MODULE 3: Green Laws

(Part 1: Forests and Watersheds)

(Part 2: Biodiversity, Protected Areas and Wildlife)
(Part 3: Harmonization of Green Laws to RA 8371 IPRA Law)

PART 1: FORESTS AND WATERSHEDS
How to Proceed:
1. Governing Principles and Policies
2. Established Institutions and Agencies
3. Relevant Instruments, Processes or Requirements
4. Selected Prohibited Acts and Penalties
5. Jurisprudence

Governing Principles and Policies: Levelling-Off Ideas and Expectations
1. Forests vs Watersheds (Definitions, Similarities and Dissimilarities)

2. Benefits from the Forests and Watersheds

3. Forest Land/Timber Land vs AorD/Private Lands (Definitions, Similarities and Dissimilarities)

4. Types of Forest Cover:
a. Closed Forests or the Virgin Forests
b. Open Forests
c. Plantations
d. Mangrove Forests

5. Prelude to PD 705 proper: Tenurial Instruments under other laws
a. NIPAS Act and DAO 2004-32 PACBRMA
PACBRMA is an agreement entered into by and between DENR and the organized tenured
migrant communities or interested IPs in Protected Areas and Buffer Zones which has a
term of 25 years renewable for another 25 years.

b. IPRA Law CADT and CALT
CADT is a formal recognition of rights of possession and ownership of ICCs/IPs over their
ancestral domains identified and delineated in accordance with IPRA.

CALT is a formal recognition of rights of ICCs/IPs over their ancestral lands.

6. PD 705 Basic Forestry Law
a. Basic Principles and Policies: Mutiple Use Concept, Systematized Land Classification, Wood
Processing Plants and Forest Land Protection, Development and Rehabilitation.

b. Protection Layers/Zones: AorD/Private Land vis Forest Land vis PA-Multiple Use Zone vis
Strict Protection Zone

c. EO 318 Series of 2003: 6 Guiding Principles of Sustainable Forest Management


Established Institutions and Agencies: The In-Charged
1. Forest Management Bureau
2. DENR Regional Office exercises line functions and powers
Relevant Instruments, Processes and Requirements: Basic Understanding
1. 1987 Phl Constitution Art XII Section 2
2. PD 705 Section 20 on license, agreements, leases, permits
3. Forestry Tenure Instruments
a. Long-term
a.1 Integrated Forest Management Agreement (IFMA)
a.2 Community-Based Forest Management Agreement (CBFMA)
a.3 Socialized Industrial Forest Management Agreement (SIFMA)
a.4 Forest Land Grazing Management Agreement (FLGMA)
a.5 Forest Land-Use Agreement (FLAg)
Prerequisite Special Land-Use Permit
a.6. Forest Land-Use Agreement for Tourism (FLAgT)
Prerequisite Special Land-Use Permit

b. Phased-Out
b.1 Timber License Agreement (TLA)
b.2 Tree Farm Lease Agreement (TFLA, now SLUP)
b.3 Agro-Forestry Farm Lease Agreement (AFFLA, now SLUP)

c. Short-Term
c.1 Rattan Cutting Contract
c.2 Wood Proceesing Plant Permit
c.3 Special Tree Cutting Permit
c.4 Special/Private Land Timber Permit
PLTP is for naturally-growing non-premium trees
SPLTP is for naturally-growing premium trees
List of Premium Hardwood Trees is found in DAO 78-1987
c.5 Wood Recovery Permit
c.6 Special Land-Use Permit
c.7 Chainsaw Registration Permit (RA 9175)
c.8 Wood Import/Export Permit
c.9 Lumber Dealers Permit

4. Appropriate Tenure Instruments for Forest Lands, PA- Multiple Use Zones, PA Strict Protection
Zone and Ancestral Domains/Lands

5. Legal Documents required by Forests Laws: DAO 59, Series of 1990 as amended by DAO 94-
2007, further amended by DAO 2007-31 on Transport of logs/timber and Transport of Minor
Forest Products where Certificate of Inspection is required by BFD Circular No. 8, Series of
1983.


