CHAPTER XXXI

THE PHILIPPINE FORESTS

Would that I had adequate words in which to describe the wonders of the Philippine forests, through which I wandered almost daily for four years, and which I love to revisit whenever the opportunity presents itself! Their majestic stateliness and magic beauty defy description. I have seen them swept by hurricanes when huge branches crashed down and mighty trees thundered to earth, imperilling life and limb, and I have seen them in the still noons of the tropics when not a leaf stirred. At times they are vocal with songs of birds and ceaseless din of insects, and again they are as silent as the grave. Who could do justice to the endless variety and beauty of tree-trunk, leaf and flower; the exquisite drapery of vines, ferns and orchids which covers the older forest monarchs; the weird masses of aërial roots which lead superstitious natives to believe some trees to be haunted, and small wonder; the ever changing light and shade bringing out new beauties where one least expects to find them; the endless differences in the flora due to variations in altitude and in the distribution of moisture?

In Mindoro, Palawan and Mindanao we find tropical vegetation in its absolute perfection; in the highlands of northern Luzón we meet our old friends, the pine and oak, while beside them grow strawberries, raspberries, huckleberries, jacks-in-the-pulpit and other friends of our childhood days.

Surely the Philippine forests should be preserved, but not for their beauty alone! In them the people have a permanent source of wealth, if they can only be made to realize it and to take proper measures to protect it. Certainly no other country has a greater variety of beautiful and serviceable woods. Some of them are so close-grained and hard that they successfully resist the attacks of white ants, and prove almost indestructible even when buried in the earth. Others will not stand exposure to the weather, but last indefinitely under cover and are excellent for inside framing and finishing. We have the best of cabinet woods, such as ebony, camagon, narra, [160] acle, and tindalo. From some of our trees come valuable gums, such as almaciga [161] and gutta percha. Others produce alcohol, tan barks, dyewoods, valuable vegetable oils or drugs. The so-called "Singapore cane," so highly prized by makers of wicker furniture, grows abundantly in Palawan. Great areas are covered with a bamboo which makes an excellent paper pulp.

In short, the Philippine forests should be like money in the bank for the inhabitants of the islands. There are in this world wise people who under ordinary circumstances spend only the interest on their money; and there are others who spend the principal while it lasts. To which class do the Filipinos belong?

It has been said that the civilization of a people may be measured by its forest practice, and in a sense this is true, for forestry as we know it to-day, and as the leading nations of Europe have known it for a long period, means the limiting of immediate gain in the hope of future reward, direct and indirect; in fact, it means present-day sacrifice for the sake of an unborn posterity. A wise national forest policy therefore involves not only foresight, but statesmanship and patriotism, which in their most advanced degree are to be found only among the people of the most enlightened nations. The manner in which a people regards its forest resources may be taken as fairly indicative of its outlook in general. What then has been the policy of the Philippine government and what the attitude of the people, toward these resources?

There is little room for doubt that practically the entire land area of the Philippines from the plains at sea-level to the highest mountain-tops was originally covered with forest growth. At the time of the American occupation two-thirds of this wonderful heritage had ceased to exist. This would be all very well if any considerable portion of the vast deforested areas were cultivated, or put to any permanent profitable use, but such is not the case. According to the best estimates which it has thus far been possible to make, only about fifteen per cent of the land from which the original forests have been stripped is to-day under any form of cultivation. The remainder is covered with commercially worthless second-growth forest, and with several giant grasses which are collectively known as cógon.

The cogonáles [162] make up approximately sixty per cent of the deforested area, or forty per cent of the land area of the entire archipelago. They are not good for grazing unless fed down very closely. They are difficult to bring under cultivation because of the vitality of the grass roots and the acidity which they impart to the soil. Cogonáles are often the breeding places of swarms of locusts which devour growing crops in neighbouring fields. They have been produced by the shiftless form of agriculture known as caiñgin making.

