Introduction –Forest

Products Engineering
By
Engr. Efren G. Amit , M. Eng’g
Department of Agricultural Engineering and Environmental
Management
College of Agriculture, Resources and Environmental Science
Central Philippine University
Iloilo City
 What is Forest Engineering
Forest Engineering is a hybrid of engineering,
forestry and management.
- It is the application of engineering principles
and techniques to the management of forest
lands.
- It requires people who can combine skills to
solve engineering problems in the
environment, with focus on balancing
economic, societal and environmental
requirements.
Forestry is the science and craft of creating, managing,
using, conserving, and repairing forests and
associated resources to meet desired goals, needs and
values for human and environment benefits .
- The resources include timber, water, fish, wildlife,
soil, plants, and recreation.
Forest Management is a branch of forestry concerned
with overall administrative, economic, legal, and social
aspects, as well as scientific and technical aspects,
such as silviculture, protection, and forest regulation.
Silviculture is the practice of controlling the
establishment, growth, composition, health,
and quality of forests to meet diverse needs and
values.
Forest harvesting-refers to the total process of
cutting down trees and delivering them to a mill.
Logging- is the cutting, skidding, on-site
processing , and loading of tress or logs on
trucks or skeleton cars.
In forestry, the term logging is sometimes
used in a narrow sense concerning the
logistics of moving wood from the stump to
somewhere outside the forest, usually a
sawmill or a lumber yard.
 Who Owns the Forestlands?
-The forestlands (public lands) belong
to the State
-The total land area of the Philippines is 30 million
hectares.
-As of 2011, classified forestlands covered 15.o5
million hectares, unclassified forestlands of 0.755
million hectares and Alienable and Disposable
lands of 14.19 million hectares.
-
- The Regalian Doctrine states that “ all
forestlands (public lands), practically half
of the country, belong the State.”
- I t is through the Department of
Environmental and Natural Resources
(DENR) that allocates and issues user rights
and tenure instruments to gain economic
benefits and ensure ecological services.
- Public lands are further divided into:
a. Forest reserves and national parks
b. Civil and military reservations
c. Lands allocated to communities
d. Land allocated to private sectors
e. Unallocated land which accounts around
one-fourth of the public lands and is
de facto under open access.
- Only about 6.4 million hectares of the public land
actually covered by forest in 2003.
- These include : closed and open forests,
mangrove forests and plantation forests,
accounting for 41 % of the public lands and
21% of the total area of the Philippines.
- The forest cover today is estimated to be around 23%.
Closed forest- Formation where tress in various storey and
undergrowth cover a high proportion (> 40 percent) of the
ground and do not have a continuous dense grass layer.
They are either managed or unmanaged forest, in advance
state of succession and may have been logged over one or
more times, having kept their characteristics of forest
stands, possibly with modified structure and composition.
Open Forest- Formations with discontinuous tree layer with
coverage of at least 10% and less than 40%. They are either
managed or unmanaged forests, in initial state of
succession.
- The decline of forest cover from around 90%
in the 1990s down to 23% by 2009 is the
result of the interplay of history, policies and
social and economic factors.
 Historical Forest Loss in the Philippines
- Widespread logging – Exporting logs started
as early as the 1990s .
- Extraction and conversion of forests into
agriculture use - as economy developed,
and the population rapidly increased.
- The Philippine hardwoods filled the market
demand world wide, and the logging boom,
during 1960s.

