A Nationwide Ban or Moratorium on Logging: Its Impact on Wood-based Industries and the Country
Position Paper of the Philippine Wood Producers Association
Submitted to the Office of the President
January 20, 2011

Wood, as an industrial commodity and as a fuel for cooking and common material for shelter, is indeed a basic necessity in the life of the Filipino and the society he belongs to.

Wood-based and wood-using industries serve the needs of the country for wood products used in housing, infrastructure and furniture and fixtures as well as exports of wood-based value added products.

A ban or moratorium on logging will directly penalize the legitimate companies in the wood industries who have been zealously protecting and conducting sustainable practices in managing the country’s remaining forest areas for decades, with severe consequences on the wood-using downstream industries.

Specifically, a nationwide ban or moratorium on logging will result in:

1. The cessation of operations of the companies who are in the manufacture of lumber, veneer and plywood, poles, pulp and paper as well as furniture and fixtures and other wood manufactured products such as doors, windows, joineries and carpentry works resulting in:
a. massive lay-off of about 650,000 direct workers in the wood processing and furniture industries alone, particularly in the countryside, and which might, in turn, cause serious social restiveness;
b. the loss of at least PhP30 billion in investments which have been invested by firms engaged in the wood industry;
c. the dislocation of about 1.5 million people who are indirectly employed by the wood-using industries will impact on the livelihood of countless people in communities dependent on the operations of these establishments.

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Woodstock
November - December 2009

On this Issue:

PWPA Holds 58th General Assembly

Atienza Resigns as DENR Secretary

FPI Chair Lauds as Green the Wood Industry

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