Who really holds the rights to trees and carbon in the Philippines?

By Angela Arnante
BusinessWorld
June 16, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

The Phillipines sits on a goldmine of forest and carbon wealth. But an unclear and short-sighted property rights regime is choking its potential; existing rules are partially to be blamed. Forest lands, which are State-owned lands, span 15.8 million hectares or half of the country’s total land area. The 1987 Constitution states that all lands of the public domain, forest lands included, belong to the State. It can either manage them directly or partner with private entities, as long as Filipino citizens own at least 60% of the company involved and these agreements last 25 years, renewable for another 25. This legal framework along with existing policies, designed to regulate the exploitation of natural resources like mining and logging, now constrains investment in regenerative and non-extractive activities such as reforestation and carbon sequestration… The current tenure framework on forest lands does not match the biological and economic realities of forest and carbon development.

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