-
- Blanketed nearly one-third of the entire
country with logging concessions.
- The number of forests declined, the
capacity of the forestlands to sustainably
provide the goods and services-
production, protection, social and
ecological functions- was put into
question.
- Forest losses were primary attributed to logging
during the late 1970s when the Philippine forestry
sector contributed significantly to the national
economy.
- Exploitation of timber resources
- Illegal logging
- Kaingin or shifting cultivation became rampant
for agricultural farming.
- Conversion of forest to other uses
Forestlands into Open Access and the
Evolution of Local Resource Manager
After the People Power Revolution in 1986, the
government changed its strategy.
- Logging in old growth forest was banned
by the DENR.
- The 1987 Constitution implicitly cancelled
the DENR’s power to license private
exploitation of the forest resources.
- Timber License Agreements (TLAs) held by
powerful families declined sharply .
- New scheme (Integrated Forest Management
Agreement or IFMA) was introduced
- In 1977, about 376 TLA holders covering 10 million
hectares .
- At the end 2000, only 20 TLAs existed less than a
million hectares
-In 2011, only three TLAs left covering an area of
177,ooo has.
- The reverse happened for IFMA and Industrial
Tree Plantation Lease Agreements:
-In 1980, IFMA and Industrial Tree Plantation
Lease Agreement were only 12 holders
covering 88,000 has.
- In 2000, 184 holders covering 548,000
hectares
- In 2011 , about 1.034 million hectares.
The shift in the policy created a vacuum and
practically reverted 7.7 million hectares of
forestlands into open access areas ( 156
Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title,
CADTs covering 4.2 million has. and 1,790
Community –Based Forest Management
Agreement , CBFMAs spanning 1.634
million hectares have been issued)
Immediate, individual-based overexploitation of
forest resources set in and caused the forest
to further decline.
Exacerbating this is the exponential rise in
upland population currently estimated at 30
million and the attendant poverty and
dependence on the forests.
Due to these mentioned problems, an
agreement was formed:
An agreement was forged between the DENR and
DILG to share environment and natural resources
management responsibilities through Co-
Management Agreement (CMA).
Coupled with this ,People-oriented forestry projects
that started in the early 80s were consolidated
into Community –Based Forest Management
(CBFM) in 1995 as the national strategy for
sustainable management of the country’s
forestland resources.
 Policy and Governance Setting
- Realizing the importance of good governance
in forest management, the national
government passed several laws and
regulations designed to promote greater
participation of stakeholders in managing
forest resources, transparency in
management operations and accountability
among stakeholders in decision making.
 Importance of Forests
1. providing food to all organism
2. providing commercial products such as
timber and paper
3. serving as habitat to many organism
4. giving temporary refuge from the busy life
in the city
5. supplying wood for cooking
6. serving as recreational places
 Indirect Benefits from Forests
1. Preventing floods and soil erosion
2. Controlling the climate
3. Storing large amount of carbon
4. Assisting in the cycle of water, carbon, and
oxygen
 Main Non-Wood Forest Products
The most important main non-wood forest products:
1. Rattan
2. Bamboo
3. Fibers
4. Vines
5. Palms
6. Exudes
Other NWFPs include: oil, dyes, wild food plants,
honey and butterflies.
-NWFPs are classified as minor forest products and its uses are:
- important source of food for rural area
- principal source of fibre and forage and a
valuable raw material for furniture and
handicraft manufacture.
- Also used in the manufacture of pulp and
paper, plastic, paint and varnish, soap and
shampoo,

-
- The products are also important sources of
materials for low cost housing, food and
beverage, clothing materials, medicine &
other products.
-NWFP- provided employment to subsistence
upland farmers who live near the forest.
-At present, there is a growing export demand for
finished and semi-finished products such as:
- rattan furniture, baskets and other native
products made of indigenous materials
such as:
- vines, barks, roots and bast fibres.
- Other manufactured NWFP for exports include:
- buri and pandan placemats, handbags,
wallets, purses, and similar article of palm
and bamboo, buntal and buri hats.
The total exports for 1998:
a. Basketwork= 66, 189,066 us dollars
b.Christmas decorations = 83, 345, 578 us
dollars
c. other manufactured materials = 14, 006, 498
dollars
d. bamboo furniture= 1, 436, 368
e. rattan furniture = 79, 475, 485
f. buri furniture = 1, 606, 138
(Philippine Forestry Statistics 1998)
 Plant And Plant Products
1. Rattan- 62 species, and 12 of these are of
commercial value- for furniture and handicraft
- illegal harvesting of high quality rattan canes still
continues
2. Bamboo- 32 species- for furniture, handicrafts, and
novelty items.
- 39000- 52,000 hectares
- bamboo export consists of basket/basket ware
and furniture
3. Palms- Examples: buri, nipa,kaong, anahaw,
sago, vines such as, hinggiw, diliman, lukmoy,
and nito.
- 123 native palm species as important as
rattan and bamboo
4. Salago is a shrub with a high fibre potential.
- bark fibers are excellent materials for manufacture
of high grade paper used in banks notes, cheques,
paper for legal documents.
- Salogo products- for exports -slippers, bags
5. Pandan- 40 known species
- leaves are used for making coarse and fine basket,
mat, picture frames and other noveltry items.
6. Exudes- Gum-and resin producing plants, such as:
piling liitan, Almaciga/Manila copal, Benguet pine,
apitong (Dipterocarpus)
- Resin and Gums are the main for export in
raw forms
7. Medicne- 80% of Philippine population uses
herbal medicine
- drug producing plant is derived from
traditional practicioners, known as
herbolario
8. Dyeing an Tanning
- Plants dyes are used fo colouring mat, texttiles
and food products.
- sikalig, sibukao, talisay sappan wood
HAVE A BLEESED DAY!!!