Mining moratorium pressed

MANILA, Philippines - The Working Group of Mining in the Philippines (WGMP) has launched a fact-finding book titled Mining or Food, authored by Dr. Robert Goodland, a former director of the World Bank, and Clive Wicks of International Union for Conservation of Nature-Commission on Environment, Economics and Social Policy.

The 280-page book documents the negative effects of mining in the country. The book highlights effects and makes recommendations to the government, the industry and the people.

“Mining has indeed done a lot of damage in our country. The remaining forest we have is estimated at two percent. Our coral reefs and mangrove swamps have been destroyed. Our people are dying from mercury poisoning and other heavy metals,” Ecological Society of the Philippines (ESP) president Antonio M. Claparols said.

In February 2008 the working group on mining came to the Philippines and documented six actual and proposed mining locations on the islands of Mindoro and Mindanao. They warned that the large-scale mining proposed for the Philippines threatens to wreak havoc, compounding a legacy of deforestation and habitat destruction. Evidence is provided to show that the extraction process damages food production, particularly rice, and imperils fisheries.

The book was launched during a recent conference held at the University of the Philippines Bahay Kalinaw. Panelists during the conference included Sen. Nene Pimentel, Dr. Robert Goodland, Clive Wicks, Fr. Frank Nally, Arturo Baquirin and Catal Doyle of the National University of Ireland