Philippines Pres. Suspends All Logging: 1,000+ Dead In Floods, Mudslides

[hatrack]

"Philippines President Gloria Arroyo has suspended logging and vowed punishment for law-breakers as the country reels from four deadly storms in two weeks. Legal and illegal logging is blamed for worsening the impact of the storms, which have left 1,000 dead or missing.

Permits to fell trees across the nation will no longer be issued, pending a review of the environmental effect. And illegal loggers would be punished like "terrorists and kidnappers", Mrs Arroyo said, visiting badly hit areas. She also revoked existing licences in the worst-hit areas.

The Red Cross says about 800,000 people need help in the wake of the past fortnight's storms and aid agencies have launched an appeal for more than $2m for aid relief.

EDIT

But experts say the problem is more complex than just cracking down on loggers as poverty drives many people to fell trees with little regard for the law. Legal loggers are also responsible for much damage, campaigners say. "There's hardly a difference between so-called illegal loggers and legal loggers," said Orlando Mercado, a former senator who tried and failed to pass bills outlawing logging in the 1990s. "The only difference... is that the legal loggers have political clout and that's the reason they can get the timber licence agreement," he told the Reuters news agency."

EDIT

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4068477.stm

[ShaneGR]

1. I remember during my trip to the Phillipines 5 years ago...

We were driving out in the "countryside", about 30 miles south of Manilla, and on several occasions I saw logging trucks filled to the brim with wood.

I'm not sure how it ranks in terms of their overall economy, but logging seemed to be a big part of it.