A large majority of the inhabitants of the Philippines will not fight, for any length of time, the tropical weeds and grasses which invade their cultivated fields, and rather than attempt to do so prefer to clear forest lands, slaughtering the trees indiscriminately and burning them where they fall. An area so cleared is known as a caiñgin. It is usually planted with camotes, corn, rice or some similar quick-growing crop. Cultivation is carried on in a haphazard way, but is soon abandoned when a jungle growth of grass, weeds and seedling trees begins to spring up. At the end of the first, the second or, at latest the third year the caiñgin maker abandons his clearing and starts a new one. Fires sweep over the abandoned areas, killing everything except the cógon grass which takes possession and holds it against all comers. The forest destruction thus wrought in the past is appalling. Within limits, it still continues, although unlicensed caiñgin making is now forbidden by law.

In cutting timber for domestic use and for the market, the Filipinos have in the past been absolutely indifferent to the matter of reproduction, making a clean sweep in those places where merchantable tree species could be readily and cheaply obtained.

Six weeks after the Philippine Commission became the legislative body of the islands, it passed an act for the reorganization of the Forestry Bureau, which had previously been created by military order, continuing as its chief Major George P. Ahern, who had held this position under the military régime, and who is to-day in length of service the ranking bureau chief of the insular government.

Major Ahern was thus intrusted with the management of some fifty-four thousand square miles of forest land, and was charged with the duty of investigating the forest resources of the Philippines, and of developing and protecting them. These two latter objects are by no means incompatible. Vastly more timber falls and rots in the Philippines than is cut and marketed, and the forest wealth of the islands may be developed in such a way as actually to improve the areas that are cut over by removing old trees, and thus giving light and air to younger ones which then rapidly grow up and take their places.

The stand of hardwood timber in the Philippines is now probably the finest in the world. The United States and Europe are ready to purchase every foot of the selected grades of lumber that we can ship. China offers a practically inexhaustible market for the cheaper grades. Stumpage charges are moderate. Yet in spite of all these advantages the islands do not, as yet, produce lumber enough to supply their own needs.

This condition is rapidly changing, however, and if adequate measures are not adopted for the conservation of the forests, we shall sooner or later be confronted with the danger of their devastation by the lumberman.

Under the direction of the Bureau of Forestry the trees which are to be felled are in many instances marked, and in any event care is taken to prevent the cutting of any which have not attained to certain prescribed diameters, while the leaving of enough adequately to provide for reproduction is obligatory.

Up to the time of the American occupation forest operations had been limited to a very small number of well-known species of demonstrated commercial value. The total number of tree species which had then been identified was about twelve hundred. The number identified up to the present time is approximately twenty-five hundred. A large amount of important work has been done in determining what ones of the commercially unknown species are valuable, and in what ways they may best be utilized.

One of the most important functions of the Bureau of Forestry has been to investigate unexplored and unknown forests, and ascertain definitely the stand of commercially valuable trees, at the same time giving proper consideration to the practicability of getting lumber from them to the market at reasonable expense. As a result of this work the bureau has been able to furnish much accurate and valuable information to persons desiring to engage in the lumber industry.

Some forests have been found to be very valuable, while others are practically worthless either on account of the absence of the better tree species or because of difficulties which render it impossible or unprofitable to transport lumber from them to a market.

At the time of the American occupation the methods employed in felling trees and converting them into lumber were primitive in the extreme. The small Malay axe, the edge of which is hardly wider than that of a good-sized chisel, was in common use. Once felled, trees were necessarily cut into short lengths, as all logs had to be hauled by carabaos. The logs were ultimately cut into lumber by hand with whip-saws operated, as a rule, by two men each. There was not a modern sawmill in the Philippine Islands. The few mills which existed were of the most antiquated type, and with one or two negligible exceptions were confined to Manila.

To-day there are about sixty steam sawmills in operation and orders have been placed for others, some of which will have a capacity of one hundred thousand board feet of lumber per day. The actual investment in logging equipment and sawmills runs into the millions of dollars.

Logging was formerly closely restricted to the most valuable species, so situated that they could be rolled into the water or hauled to the beach by carabaos. Large tracts are now being logged with modern machinery under conservative forest methods, and the logging railway and the skidding engine are rapidly coming into use.

