CHAPTER III UTILIZATION AND MANAGEMENT Section 19. Multiple use.

. The numerous beneficial uses of the timber, land, soil, water, wildlife, recreation value and grass of forest lands shall be evaluated and weighted before allowing the utilization, exploitation, occupation or possession thereof, or the conduct of any activity therein.

Only the utilization, exploitation, occupation or possession of any forest land, or any activity therein, involving one or more or its resources, which will produce the optimum benefits to the development and progress of the country and the public welfare, without impairment or with the least injury to its other resources, shall be allowed.

All forest reservations may be open to uses not inconsistent with the principal objectives of the reservation: Provided, that critical watersheds and national parks shall not be subject to logging operations.

Forests have many uses and produce many benefits to human beings. These uses and benefits are outputs. Outputs include timber, wildlife habitat, recreation opportunities, food and medicine sources, places for endangered and threatened plants and animals, clean water, healthy soils, visual quality, a source of spirituality, oxygen, temperature and humidity modification, carbon storage, and other environmental influences. People use more forest outputs every year. There are more people each year. Without management, our forests will not be able to sustain these increasing demands. Nature, by itself, will not supply our needs in the amounts we need and when we need them. This is where the concept of balance lies, and the need for forest management. A healthy and productive forest, in an ecologically sound condition, must be sustained. Every forest produces a wide range of benefits or multiple uses. However, the emphasis may change with forest type, location within the state, and ownership. Forest industry emphasizes timber production, but considers all outputs. A wilderness area on a national forest emphasizes recreation, spirituality, and visual quality. How forests are managed across a large landscape will determine the overall quantity and quality of multiple uses in the big picture.

Embracing this landscape concept and merging that with society's needs is a difficult task and has only become accessible with the assistance of recent technologies.

Section 20. License agreement, license, lease or permit. No person may utilize, exploit, occupy, possess or conduct any activity within any forest land, or establish and operate any wood-processing plant, unless he has been authorized to do so under a license agreement, lease, license, or permit.

In order that a person may utilize, exploit, occupy, possess or conduct any activity within any forest land, or establish and operate any wood-processing plant he must first have license agreement, license, lease or permit. License agreement is a privilege granted by the state to a person to utilize a forest resources within any forest land with the right of possession and occupation thereof to the exclusion of others, except the government, but with the corresponding obligation to develop, protect and rehabilitate the same in accordance with the terms and condition set forth in said agreement. License is a privilege granted by the State to a person to utilized forest resource as in any forest land, without any right of occupation and possession over the same, to the exclusion of others or establish and operate a wood processing plant, or conduct any activity indicating utilization of any forest. Lease is a privilege granted by the State to a person to occupy and possess in consideration of a specified rental, any forest land of the public domain in order to undertake any authorized activity therein. Permit is short-term privilege or authority granted by the State to a person to utilize any limited activity with any forest land without any right of occupation and possession therein.

Section 21. Sustained yield. All measures shall be taken to achieve an approximate balance between growth and harvest or use of forest products in forest lands.

A. TIMBER

Today forest management is still primarily economic in essence, because modern forest industries, mainly sawmilling and paper manufacture, can be efficient only on a continuousoperation basis. This implies continuous or periodic production of forest products in a working unit for the purpose of achieving at the earliest practicable time an approximate balance between growth and harvest or use. This is generally applied to the commercial timber resources and is

also applicable to the water, grass, wildlife, and other renewable resources of the forest. Foresters think in long time scales, in line with the long life of their renewable crop. However, it is possible that a forest can be managed in such a way that a modest timber crop may be harvested indefinitely year after year if annual harvest and the losses due to fire, insects, diseases, and other destructive agents are counterbalanced by annual growth. This is the sustained-yield concept. An important element is the rotation, or age to which each crop can be grown before it is succeeded by the next one. Sustained-yield principles are likewise applied to minor forest produce.

Section 22. Silvicultural and harvesting systems. In any logging operations in production forests within forest lands, the proper silvicultural and harvesting systems that will promote optimum sustained yield shall be practiced.

