FOREST RESOURCES
Area The forests of the Philippines cover about 18,706,093 hectares, or 72,224 square miles, which is about 63.1 per cent of the total area of the Archipelago. Of these number, 16,609,108 hectares or 64,127 square miles, 88.6 per cent of the entire forest area are of a commercial character. In addition, there are estimated to be about 2,096,985 hectares, or 8,096 square miles of second growth forests which will yield large quantities of fine wood and small size timber. It is said that taken together, the virgin and second growth forests in the Islands cover an area about equal to the area of the State of Nebraska.
A lumber yard. Kolambugan, Mindanao
Ownership More than 99 per cent of the timber belongs to the Philippine government and is under the administrative control of the Bureau of Forestry. Less than 1 per cent is held under title of private ownership.
Volume of Timber Resource The volume of this timber resource of the Philippines is 192,000,000,000 board feet or 777,000,000 cubic meters. Most of the timber belong to the dipterocarp family. The largest reach about 200 feet in height and some specimens have a diameter of 7 feet. The well-known woods of this family are tanguile, red lauan, almon, apitong, guijo, and yakal. These woods have found favorable acceptance in the markets of China and the United States.
Next to the dipterocarp family is the molave family. Among the woods of this family are aranga, duñgon, and molave. There are about 1,036,000 hectares of this timber with a total volume of 7,680,000,000 board feet. These woods are appropriate for railway ties and for building construction purposes.
Timber Output and Export The timber output of the islands was 184,628 cubic meters in 1911; 297,094 cubic meters in 1914; 385,150 cubic meters in 1918 and 630,973 in 1922. It is said that this output can be trebled, even quadrupled, without exhausting the supply for several hundred years.
The export of timber in 1914 was 27,070 cubic meters valued at ₱681,272; for 1916, 40,164 cubic meters worth ₱1,030,276; for 1919, 15,704 cubic meters worth ₱791,823 and for 1922, 43,008 cubic meters worth ₱1,656,812.
The lumber industry in the islands offers many advantages. The government charges are nominal, ranging from ₱2.00 to ₱10.00 per 1,000 board feet according to class. Logging and sawmill equipment and machinery enter free of duty if imported from the United States and only 15 per cent duty, if bought from other countries. For fuel, sawmill waste can be utilized. Water power is available from streams in a number of places.
Obtaining a Tract of Timber 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 a twenty-year exclusive license to cut and extract timber and other forest products from a specified tract. The land itself is in no way affected by such a license. Only the timber and minor forest products are included.
Sawmills At present there are about 50 sawmills of all sizes and descriptions operating in the Islands. About 12 of these can be compared to the average modern sawmills in the United States. The largest sawmills are located on timber concessions, while the others are operated under short-term licenses. The total cut of the sawmills of the Philippine Islands is about 100 to 130 million board feet per year.
View of San Jose Estate sugar mill. San Jose, Mindoro
MINOR FOREST PRODUCTS.—This term includes all products of the forest except timber or lumber. Many of the minor forest products of the Philippines are at present almost unknown in the world’s markets and are largely confined to local use.
The most important are nipa, sugar, and alcohol; rattan, used in making furniture; Manila copal or almaciga, used in making high grade varnish; lumbang, a nut-producing high grade oil for varnish; dye-woods and barks; guttapercha and rubber; paper pulp; fibers suitable for making baskets, hats, mats, ropes, etc.; soap barks; pili nuts, declared by many as superior even to almonds; wax; and different kinds of medicinal plants.