The start of large-scale, labor-intensive harvesting

The southern Philippines is one of the most productive locations in the world for growing trees. This productive advantage, coupled with global concern over the continuing loss of natural forests and the desire for sustainably produced wood, drew increased attention to Mindanao in the early 1990s. Foreign investors from China, India, Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan and Thailand were drawn to the southern Philippines, and in particular, to the potential for plantation forestry.

A 1993 World Bank report entitled "Tropical Hardwood Marketing Strategies for Southeast Asia" lent added support to plantation development in the southern Philippines. The report predicted increased demand for "sustainably grown" wood, and advocated investments in processes for producing "medium- and high-quality plywood in order to meet standards and win premiums available in high-value markets." It also advised the development of a progressive "Sustainability of Origin" certification system aimed at satisfying consumer demands for wood produced with a minimum of negative environmental impacts.

The southern Philippines was considered an ideal area to implement such a certification scheme, since the majority of the wood in the area was already derived, or was soon to come, from plantation forests. In addition, both the natural forests and the plantations in the southern Philippines had already been harvested once or twice (unique for Southeast Asia), arguably putting these forests on a track toward sustainability.

While the productive potential of forests in the southern Philippines was well recognized, additional efforts were needed to demonstrate that forests were being managed and harvested in an environmentally sound manner. With the emphasis on sustainability, new demands were placed on forestry such as:

· low-impact harvesting
· improved forest policy and management
· improved recovery of wood
· improved concession management and rent capture
· restructuring of production capacity
· improved marketing strategies

One opportunity gradually recognized and accepted by the top-management echelon of private companies and political leaders was to shift forestry practices from capital-intensive to labor-intensive approaches. At about the same time, politicians and development officials also became aware of the vast potential for employment in the forestry sector, particularly if labor-intensive practices were emphasized. Research on the harvesting of plantation forests received a substantial boost, and soon it became evident that the "bio-mechanical" (man-animal) methods were more cost-effective than the conventional operations of the wood industries. In fact, the results showed that mechanized harvesting of plantations was twice as expensive as bio-mechanical harvesting, locally called "mammal" methods.

The first attempt at large-scale, labor-intensive harvesting of plantation-grown wood in the southern Philippines suffered from poor planning and coordination. The "manimal" methods¹ proved to be so efficient that as much 100,000 m³ of wood was delivered to mills so rapidly they were unable to handle it. Tens of thousands of cubic meters of wood lay decaying in the logyards because the mills were unable to process it fast enough. Despite the problems encountered in this first large-scale trial, top managers of PICOP and other wood industries became convinced of the superiority of the "manimal" methods, which had originally been developed more than 15 years earlier. The trial had successfully dispelled the notion that large volumes of wood could not be harvested and transported using labor-intensive methods. Moreover, in addition to successfully transporting large volumes of wood, the trial using "manimal" methods also recovered small pieces of wood from the forest that would have been left behind had conventional systems been used. Thus, recovery rates per hectare were significantly increased.

¹ Actually, the first trials were not entirely manual as chainsaws were used to improve coppicing. This later proved to be unnecessary, because the hand-sawn stumps coppiced equally well.

Encouraged by the success of the first trials to harvest and transport large amounts of wood using low-cost, labor-intensive methods, industry officials and private farmers quickly seized on its potential. Thus, by 1994, appropriate harvesting practices had spread to an area of several thousand sq km. The technologies were now well established, and interest in growing trees was rapidly expanding. The formation of women forestry groups also served to "spread the gospel," and tree growing was taken up as much as 400 km away from the initial core trial area established in 1976.

The area of tree plantations surrounding PICOP provide an indication of the extent of plantations in just one location of eastern Mindanao:

· PICOP plantations: 36,000 ha

· Tree farms: 15,000 ha (located nearby PICOP's millsite)

· Other tree growers: 29,000 ha (estimated area of plantations located further away, but selling wood to PICOP)

A wide variety of species is grown in plantations in southern Mindanao (Table 5). Species planted by PICOP include Paraserianthes falcataria (11,970 ha), Eucalyptus deglupta (13,600 ha), Acacia mangium (5,560 ha), Gmelina arborea (300 ha), Pinus spp. (820 ha), and various dipterocarps (6,650 ha).

