Philippines: Update on Palawan campaign
09.03.10
In February Plant Talk published an article about the mining threats to the landscape, people and plants of Palawan in the Philippines.
Yesterday I received an impassioned plea from Aldaw (Ancestral Land/Domain Watch) to bring a petition to the attention of the public. So, read on...
“Last month an article appeared on Plant Talk about the mining situation in Palawan Forest in the Philippines. The timing is getting critical if we are to have a hope of saving this landscape. The Aldaw network (Ancestral Land/Domain Watch) urges everyone who reads this to sign the petition to the Philippine’s government. With 50 metres of trunk from canopy to forest floor, the forest of Mt. Gantong harbors the oldest trees in the southern hemisphere and several endangered species listed by the World Conservation Union.
The Gantong range is also the ancestral territory of vulnerable and isolated indigenous communities whose members are not yet listed in the official census. Soon, this national patrimony may be sacrificed for the vested interests of a few who make large profits at the expense of thousands of others, hence curtailing the livelihood of future Filipino generations.
MacroAsia, the flagship company of airline and cigarette magnate Lucio Tan (Philippines’ richest man) and Celestial Nickel and Mining Exploration Corporation are set to start full-scale operations in Brooke’s Point Municipality. Foreign companies are also involved: London-based Toledo Mining Corporation (TMC) holds majority interest in the proposed Celestial Nickel Project. Open-pit and strip mining for nickel will result in the flattening of mountaintops, in the plundering of forest, and obliteration of indigenous cultural landscapes. Mine tailings will contaminate freshwater sources and the sea. So please, act on this with haste!”
Petition to the President of the Philippines
Related links:
Philippines: Geo-tagging reveals mining threats on the “Last frontier”
01.02.10
Plant Talk invited Dario Novellino from the Centre for Biocultural Diversity (CBCD), UK to speak out against the logging and mining in protected areas that is destroying the forests of Palawan.