Government orders miners to reforest land bigger than ‘disturbed’ areas till 2016

MINERS now have to either establish a reforestation area or to donate seedlings to the National Greening Program (NGP) under an order issued earlier this month by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB).

Memorandum Order No. 2011-03, dated Oct. 13 and signed by MGB Director Leo L. Jasareno, said all mining contractors, permit holders and lessees are now required to either plant seedlings and establish a reforestation area, or to donate these materials to help attain the 34,000-hectare reforestation target NGP set for the mining sector from this year until 2013.

Mr. Jasareno said in a telephone interview on Monday that firms that opt to establish a reforestation area will have to go to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) regional office where they operate in order to be told in which areas they can plant seedlings.

‘Disturbed’ areas

“The number of hectares for the reforestation area will depend on areas disturbed by mining,” Mr. Jasareno said.

MGB said in its order that miners with “disturbed” areas measuring at least 100 hectares will have to reforest an area twice the size of the affected site.

Those with less than 100 hectares of affected area will have to reforest 1.5 times more.

As for contractors or permit holders in exploration stage, MGB said they would have to establish a reforested area equivalent to the size of disturbed areas.

The bureau said that should mining contractors decide to donate seedlings, the number of seedlings will depend on the reforestation area to be established.

The order said it takes immediate effect.

Mr. Jasareno said the bureau is requiring all mining contractors, permit holders and lessees to take part in the NGP, explaining that reforestation is an effective way to rehabilitate a mine site.

Good publicity

He added that the bureau is not imposing penalties for non-compliance with the order, saying it expects mining firms to pay particular attention to their contributions to communities and environmental protection in the face of scrutiny from civil society and advocacy groups.

“We are confident that they will comply since this is a banner program of the DENR and this is their chance to show the public that mining can be done responsibly,” he said.

Sought for comment, Rocky G. Dimaculangan, vice-president for communications of the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines, said on Monday that members of his group support the reforestation program.

“Our members have committed to plant 25 million trees in the next five years on top of the 15 million trees we have planted in the last 10 years,” Mr. Dimaculangan said.

NGP, which seeks to harmonize and consolidate all greening efforts in the country, was established through Executive Order No. 26 issued last Feb. 24. The program involves planting 1.5 billion trees in 1.5 million hectares until 2016. — Louella D. Desiderio, Businessworld