Table 5. Main Species Grown in Plantations in the Southern Philippines

Species	Origin and Year Planting Began
Paraserianthes falcataria	Indonesia; since 1970s
Gmelina arborea	Latin America; since 1970s
Eucalyptus deglupta	Indigenous to the Philippines
Acacia mangium	Malaysia; grown in the southern Philippines since 1992
Dipterocarpus spp.	Indigenous to the Philippines; large plantations since 1992

Reacting to favorable plantation trials using apitong (Dipterocarpus grandiflorus) and other indigenous species, farmers in the southern Philippines are increasingly planting indigenous climax species in tree plantations. Although these species are slower growing than many exotic species, they are better adapted to the climate, including the occasional typhoons experienced in the area.

The eastern side of Mindanao has at least eight large potential wood buyers, in addition to large banana plantations which still require large numbers of wooden poles to support the banana stems. Although labor-intensive "mammal" harvesting and transport practices are being adopted in many areas in the southern Philippines, the farmers and wood suppliers around PICOP in eastern Mindanao have progressed most rapidly using these approaches. The harvest volumes of PICOP are substantial (Table 6), averaging recently more than 400,000 m³ of plantation-grown wood per year.

The experience of PICOP in recent years clearly shatters the myth that small suppliers using labor-intensive methods are incapable of providing large volumes of wood to industries on a continuous and reliable basis. Of the more than 400,000 m³ of plantation-grown wood supplied to PICOP each year, nearly half is harvested with simple hand tools rather than chainsaws (Table 7). Sixty percent of the wood is skidded with carabao or oxen, while most of the other forty percent is transported to landings by cable systems. About 80 percent of the plantation-grown wood supplied to PICOP is manually loaded onto trucks, while only about 20 percent is loaded by mechanized loaders.

Table 6. Harvesting Volumes of Plantation-grown Wood (PICOP's procurement)

Year	PICOP Plantations (m3)				Tree Farms (m3)
	Falcata	Eucalyptus	Gmelina	Others	Falcata	Dipterocarps
1988	No harvesting	No harvesting	No harvesting	No harvesting	140,000	No data
1989	-	-	-	-	170,000	-
1990	-	-	-	-	200,000	-
1991	-	-	-	-	200,000	-
1992	135,000	21,000	-	-	207,000	130,000
1993	116,000	38,000	-	-	177,000	71,500
1994	No data	No data	No data	No data	No data	No data
1995	270,000	48,000	-	-	121,000	-
1996	270,000	48,000	-	-	115,000	(Planned)

There are about 50 contractors presently involved in harvesting wood for PICOP. Each contractor employs about 50 persons in teams and uses different equipment and techniques. To ensure environmentally sound harvesting, PICOP stipulates that each contractor team must include one or more people trained in harvesting courses organized by PICOP. Furthermore, to promote efficient wood recovery, PICOP stopped buying wood cut with axes in 1994; only wood cut with saws is accepted.

PICOP signboard promoting "mammal" operations

Table 7. Harvesting Methods Used by PICOP Contractors and Tree Farmers

Operation	Harvesting methods and percentage of wood from each
Felling & crosscutting	saws, axes, machetes (40 percent)	chainsaws (60 percent)
Debarking	spuds (60 percent)	machetes (40 percent)
Skidding & forwarding	carabao skidding (60 percent)	cable systems (40 percent)
Loading	manual/pulpwood pick (80 percent)	mechanized loaders (20 percent)
Road transport	trucks on contract (90 percent)	company trucks (10 percent)

In addition to proving that labor-intensive, manual- and animal-based systems can provide large volumes of wood to industries, the PICOP experience verifies that these methods are cost competitive, at least when low-cost labor is readily available such as in most parts of the southern Philippines. Harvesting and transport costs (including US$ 3.20 to US$ 5.20 for transporting wood by truck from the forest to the mill site) at PICOP vary from US$ 20 to US$ 40 per cubic meter, depending on the way wood is harvested and transported, the distance from the mill, and the category of harvestor (Table 8). It is readily apparent, however, that tree farmers and contractors (largely using "manimal" techniques) are able to supply PICOP with wood at costs substantially below the costs incurred by company harvestors (who tend to use more mechanized systems).

Table 8. Cost of Supplying Wood to PICOP, 1995/96

Harvester	PICOP forest (US$ per/m3)	Tree farms (US$ per/m3)
Company	40	32-40
Contractor	28	28-32
Tree farmer	-	20-28