UNIVERSITY FORUM
On the Effects of Mining in Key Biodiversity Areas
19 August 2011 (Friday) 8:45 to 11:00 AM
Finster Auditorium, 7th Floor, Finster Hall
Ateneo de Davao University--Jacinto Campus
Resource Speaker
Ms. Regina “Gina” Paz Lopez, Managing Director of the ABS-CBN Foundation and head of the No to Mining in Palawan Signature Campaign.
Background: The Issues
Data from the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) shows that the country is ranked top five in the world for overall mineral reserves, covering an estimated nine million hectares. With an estimated US$ 1.4 trillion in mineral reserves, especially gold, copper, nickel, aluminum and chromite, the mining potential of the Philippines is one of the largest in the world. Metallic minerals development is a major government priority with RA 7942 or the Philippine Mining Act of 1995 and Executive Order No. 270 and 270-A pushing for and revitalizing the mining industry. This is congruent to the legislator’s confidence that mining can support poor rural areas through creating high quality jobs and through various local tax payments and community and social development projects.
Climate Change and the ubiquity of environmental destruction must also be considered in a high-risk area such as the Philippines. It has been noted in many studies on climate change that the consequences will be, amongst others, health risks, including spreading of pests and diseases and higher incidence of invasive species, water shortages, forest fires, loss of biodiversity, coastal degradation and loss of land, and constrained agricultural production. Mining as an intrinsically destructive industry may thus aggravate these consequences of climate change and also threaten environmental and economic development.
Among the high-risk population with regards to mining and climate change, are the Indigenous Peoples (IPs) living in and around the mining sites. With little or no consultations at all, these IPs are displaced and relocated to areas outside the source of their economic subsistence. Most of the time, bloody conflicts arise when mining firms resort to brute force in evicting these IPs – The mining firms have the papers, the IPs do not even have a claim to the land.1 Denied the claim to ancestral domain, these IPs are forced to live in areas where food and water are scarce or in cities where they become street beggars or criminals. Many IPs argue that fundamental issues such as land rights and rights to prior, informed consent must be addressed.
A pending alternative mining legislation in the Congress, House Bill No. 3763 or the Minerals Management Bill is an endeavour to re-asses and to put into place measures that consider the social, environmental and economic costs of mining. Rep. Erin Tañada stated that the Bill gives priority to human rights and the rights of indigenous peoples and that the interests of the people will come before the interests of the corporation. Gina Lopez’s crusade against mining in biodiverse Palawan (No to Mining in Palawan Signature Campaign) issues a resounding call for people of conscience to protect the integrity of God’s creation. Yet it also raises questions on the economic potentials of mining for a country rich in metallic and non-metallic minerals.
Mindanao, with more than 20 key areas of biodiversity spanning from the whole island to Sulu, and with 18 ethnolinguistic tribes or lumad and 13 moro tribes directly and indirectly depending on the rich resources of the land and seas, is at the forefront of the effects of mining policies to the environment, communities and cultures. The Ateneo de Davao University proposes a University Forum on Mining in Mindanao to gather representatives of the students, faculty, staff and other stakeholders in Mindanao in partial response to these complex and multi-faceted issues of mining, especially in Mindanao, and to address related issues.
COVERAGE
The Mining Forum covers the Ateneo de Davao University community and other stakeholders (i.e. environmental groups and LGUs) in the region.
GOALS
●To objectively inform the ADDU community on the risks of mining specially in island and tropical ecosystems like Mindanao;
●To address the need for increased consultation and participation of the ADDU community in decision-making about mining;
●To contribute to the growing initiatives, especially in the local level, for a two-way participatory process where stakeholders can actively influence decisions on mining development.
DESIRED OUTPUTS
●Formation of Christian conscience of students, faculty and staff of the Ateneo de Davao University towards a shared responsibility for God’s creation.
●Recommendations for the consideration of the Executive, Legislative body and/or pertinent government agencies in the re-assessment of the Mining Act of 1995 either to bolster the mining industry or to regulate it according to the concept of sustainability.
●To gather signature for the No to Mining in Palawan Signature Campaign, that would act as a springboard for legislators to fully consider the assessment of current mining policies in the country.
PROGRAMME
8:00 – 8:45 am Registration
9:00 – 9:15 am Prayer
Welcome/Opening Remarks
Fr. Joel E. Tabora, SJ
President
9:15 – 10:15 am Effects of Mining in Key Biodiversity Areas
Ms. Gina Lopez
ABS-CBN Foundation
10:15 – 10:50 am Open Forum
10:50 – 11:00 Closing Remarks
Dr. Jessie B. Manuta
Academic Vice President
