It has been a month of back-to-back protest action in the Philippines.
The Masungi Georeserve in Rizal province, known for its rock formations and lush rainforests, has been threatened by illegal encroaching for years. When it was recently announced that a government bureau headquarters will be built inside the protected area, environmentalists were up in arms.
A victory by Romblon residents who thwarted mining operations of nickel firm Altai Philippines Mining Corporation has also inspired the Indigenous people of Brooke's Point, Palawan to do the same thing – set up a human barricade and demand for the Ipilan Nickel Corporation to cease its activities.
It thus is befitting that Brooke’s Point vice-mayor Mary Jean Feliciano is among those being recognised in our annual Eco-Business A-List, unveiled last Friday. Feliciano has been fiercely determined in taking her stance against irresponsible mining, even as she was "punished for doing what is right", when she was suspended from her elected position two years ago for storming a mining site.
The award provides a glimmer of hope to protesters who still believe in the possibility of turning things around, as long as they take action.
Following the lead of Romblon residents who stopped a nickel mine on their biodiverse island, locals of Brooke’s Point in Palawan set up their own human barricade to block the operations of Ipilan Nickel Corporation.
Masungi Georeserve and its partners have managed to save some 1,500 hectares from illegal quarrying after the cancellation of three extraction agreements in February.
[VIDEO] Mining operations at Altai Philippines Mining Corp have been suspended for now, after week-long protests from locals of Sibuyan Island in Romblon, who claimed the extraction of nickel ore will disrupt the island’s intact ecosystems.
Researchers who studied the ecology of Sibuyan Island say mining has no place in a small island ecosystem, wherein new discoveries of species continue to be made, making it a high priority for conservation.
Sold-out long-term liquified natural gas contracts and project delays may force a rethink for the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand to rely on previously-forecasted LNG growth, according to a report by global think tank IEEFA.
Carlos David is the son of journalist Randy David and the late Karina Constantino David, both well-known critics of the dictatorship under Marcos, Jr’s late father.
If left unchecked, plastic consumption will double by mid-century. A global single-use plastic ban will still see plastic consumption grow one and a half times current levels by 2050, new research warns.
Kaliwa dam march
Some 300 members of the Dumagat-Remontado Indigenous group concluded their nine-day march in protest of a mega-dam project that threatens to submerge large swathes of their ancestral land and source of livelihood in the Rizal and Quezon provinces last month. The group, which is calling for a dialogue with the government, has so far gotten no response from President Ferdinand Marcos. Jr's administration. The Kaliwa dam project is already 22 per cent complete.
A study by the Cross Dependency Initiative has named at least 17 Philippine provinces in a list of the top 100 territories in the world that are most vulnerable to climate change-driven disasters. These hazards include riverine and surface flooding, coastal inundation, extreme heat, forest fire, soil subsidence, and extreme wind, among others. In a study by the World Bank Group and Asian Development Bank on the world's most disaster-prone nations, the Philippines was ranked 114th out of 181 countries.