Three forest reserves, similar in purpose to the national forests of the United States, have been set aside to insure a permanent timber supply in certain regions and to afford permanent protection to streams capable of furnishing irrigation water upon which may depend the prosperity of the inhabitants of neighbouring plains. One hundred and forty-nine communal forests have been created for as many municipalities, in order permanently to provide them with timber and firewood. The interests of the Filipinos themselves have been given first consideration, and the inhabitants of towns for which communal forests have not been set aside may freely cut and gather from any public forest, without license and without payment, all timber of the second and lower groups which they require for domestic use, while gratuitous licenses can be had for first-group timber to be employed in the construction of permanent houses.

Within recent years the revenue derived from forest products has steadily increased, in spite of the fact that the government charges have been materially reduced.

The public forests of the Philippines are not sold, but are developed under a license system. Small operators usually work under ordinary yearly licenses for definite small areas. Exclusive licenses, or concessions as they are popularly called, are generally in the form of twenty-year exclusive licenses to cut and remove timber and other forest products from certain specified tracts. The land itself is in no way affected by such licenses. Merely the timber and minor forest products are included. When a lumberman is seriously considering an investment in the Philippines, he himself, or an experienced representative, should state to the director of forestry approximately the extent of the investment he contemplates. He will then be given information about several tracts which promise to answer his needs, and arrangements can be made for an experienced forester to accompany him over the tracts in question so that he may size up conditions for himself. All maps, estimates and other detailed information which may have been collected on the tracts will, of course, be placed at his disposal, and he can count upon the heartiest governmental coöperation and assistance in making a success of his enterprise. It should be understood, however, that in no case does the director of forestry guarantee the correctness of the estimates or other data which he furnishes. These are given to the applicant for what they are worth, and in every case he is advised to take such steps as may be necessary to satisfy himself as to whether or not they are correct. If the lumberman then decides to apply for a concession, he makes a formal application in writing to the director of forestry for an exclusive twenty-year privilege for the tract he has selected. His application is then forwarded by the director of forestry with recommendations to the secretary of the interior, who may approve the issuance of an exclusive license if he decides that such a course is in the public interest. For an area of more than a thousand hectares (approximately twenty-five hundred acres) proposals for bids to secure the desired privilege are published in the Official Gazette and other papers. At least six weeks intervene between the appearance of the first advertisement and the opening of the bids, but in order to give interested parties in the Philippines ample time to correspond with their principals in Europe or America, this period is usually extended to about four months. The advertisement also enumerates certain minimum requirements which principally specify the minimum amount of capital which must be invested within a certain given time and the minimum cut during the several succeeding years, together with certain requirements regarding logging and milling equipment.

Formal bids are finally submitted, and the license is ordinarily granted to the bidder who gives the best assurances of developing the tract most thoroughly and promptly. The right to reject any and all bids is expressly reserved.

In fixing the annual production there is taken into consideration, so far as possible, the amount of over-mature timber on the stand and the amount of the annual increment, with the object of rendering the investment a permanent one instead of merely permitting the operator to strip and abandon the area he holds. In preparing regulations under which the operator is required to work, first care is given to the future condition of the area, in order that the land after logging may be potentially as valuable as before, and no consideration of immediate profit is allowed to interfere. Nevertheless, the logger in the Philippines will find that in comparison with similar conditions elsewhere he will have few restrictions to contend with, and in practically no cases are these such as seriously to increase the cost of his operations. It is to permit such permanent use of the land that concessions are granted over such large areas, often consisting of a hundred square miles or even more.

As local residents are given the right to cut what lumber and firewood they may need for their private use in the territory covered by exclusive licenses, this system is not open to objection, especially as there are more than sufficient forest areas to accommodate all applicants desiring exclusive licenses. The director of forestry has the right to reduce cutting areas if outputs do not come up to requirements, so that a dog-in-the-manger policy is rendered impossible.

The local market takes about one hundred million feet per year. Only a few million feet are exported annually at present. A properly distributed cut of five hundred million feet per year would actually improve the forests.

