Mass movement against logging in Aurora
In 1995, the revolutionary movement in Aurora declared a total ban on commercial logging and even on the exportation of logs. The move was spurred by the fact that Aurora was the only province left in Central Luzon that still had relatively dense forest cover. Cutting logs was allowed only to make furniture and construct houses and schools and other community needs. That same year, the people's mass actions likewise put a stop to the operations of Kasibu Company, a logging corporation that also had concessions in Isabela and Nueva Vizcaya. The revolutionary movement also stopped collecting revolutionary taxes from logging companies.
After half a year, however, the total logging ban policy was deemed to be "ultra-Left," because it affected only the small loggers and other people living within guerrilla zones who depended on logging to survive. The big logging companies operating outside the guerrilla zones were left untouched.
The policy thus ran counter to the class line because it was the exploited classes and not the exploiting classes that were affected.
In rectifying, the revolutionary forces emphasized extensive education campaigns, encouraged the peasants to return to farming, and implemented various forms of agricultural cooperation.
This was in recognition of the fact that as long as there were no alternative livelihoods for the poor, the latter would always be forced to latch on to the big logging companies�thus making a total ban on commercial logging unjust and incapable of succeeding.
Because a total logging ban could as yet not be effected and to alleviate the exploitation of small wood-cutters by big logging companies, the revolutionary movement has been organizing the people to fight for more just payment for wood sold to the gigantic logging companies. Nonetheless, swidden farmers and small wood-cutters are required to plant hardwood, fruit-bearing and coconut trees to replace the trees they have felled.
This campaign is being carried out in all guerrilla zones in the province.
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