Carabao Logging

After commercial logging has ceased, small-scale logging by local residents often begins. Because the timbers are dragged out by carabao, it is often referred to as “carabao logging”. Trees that were too small or too crooked to be of interest to the commercial loggers are cut by hand-saw or small chain-saw, and hauled downslope where the lumber is either used locally or sold to businessmen. Because this logging is often done on steep slopes, the process opens up the land to further erosion, as well as providing trails that may be used for access to formerly forested areas by subsistence farmers who attempt to eke out a living on land that is too steep for sustainable agriculture.