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Illegal Logging, Rains Blamed

Posted on: Monday, 20 February 2006, 09:00 CST

By Paul Alexander

MANILA, Philippines -- Weather was the easy target for blame in Friday's devastating landslide -- Heavy rains had pelted the area for two weeks -- but survivors also were pointing at illegal logging as a contributing factor.

"It stopped around 10 years ago," Roger Mercado, a member of Congress who represents the area, told DZBB radio, "but this is the effect of the logging in the past."

Army Capt. Edmund Abella, who joined rescue efforts with about 30 soldiers from his unit, heard similar speculation from survivors. "People are blaming small, widespread chain-saw logging," he said.

Pat Vendetti, a London-based campaigner with the Greenpeace environmental action group, said illegal logging may prove to have contributed to the mudslide. "There were similar landslides at the end of 2004 and the end of 2003, both directly linked to illegal logging on land above villages, and both in the Philippines," said Vendetti.

Vendetti said the country had lost about 8.5 million acres of forest in the last 15 years, "roughly equivalent to the size of Belgium." He said that, although logging is illegal in the Philippines, a combination of poor governance and corruption has hampered enforcement of the law.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies blamed a combination of the weather and the type of trees prevalent in the area.

"The remote coastal area of Southern Leyte ... is heavily forested with coconut trees," the Red Cross said from Geneva. "They have shallow roots, which can be easily dislodged after heavy rains, causing the land to become unstable.

Rosette Lerias, governor of Southern Leyte province, confirmed that assessment. "The trees were sliding down upright with the mud."

Source: Cincinnati Post

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