PHILIPPINE FOREST CONCESSIONS 



WHILE there are two hun- 

 dred bilHon board feet of 

 merchantable kmiber stand- 

 ing on the GO, 000 square 

 miles of Philippine public forests, in 

 1913 there were milled the small total 

 of 80.000,000 feet, of which less than 

 one-eighth was exported. Major Ahern, 

 the insular director of forestry, believes 

 there is an export market awaiting the 

 establishment of milling enterprises, 

 which would take three hundred mill- 

 ion feet yearly, mainly of four woods — 

 lauan, apitong, guijo and yacal. These 

 trees grow to a very large size, a large 

 number are found on a limited area and 

 their extraction affords an attractive en- 

 terprise for a modern logging and mill- 

 ing operation. 



These public forest lands in the Phil- 

 ippines are not sold but are developed 

 under a license system. Yearly licenses 

 are ordinarily given small operators for 

 limited areas. The larger tracts are of- 

 fered in the form of twenty-year ex- 

 clusive licenses, which provide for the 

 removal of timber and minor forest 

 products without affecting the title to 

 the land. 



At present eleven such exclusive li- 

 censes, popularly called concessions, are 

 in operation, representing American, 

 British, Chinese, German, Spanish and 

 Filipino cai)ital. A recent timber con- 

 cession was granted to a Chinese com- 

 pany that will find no difficulty in dis- 

 posing of its products through its con- 

 nections in China, while the British and 

 German interests find their markets for 

 Philippine woods in India and Europe 

 as well as in China. 



The forestry bureau now has avail- 

 able a numljer of tracts ranging in size 

 from 35 to 300 square miles, with one 

 or two of much larger size, awaiting 

 applications. 



A person considering such an invest- 

 ment is afforded every opportunity for 

 investigation. The bureau of forestry 

 desires each applicant or his authorized 

 representative to visit the tract per- 



524 



sonally in company with one of the for- 

 esters, or that he have an experienced 

 lumberman do so, in order that he may 

 see the stand of timber, the facilities 

 for haulage and transportation, the lo- 

 cation of mill sites and ascertain for 

 himself the local labor supply. 



The concessions themselves cost 

 nothing; the charges being in the form 

 of stumpage fees, payable upon re- 

 moval of the product and running from 

 $1.00 to $5.00 per thousand feet. When 

 an application, complying at least with 

 the minimum requirements as to the 

 size of the mill and the annual output,, 

 has been received, the tract is adver- 

 tised for a period of four months. In 

 awarding the concession preference is 

 given to the bidder offering to install 

 the most complete and effective plant 

 and giving the best security for per- 

 formance. 



The concessions are given for tracts 

 large in proportion to the capacity of 

 the mills installed in order that the fu- 

 ture condition of the forest will not 

 suffer. The amount of the annual pro- 

 duction stipulated takes into considera- 

 tion both the present amount of over- 

 mature timber and the amount annually 

 maturing, and in other ways the regula- 

 tions seek to conserve the forest wealth 

 while rendering available the mature 

 timber with the fewest possible restric- 

 tions. 



One of the important elements is suf- 

 ficient capital to install machinery capa- 

 ble of handling the large hardwood logs, 

 for which some of the earlier plants 

 proved hardly adequate, and to permit 

 a proper seasoning of the product. The 

 security the Philippine Government re- 

 quires that the concessionaire give is 

 very modest in proportior, to the amount 

 of raw material placed at his dis])Osi- 

 tion — when a bid is submitted a de- 

 ]:»osit of a certified check, usually for 

 $5,000, is required, and then after the 

 award is made, the equipment on the 

 ground and the concessionaire about to 

 begin operations, the certified check 