(a) For dipterocarp forest, selective logging shall be practiced.

(b) For pine forest, the seed tree system with planting when necessary shall be practiced.

(c) For other types of forest, the silvicultural and harvesting system that will be found suitable by research shall be applied. Meanwhile, a system based on observation and practices abroad may be adopted initially.

Any practiced systems are subject to modification or changes based on research findings.

This section talks about the establishment, development, reproduction and care of forest trees. Using ecological, economic, and social knowledge to manipulate a forest ecosystem to achieve specific sustainable benefits specified for it. Producing and tending a forest or more in particular, as the theory and practice of controlling establishment, composition, constitution and growth of forests. This system are tended, harvested and replaced, resulting in a forest of distinctive form. Silvicultural systems are most commonly classified according to the reproductive method employed since it has a decisive influence on the form and treatment of the stand. The reproductive method refers to the method of carrying out the fillings that remove the mature crop with a view to regeneration and according to the type of forest thereby produced.

Silvicultural systems are divided into those employing natural regeneration, whereby tree crops are renewed by natural seeding or occasionally sprout regrowth, and those involving artificial regeneration, whereby trees are raised from seed or cuttings. Natural regeneration is easier but may be slow and irregular; it can only renew existing forests with the same sorts of tree that grew before. Artificial regeneration needs more effort, yet can prove quicker, more even, and in the long run more economical. It permits the introduction of new sorts of trees or better strains of the preexisting ones. Silviculture is the branch of forestry concerned with the theory and practice of
controlling forest establishment, composition, and growth. Like forestry itself, silviculture is an applied science that rests ultimately upon the more fundamental natural and social sciences. The immediate foundation of silviculture in the natural sciences is the field of silvics, which deals with the laws underlying the growth and development of single trees and of the forest as a biologic unit. Growth, in turn, depends on local soils and climate, competition from other vegetation, and interrelations with animals, insects, and other organisms, both beneficial and destructive. The efficient practice of silviculture demands knowledge of such fields as ecology, plant physiology, entomology, and soil science and is concerned with the economic as well as the biologic aspects of forestry. The implicit objective of forestry is to make the forest useful to man. The practice of silviculture is divided into three areas: methods of reproduction, intermediate cuttings, and protection. In every forest the time comes when it is desirable to harvest a portion of the timber and to replace the trees removed with others of a new generation. The act of replacing old trees, either naturally or artificially is called regeneration or reproduction, and these two terms also refer to the new growth that develops. The period of regeneration begins when preparatory measures are initiated and does not end until young trees have become established in acceptable numbers and are fully adjusted to the new environment. The rotation is the period during which a single crop or generation is allowed to grow.

Section 23. Timber inventory. The Bureau shall conduct a program of progressive inventories of the harvestable timber and young trees in all forest lands, whether covered by any license agreement, license, lease or permit, or not, until a one hundred per cent (100%) timber inventory thereon has been achieved.

It is important for the Bureau to conduct a program of progressive inventories of the harvestable timber and young trees in all forest land to get an estimate of the value and possible uses of the timber. When taking forest inventory the following are important things to measure

and note: species, diameter at breast height, height, site quality, age, and defects. From the data collected one can calculate the number of trees per acre, the basal area, the volume of trees in an area, and the value of the timber. Inventories can be done for other reasons than just calculating the value. The timber can be cruised to determine potential fire hazards and the risk of fire. The results of this type of inventory can be used in preventative actions and also awareness. Wildlife surveys or inventories can be taken to determine the number and type of wildlife within a forest. The aim of the statistical forest inventory is to provide comprehensive information about the state and dynamics of forests for strategic and management planning.

Section 24. Required inventory prior to timber utilization in forest lands. No harvest of timber in any forest land shall be allowed unless it has been the subject of at least a five per cent (5%) timber inventory, or any statistically sound timber estimate, made not earlier than five (5) years prior to the issuance of a license agreement or license allowing such utilization.