Prohibited Acts and Penalties: Law on Illegal Logging and allied laws relative thereto
1. Section 68, PD 705, as amended by EO 277
a. 3 types of Illegal Logging
b. Persons Liable
c. Administrative Authority of the DENR Secretary: Section 68-A
d. 6 Persons Authorized to Confiscate and/or Seize
e. Rules for Administrative Adjudication on Section 68-A: DAO 1997-32
e.1 Processes involved Apprehension, Seizure, Confiscation and Forfeiture vis filing of
criminal charges
e.2 Subject Matter of Administrative Confiscation/Seizure
f. Role of LGUs in Forest Protection and Forest Law Enforcement
g. The Deputized ENRO concept
h. RA 9175 Chainsaw Act
h.1 Persons authorized to own, possess and use chainsaws
h.2 Punishable acts
h.3 Chainsaws subject of confiscation

i. EO 23 Moratorium on the Cutting and Harvesting of Timber in the Natural Forests
j. EO 26 The National Greening Program
k. Writ of Kalikasan on RPEC
l. Green Courts


Jurisprudence:
1. Elements of Qualified Theft of Logs (PP vs CFI of Quezon GR 46772)
2. DENRs custodia legis (Calub vs Monsanto et. al. GR 105889)
3. Doctrine of Primary Jurisdiction (Ysmael vs Deputy Executive Secretary GR 79538)
4. Doctrine of Exhaustion of Administrative Remedies (GR 85502)
5. Res Judicata and Laches vis Administrative Decision of DENR (GR 80160)
6. Forests land as unregistrable land under Torrens (GR L-40402)


PART 2: BIODIVERSITY, PROTECTED AREAS AND WILDLIFE
How to Proceed:
1. Governing Principles and Policies
2. Established Institutions and Agencies
3. Relevant Instruments, Processes or Requirements
4. Selected Prohibited Acts and Penalties
5. Jurisprudence

Governing Principles and Policies: Levelling-Off Ideas and Expectations
1. Biodiversity (Definition per Convention on Biological Diversity CBD)
a. The Phl as one of the 18 mega-diverse countries in the world
a.1 Mega-diverse (Definition and Common Characteristic)
a.2 18 Mega-Diverse Countries
b. 5 Basic Ecological Benefits of Biodiversity
b.1 air and water purification
b.2 pollination and propagation of plants
b.3 climate stabilization
b.4 flood control

2. UN Decade on Biodiversity
a. Aichi Targets (10-year strategic planning to arrest biodiversity loss: 2011-2020)
b. Nagoya Protocol as a formal agreement to share equally the use of, and profits from global
genetic resources across developing and developed nations.
Example: Raw materials originating from Phl used as components for medicines
manufactured and processed in Japan.

3. State Soverignty vs Common Heritage of Mankind
4. Sustainable Development vis Inter-generational Equity
5. Social Justice
6. Biodiversity: State Soverignty or CHM?
a. CITES Preamble: Recoginizing that peoples and States are and should be the best protectors
of their own wild fauna and flora
b. CBD Article III Principle: The soverign right to exploit their own resources pursuant to their
own environmental policies

7. Sustainable Development : Perpetual conservation of species and their habitats
a. CITES Preamble: The natural systems of the earth must be protected for this and the
generations to come
b. CBD Article I Objectives: The conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its
components
c. NIPAS Act Section 2. Declaration of Policy
d. WILDLIFE Act Section 2. Declaration of Policy

8. Social Justice: Those who have less in life should have more in law
a. CBD Article I Objectives: Fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the utilization of
genetic resources
b. NIPAS Act Section 13 Ancestral Lands and Rights over Them vis Section 9 Management Plans
c. WILDLIFE Act Section 7. Collection of Wildlife