It would seem that the policy which we have followed would meet with the almost unanimous approval of the Filipinos, but as a matter of fact it has been far from popular with them. The forest reserves have been set aside against the protest of the very people who will profit by the conservation of their resources, and would be the first to suffer from their destruction. The native press, and the Filipinos generally, have opposed the opening up of timber tracts by modern logging methods, despite the fact that such tracts are usually inaccessible to persons operating with old-fashioned equipment, and the further fact that the establishment of important lumbering enterprises means additional employment for well-paid skilled and unskilled labor, increase in the money in circulation, decrease in lumber imports and the ultimate development of a lucrative export trade. Fear of American capital can hardly be cited as an explanation of this phenomenon. Of three concessions granted last year only one, which was subsequently abandoned, went to American capitalists.

Thus far the Filipinos have made no attempt to share in the development of their forests on any save a very small scale. Of the total amount of lumber sawed in the islands only about ten per cent is produced in mills owned or controlled by them. It is useless to argue that the timber should be saved for future generations, for if not cut at maturity trees fall and rot.

So far as concerns conservation, the attitude of the Filipinos is even less satisfactory. There is abundant evidence on which to base a prediction as to the policy which they would follow in practice, if the compelling hand of an enlightened nation were withdrawn.

There is a singular indifference to the results of wanton forest destruction, not only on the part of the persons guilty of it but on that of the municipal, provincial and judicial officials who should prevent it by enforcing the law. Even when the employees of the Bureau of Forestry have laboriously gathered conclusive evidence against caiñgin makers it often proves excessively difficult, or impossible, to secure conviction. The existing opposition to forest protection springs from a desire on the part of the Filipinos to consume their capital as well as their interest, without thought of the morrow, or of the permanent advantage to their country as a whole which would result from conservation of its forest wealth. If they were left to their own devices the forests would once more blaze with caiñgin fires set by the poor peasant at the command of the influential cacique. Unfortunately that is now only too often the way in which caiñgins come to be made. The rich landowners compel ignorant dependents to make them, furnishing seed for the first agricultural crop. Under this arrangement the poor labourer runs all the risk of being prosecuted, does all the work, and often gives half or more of his crop to the cacique as a return for the seed loaned him. After the caiñgin is abandoned the cacique claims the land as his own, and through his influence in provincial politics can often succeed in delaying, or avoiding, prosecution even if detected in his wrong-doing.

What the result would be were all restraint withdrawn, and were the Filipinos permitted to destroy their forest resources at will, may easily be inferred from what has happened in the past, as well as from the difficulties encountered in enforcing the present law. Cebú, the most thickly populated large island in the archipelago, is already practically deforested, and until recently many other islands have been rapidly approaching the same unfortunate condition.

Under conservative forest management the existing annual output of lumber might be increased fivefold and the unfortunate results from reckless cutting, which have so frequently occurred in the past and which not infrequently still occur, might be completely avoided.

If these very desirable ends are to be attained, the force employed by the Bureau of Forestry must be materially augmented. It has been conclusively demonstrated that every increase in the number of its employees is promptly followed by a sufficient increase in the insular revenues derived from forest products to more than offset the expense involved in the payment of the additional salaries and travel expenses. For every extra peso that the government expends in this way it takes in about two, and if this can be done, and the enormous forest resources of the islands developed and conserved at the same time, there ought to be no trouble in securing the necessary legislation.

I long endeavoured to bring about the establishment of a fixed relationship between the amount annually collected on forest products and the amount allotted for the work of the Bureau of Forestry. Obviously the working force of the bureau must be increased as the lumber industry develops, or adequate supervision cannot be exercised.

Increasing the working force of the bureau makes possible investigations which stimulate the development of the lumber industry, and lead to a largely increased output.

The collection of revenue on forest products from government lands is made by the Bureau of Internal Revenue under the general supervision of the secretary of finance and justice. I have recently learned, to my amazement, that every large sawmill owner in the islands is allowed to make the statement of the output of his mill upon which collections are based; a procedure very like allowing importers to assess their own customs dues. The inevitable result is that the government is robbed right and left. Finding that an attempt was made to justify this procedure on the ground that it was impracticable to have lumber measured at the mills, as the Bureau of Internal Revenue has not sufficient employees for this purpose, I endeavoured to remedy this extraordinary situation.

