del Rosario, Ernie <br/><br/>
Report of meetings : May 17, 1951 /  
by Ernie del Rosario  
 - page 3.  
<br/><br/> Today's luncheon guest speaker was Director Florencio Tamesis, director of the Bureau of Forestry. He advocated floating of bonds to make possible more liberal credit facilities for the lumber industry and to provide funds for an integrated forestry program in the Philippines.  The forestry director said that while he has no grudge against agricultural expansion he felt that it is a crime to waste valuable timber just to give way to unregulated agricultural expansion.  He revealed "alarming forest destruction by professional squatters is at present going on in many places in the country." He emphasized the need for drastic remedy.  The total land area of the Philippines. counts with only one-fifth of it as agricultural portion while the rest is made up of forests, marshes and grasslands, he said. He estimated that the amount of timber available from this area totals a staggering amount of over 464,000,000,000 board feet of commercial timber valued at P46,000,000,000.  He said there is deplorable lack of interest in the government to take full advantage of forest resources which constitute a rich source of wealth.