangyans, Aetas, Dumagats, Cordilllerans, and other indigenous peoples who subsist on the forests. We take away their source of food and the provider of many of their needs like shelter, livelihood, health and spirituality.”

The major provisions of FRB includes the protection of all natural forests, primary and secondary; the adoption of an ecological-based definition of forest; the addition of a restoration area classification instead of a protection-production dichotomy; the integration of watershed continuum-based forest management; and the empowerment of local governments and communities in forest governance. Sarmiento said, “The essence of FRB comes close to the City Development Strategies employed by many cities in the country where the vision and mission of a city is jointly crafted by its officials and constituents. It is not planning for the people but basically planning with the people. It is earnestly hoped that with the enactment of Forest Resources Bill, our forests are put back where they truly belong.”

Sagip GUBAT network is composed of Alyansa Tigil Mina, Balay Alternative Legal Advocates for Development in Mindanaw (BALAOD Mindanaw), Greenresearch Environmental Research Group, Haribon Foundation, La Liga Policy Institute, Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center, One Organic Movement, Philippine Association for Intercultural Development, Philippine Tropical Forest Conservation Foundation, Sagip Sierra Madre Environmental Society-Save Sierra Madre Network and Tribal Center for Development.