Climate change, mining and Mimaropa

This is to inform the general public that the Mining in Cantilan article that came out on April 11, 2010 was prepared with the intention of documenting the then ongoing protest action in Cantilan, Surigao del Sur led by Mayor Tomasa Guardo. The protest action which was participated in by local community members opposed mining activities by Marcventures Mining and Development Corp. (MMDC) and have set up a picket line adjacent to the road leading to the mining area. Monica Edralin, advocacy assistant of Haribon Foundation was tasked only to interview people involved in the protest action. The protest action in Cantilan is among several protest actions occurring around the country calling for a ban on large-scale mining in the country. Haribon believes that mining in Important Biodiversity Areas (IBAs) such as Mount Hilong-hilong which covers the forest in Cantilan is detrimental to the unique, beautiful and diminishing wildlife in Surigao del Sur which includes the Philippine Eagle. Monica Edralin is no longer connected with Haribon. The said organization takes responsibility of the published article.

President Gloria Arroyo has recently signed the National Framework on Climate Change (CC) in Puerto Princesa City, Palawan. It was reported that the framework aims to provide measures on CC mitigation and adaptation and Climate Change Commission (CCC) Vice Chairman Secretary Heherson Alvarez and CCC Commissioner Nadarev Saño have mentioned the need to reassess development policies that impact on climate change specifically, the active promotion of mining in the country.

“System change not climate change and mining worsens climate disasters,” were the calls of environmental group Alyansa Tigil Mina (ATM) during their Earth Day rally held at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources office in Manila on April 22.

Mining requires vast amount of land, logging, water and power consumption. In the process, it not only puts pressure in the carrying capacity of ecosystems but as well adds stress to the socio-political and economic state of communities that worsens CC impacts.

Communities highly dependent on the agriculture and fisheries sector are the most vulnerable to mining impacts. This sector is also the most vulnerable to climate change manifested in extreme weather events such as drought, flooding and strong typhoons.

The present El Niño phenomenon has put watersheds in dry spell in different parts of our country. The National Disaster Coordinating Council has reported that as of April 6, 2010, crop damage because of the current El Niño was estimated at P10.4 billion. Commonly, mining operations and/or tenements are situated in watershed areas.

Mindoro, the food basket of the southern Luzon region, is threatened by Norway-based Intex Resources’s attempt to open up a nickel mine despite existing large-scale mining moratoriums in both Oriental and Occidental Mindoro, local opposition of communities, civil society organizations and Catholic Church. The proposed mine site is located within a critical watershed area that provides the irrigation for 70 percent of the island province’s important rice fields and fruit plantations.

According to a study by the Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center, it takes 32,054 liters of freshwater to produce a single ounce of gold. Mining requires tons of volume of water in its daily operation that reduces water availability needed for domestic consumption, irrigation and electricity use.

Occidental Mindoro is one of the 23 provinces highly vulnerable to El Niño identified by the Department of Agriculture. While, Oriental Mindoro is among the 10 most flood-prone areas identified by Environment department in the country.

Mining also worsens water quality. The track record of the mining industry shows that mine tailings waste pollution has contaminated at least 14 major river systems in the country.

Marinduque’s Boac River is biologically dead after Marcopper Mining Corp. mine tailings spilled into the river in 1996, which killed marine life in the 26-kilometer waterway and flooded farmland and villages along its banks. Thirteen years after the mine disaster, Marinduqueños are still saddled with millions of cubic meters of toxic open-pit copper mine waste and they have yet to attain justice. They have filed various administrative, criminal and civil cases related to mining with damage claims amounting to more than P100 billion.

Mining disasters are most likely to happen with poor disaster risk reduction plan, and mining monitoring and regulation by government, which can be exarbated by climate change. There were at least eight mine tailing dam failures attributable to heavy rainfalls and typhoons in the Philippines (in the period 1982 to 2007) according to the Philippine Indigenous Peoples Link study. These incidents caused massive fish kills, toxic heavy metals contamination apparent in land and waters, damage to agriculture, displacement and economic disruption of mining-affected communities.

Romblon was devastated by Typhoon Frank in 2008 that destroyed crops and livestock amounting to about 110 million. It has been identified by the Agriculture department as one of the provinces moderately vulnerable to El Niño. Besides being popular as the Marble Capital of the country, Romblon is known for its Sibuyan Island dubbed as Asia’s Galapagos for its rich biodiversity.

Biodiversity protection and conservation are both mitigating and adaptive measures to address CC. Large intact natural ecosystems help stabilize local climate conditions in an environment. The loss of forest cover around the world contributes about 20 percent to annual global greenhouse gas emissions.

According to United Nations Development Programme Environment and Energy Group Director Veerle Vandeweerd, three quarters of the world’s population depend on natural resources for their daily living and their daily survival, for food, shelter, recreation, which is basically “everything.” She said, “The loss of biodiversity and the degradation of natural resources impact first and foremost the poor and the women and the vulnerable.”

The small island of Sibuyan is a declared mangrove forest reserve under Proclamation 2152 by then President Ferdinand Marcos, which falls under the National Protected Areas System. It has been a target of several mining companies. One of which is Altai Philippines Mining Corp. (APMC) to mine nickel on the island. APMC was given a Mineral Productions Sharing Agreement (MPSA) permit for 1,822 hectares property signed by then Environment Secretary Lito Atienza on December 23 last year.

Palawan, the Philippine’s Last Frontier, is part of the “Man and Biosphere Reserve” program of Unesco declared in 1990, which hosts 49 animals and 56 botanical species found in the IUCN Red List of
Threatened Species. The province major economic sector are agriculture, fishery and tourism. It was reported that about 60 percent of the fish that landed in Manila comes from Palawan waters.

The province’s Strategic Environmental Plan (SEP), or the Republic Act 7611 prevents mining operations in areas under maximum protection. Unfortunately, mining operations such us those situated at Brooke’s Point encroach areas under maximum protection defined under the SEP. Ninety percent of the mining operations are situated in “core zones”—areas above 1,000 meters in elevation, virgin forests or primary growth forests, areas with steep gradient (above 50-percent slope), and critically threatened/endangered habitats and habitats of rare endangered species or habitats of Palawan local endemic species of flora and fauna.

According to Artiso Mandawa, Ancestral Land/Domain Watch national coordinator, Palawan has a total land area of 1.47 million hectares with alarmingly 354 mining tenements, which encroach more than 50 percent of the province. To date, 90 percent of the areas covered by the 354 mining tenements in the island is found within indigenous people territory.

According to Environment department, as of Septermber 2009, there are 348-mining tenements covering 744,199 hectares spread across the country. Mimaropa is host to one Financial Technical Assistance Agreement, one Exploration Permit and 14 MPSAs tantamount to 47,866.72 hectares in the region.

ATM calls for the need to change the current misguided development system that exacerbates climate change such as aggressive promotion of extractive and fossil fuel-based economy such as logging, mining and coal-fired power. Specifically, ATM calls for the scrapping of the Philippine Mining Act of 1995, the passage of an alterative law on mineral management and a moratorium on large-scale mining operations. –ROSLYN ARAYATA POLICY RESEARCH AND ADVOCACY OFFICER, ALYANSA TIGIL-MINA, Manila Times