9. Basic Terminologies: Species vis Population vis Community vis Biodiversity

10. Protected Areas: NIPAS Act Section 4 and DAO 2008-26
a. Initial Components: NIPAS Act Section 5.a
b. Common Problems and Solutions
b.1 closed to logging and mining operations
b.2 overlaps with ancestral domains and lands
Solution: Harmonization between management plans and ancestral domains and lands plans
(DAO 2008-28 SUBPAR 10.8)
b.3 Conflicts with rights over private lands
Solution: Buffer Zones (DAO 2008-28 SUBPAR 9.5)

11. Types of Management Zones: Strict Protection Zone vis Multiple-Use Zones
12. Buffer Zones: NIPAS Act Section 8


Established Institutions and Agencies: The In-Charged
1. DENR: Jurisdiction per NIPAS Act, Section 10 vis Section 15; per WILDLIFE Act, Section 4
a. Powers of the DENR Secretary
2. DA-BFAR: Jurisdiction per WILDLIFE Act, Section 4
3. PCSD: RA 7611
a. Strategic Environment Plan for Palawan
b. Establishment of Environmentally Critical Areas Network (ECAN)
c. 5 Functions of PCSD
4. PAMB: a multi-sectoral body
a. Composition
b. 8 Major duties and functions
5. LGU: Jurisdiction over 15km municipal waters, except within Protected Areas (RA 8550, Section
4 Phl Fisheries Code)

Relevant Instruments, Processes and Requirements: Basic Understanding
1. Convention on Biological Diversity
a. Legally-Binding Treaty
a.1 Pacta Sunct Servanda, Jus Cogens and Rebus sic stantibus
b. Three Objectives of CBD
c. Biodiversity Hotspot Concept

2. Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species
a. Export and Import of species are covered by permits

3. 1987 Phl Constitution

4. NIPAS Act
a. Management Plans in Section 9
b. EIA in Section 12
c. Disestablishment as PA in Section 7
d. Survey for Energy Resources in Section 14
e. IPAF in Section 16
5. WILDLIFE Act
a. WMF in Section 29


Prohibited Acts and Penalties: NIPAS Act and WILDLIFE Act
1. Section 20 of NIPAS Act
2. Section 21 of NIPAS Act
3. Sections 18 and 19 of NIPAS Act: Enforcement Provisions
4. Section 27 of WILDLIFE Act
5. Section 28 of WILDLIFE Act
a. Length and amount depends on whether wildlife is Critical, Endangered, Vulnerable,
Threatened or others
6. Section 30 of WILDLIFE Act: Enforcement Provision


Jurisprudence:
1. Mining is allowed within forest reserves (PICOP vs Base Metals GR 163509)
2. LGU may ban shipment of live fish outside Puerto Princesa City, Palawan (Tano vs Socrates 278
SCRA 154)


PART 3: HARMONIZATION OF GREEN LAWS TO RA 8371 IPRA LAW
The Codal Approach
1. Declaration of State Policies: Section 2 letters e and f
How does the State plans to achieve these declaration of policies?

2. Who are considered ICCs/IPs: Section 3h- The 3 Groups

3. 4 Major Concepts in IPRA law
a. Concept of Native Title (Section 3m vis Time Immemorial Principle in Section 3p)
b. Concept of Free and Prior Informed Consent (Section 3g)
c. Concept of Ancestral Domains/Lands (Section 4 vis Indigenous concept of ownership in
Section 5)
d. Concept of Recognition of Ancestral Domain Rights (Section 11)

4. Rights of ICCs/IPs
a. For Ancestral Domains (Section 7)
b. For Ancestral Lands (Section 8)
c. For Self-Governance (Chapter 4)
d. For Social Justice and Human Rights (Chapter 5)
e. For Cultural Integrity (Chapter 6)

5. Jurisprudence: Cruz et al vs DENR Secretary et al GR 135385 as regards the constitutionality of
IPRA law vis indigenous concept of ownership in relation to 4 types of lands under the 1987 Phl
Constitution.

Source: Natural Resources by Justice Oswaldo Agcaoili
Environmental Summit (DENR-PHILJA SEMINAR)


-END OF MODULE 3-


Prepared by:


ATTY. RIO ARIEL A. SORIANO