The government will tap private sector investments for the development of the country’s forest lands and water assets.
Carlos Primo David, undersecretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said as much as 1 million hectares (ha) of classified government forest lands and as much as 292 water assets will be opened for private sector investments.
David said at the Pilipinas Conference 2023 hosted by Stratbase ADR Institute yesterday investments on mineral areas will also be opened by the middle of next year. He did not provide details.
David said investments on water will be made through unsolicited proposals and will replicate the model used in the Bulacan bulk water project where the proponent is selected not by how much it can give to the government but by how cheap it can provide water to beneficiary local government units.
“(We may also look for investors on) about 3,000 water rights that are non-performing that can be cancelled and be utilized at some point. Water from protected areas and watershed reservations to be developed for water supply, that’s a whole new list of potential projects that we should engage the private sector in, if we want to improve and move to the next level,” David added.
In the same forum, DENR Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo Loyzaga said the agency will open by early next year the 1 million ha of classified government forest lands where timber, bamboo, abaca, coffee and other forest products can be cultivated.
Loyzaga said proponents will be required to reforest a portion of their areas which in turn can be eligible for carbon credit purposes and help increase country’s permanently protected forest cover.
“Similar announcements will also be made for areas within closed forests exclusively for carbon credit purposes and low impact activities such as eco-tourism,” Loyzaga added.
The Philippines has 15 million hectares of classified forest lands today but only around 23 percent is covered by forests from a high of 70 percent coverage.
“We have managed to increase this in the last few years but it has not been that significant. We have almost lost all our timber production with the wood industry now resorting to importing 70 percent of our wood requirements from neighboring countries and beyond,” Loyzaga said.
The DENR said this scenario is also applicable to other forest products particularly abaca and bamboo.
Loyzaga added the DENR aims to establish a national government-led platform for carbon credits to facilitate trading of such commodities through a government-to-government approach.
“We are working with UNDP (United Nations Development Program), World Bank, Asian Development Bank and the Department of Finance since it is the principal body that will establish pricing. DENR’s job is to establish the physical basis to do that and the basis will be fed into the pricing process. We are looking at the middle of next year for the platform,” Loyzaga said.
Carbon credits are tradable certificates for the right to emit an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
