Pine and Oak Forests: 1930–1980
Although pine is vital for local subsistence, government policy under both the American and the Philippine regimes has always favored industrial users, especially the large mining corporations. The state long ago awarded the pines of greater Buguias to the Heald Lumber Company, which constructed two sawmills in the vicinity (at Bad-ayan and Sinipsip on the Mountain Trail) before the war. Not all of the region was logged, however, and several healthy stands survived in and near Buguias Village. To ensure an adequate supply of mine supports, the state has, at various times and with variable success, attempted to prevent the Benguet people
from cutting trees in the concession areas. But through the American period timber was plentiful and most forestry agents were lax in the enforcement of official rules.
By the late 1950s, however, the Buguias people and the government foresters came into sharp conflict. Forest guards were now ordered to require official approval for every pine cut. Furthermore, local residents could no longer make new tax declarations unless their plots were certified as containing no pines. Since agriculture had to expand, gardeners were forced to clear new plots surreptitiously, uprooting all potentially incriminating pine seedlings before the inspection teams could arrive. Although this entailed needless destruction, farmers felt they had no alternative.
Foresters classify the high-elevation oak woodland as non-economic, since its stubby and gnarled trees are worthless as lumber. They do consider it vital watershed, however, a function that became particularly important after two hydroelectric dams were installed on the middle Agno in the 1950s. Most recent government forestry reports have accordingly advocated cloud-forest preservation (see, for example, MPDA 1964). Yet no safeguards have been implemented. The cloud forest of Mount Data, for instance—the source of the four major rivers of the Cordillera (the Agno, Chico, Abra, and Ibulao)—officially lies within a national park, yet most of it has long since been abandoned to cabbage fields. Benguet conservationists, led by Sinai Hamada, publisher of the Baguio Midland Courier , fought hard to protect the Mount Data forests, but to no avail.
Through the late 1960s, the pine forests of Benguet continued to dwindle under pressure from both corporate and indigenous logging. Even when National Power Company agents joined the foresters in pressing for conservation the state could not act effectively; as with other environmental issues, conflicting interests demanded contradictory actions. For example, in January 1969, Marcos banned all cutting in the upper Agno watershed, but Heald Lumber Company protested and within a few days he rescinded the order (Baguio Midland Courier March 9, 1969). In 1975 a more far-reaching ban protected all pine trees within 50 kilometers of Baguio, but a year later, when lumber ran short in the gold mines, Heald again received special exemptions (Baguio Midland Courier Sept. 12, 1975).
Although the Marcos regime could not thwart corporate logging (if indeed it had ever intended to), it could harass Igorot farmers and woodcutters. During the early martial law period, forest guards often arrested decree violators. This period witnessed a renewal of purposeful seedling destruction by local farmers resisting forestry interference. By 1976, however, the enforcement power of the state simply began to evaporate; with the New People's Army (NPA) on the rise, forest guards rapidly retreated. Although the NPA later withdrew from the Buguias region, the state did not attempt to reassert its forestry authority.
Meanwhile, through the 1970s the novel oleoresin industry seemed to portend the salvation of the Benguet pines. The insular pine produces copious, high-quality resin, long used by the Igorots in the form of saleng. When forest researchers discovered that resin extraction would not harm the trees (Veracion 1977), development agents began to encourage local tapping. If the Igorots could tap commercially, foresters reasoned, they would protect old trees and nurture saplings. On February 1, 1970, the Baguio Midland Courier hopefully announced that the solution to the "kaingin problem" (Tagalog for swidden field) had at long last been discovered.
The Buguias people quickly moved into the naval-stores industry. Individuals who had been instructed in the proper tapping techniques obtained licenses; these persons invited others to tap under their permits in return for a percentage of the profits. For a few years a number of residents of the higher reaches of Buguias extracted a substantial supplementary income. But the practice soon proved to be unsustainable; few tappers followed regulations closely, and most trees were over-drained. The fire threat was also heightened since resin often continued to dribble out of the tap scar, and the accumulated deposit would easily combust during a grass burn, in turn igniting the entire tree. Moreover, the tappers seldom realized the desired profits. By the early 1980s, the oleoresin industry lay in ruins.