Under existing law, timber may be measured in the round, in the square, or after it has been manufactured into lumber. Measurement in the round is quick and simple, and it has the further advantage that loss due to wasteful sawing falls on the lumberman, while if the sawed lumber only is measured such loss falls on the government. I therefore drafted and submitted to the commission a law providing that all timber should be measured in the round, with proper allowance for defects. Had the law passed, I could have had employees of the Bureau of Forestry measure the logs brought into each of the several mills which collectively turn out ninety per cent of the sawn lumber of the islands, and so could have effectively prevented frauds upon the government.

A system which practically allows the individuals interested to fix the amounts which they shall pay the government for its timber naturally meets with the unqualified approval of the lumbermen. I therefore expected that they would strenuously object to the proposed change in law. To my surprise there was no complaint while it was pending before the commission, which passed it.

Then, and only then, I learned that certain lumbermen had quietly done their work where they believed, rightly, that it would be effective, and that the bill would not pass the assembly. An effective lobby, headed by a Filipino representative of the largest Filipino lumbering concern in the islands, had been organized against it, and so a measure having no other object or effect than to prevent frauds on the government and increase its revenue, was killed, for the time at least, consideration of the bill being "deferred," by the assembly, with the result that a large number of foreign mill owners will be allowed to continue to make an illegitimate profit, and a very limited number of Filipino mill owners will do the same.

The commercial outlook for the Philippine lumber industry is very encouraging. No more greedy lumber market exists than Manila has offered during the past few years, this condition being due primarily to the stimulus given to all lines of industrial development by the economic policy of the insular administration.

Prices are high, and the supply is still unequal to the local demand. Forest products to the value of $696,407 were last year imported into the Philippines when we should have exported them in large quantities. A lumber company properly equipped and managed, and operating on a suitable tract, can place lumber in its Manila yards at a cost of half or even less than half the price at which the same lumber readily sells. The export trade, which should be very profitable, has as yet scarcely been inaugurated. Tan bark, dyewoods, valuable gums and rattans find a ready sale. It may reasonably be expected that the world's demand for forest products of all kinds will increase as the years go by, and that the resources of older countries will become depleted, or at least inadequate to supply steadily growing needs. Forest growth in the Philippines is rapid, and under suitable conservation methods reforestation comes about quickly. With continued enforcement of existing law, and with adequate supervision over cutting and reforestation, the cost of which should be paid by the lumber industry itself, the forests of the islands should become an important permanent source of revenue and wealth. Filipinos ought to become holders of forest concessions instead of labourers on the concessions of others. Whether any considerable number of them will care to do so remains to be seen, but at all events their forests should be conserved, so that the opportunity may be ever before them. At the present time caiñgin makers destroy far more timber in the course of a year than lumbermen use.

In the hope of awakening an interest among Filipinos in forest conservation and development, and of being able to train an adequate Filipino working force, a forest school has been started at Los Baños, in the immediate vicinity of one of our forest reserves, where practical instruction can advantageously be given. It is anticipated that the graduates of this school will be of great use in bringing about a radical change in the attitude of the Filipinos toward forest conservation.

It is an astonishing fact that the Bontoc and Lepanto Igorots have been the only ones of the very numerous Philippine peoples to see for themselves the benefits derivable from forest conservation.

When I first visited their country I noted that all the trees in certain pine forests were carefully trimmed of their lower branches, and on inquiry found that trees might not be felled until they reached a certain size, although branches might be cut for firewood. The prevention of fires, which are very destructive in pine forests, and the care of young trees, were also adequately provided for! The Bureau of Forestry now employs Igorots as fire wardens in Benguet and Bontoc.

If the policy were adopted of appropriating annually an amount equivalent to sixty per cent of the forest revenues for the work of the Bureau of Forestry, the proper conservation and development of the great potential source of wealth intrusted to that bureau would be adequately provided for. The commission has agreed to such an arrangement; ten per cent of the total forest revenues to be expended in the provinces under its exclusive legislative control, and fifty per cent in the other provinces. Appropriations for the territory occupied by non-Christians are now made on this basis. No appropriation bill has been passed by the assembly since this policy was agreed to by the commission. It remains to be seen whether the former body will favour the expenditures necessary to support the work of forest conservation and development, with the reasonable certainty that such work will not only assure to them and to coming generations a permanent source of wealth, but will more than pay for itself in dollars and cents.

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