[in Facebook] Save Palawan – www.facebook.com/pages/One-Palawan

Source: http://www.facebook.com/pages/One-Palawan/ Mining has now become a very serious threat to the ecosystem of the province of Palawan. What with the horrible reputation of mining concessions all over the country wherein most fail to deliver promised wealth and only usually result to grave environmental damage causing drought and even sickness. Which is why the…

Human Rights Online Philippines

April 6, 2011

3–5 minutes

Anti-mining, Asia, Conservation and Endangered Species, environment, International Union for Conservation of Nature, Palawan, philippines, Puerto Princesa, Save Palawan

Source: http://www.facebook.com/pages/One-Palawan/

190620_211553678860221_143645105651079_910796_2356135_n — One Palawan FB

Mining has now become a very serious threat to the ecosystem of the province of Palawan. What with the horrible reputation of mining concessions all over the country wherein most fail to deliver promised wealth and only usually result to grave environmental damage causing drought and even sickness. Which is why the province of Palawan has to come together as one in preserving its greatest treasure—its environment.

Declared as a human and biosphere reserve of UNESCO, it would be a great disservice to the nation if the citizens and officials of the province would so willingly destroy what is becoming more and more a luxury on earth—fresh air, clean water, lush rainforests, protected wildlife, healthy reefs, etc. One Palawan is a concrete step in which the people of Palawan can unite to protect its environment.

Mission

As the youth, our duty to spur change comes with our age. It has been the selfsame duty of all the generations of youth before us and all those to come. Having a natural deep-well of idealism, an instinctive quest for betterment and an inherent drive for learning, the youth are a perfect group in inciting change in any society.

208287_213770478638541_143645105651079_928660_1449734_n — Save Palawan poster source FB

As the youth of today, it is our generation’s principal task to protect the environment from careless destruction because if we fail to live up to this challenge, it is we, and our children to come, who will suffer the most. It is the burden of our generation to impede the rapid effects of environmental destruction and climate change. But it is also the gift of our generation to alter humanity’s history by the choices we make today.

As Palaweños, we have been endowed with a very unique responsibility to our environment. Palawan is the country’s last frontier and is a matchless gem in the world. While more and more forests are being cut down all over the world, Palawan has been preserved and still remains as a biodiversity hotspot.

Our province has 7 declared protected areas, 11 important bird areas, home to 49 animals and 56 botanical species found in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species and is one of the 10 sites of the Alliance for Zero Extinction (AZE) in the Philippines. The province also has 17 terrestrial key biodiversity areas (KBA). Due to Palawan’s environmental richness, UNESCO declared Palawan as a biosphere reserve and also has 2 world heritage sites.

This wealth is why the fact that there are 354 mining applications all over Palawan is alarming. Not only will it destroy our beautiful forests and rid of our endemic flora and fauna, but it threatens the security of every Palaweño. Mining causes severe environmental damages such as the pollution and drying up of our watersheds; the increased probability of soil erosions; the movement of soil and chemicals from the mountains to the plains inhibiting plant growth on farm lands, threatening marine life and causing diseases; the destruction of the ancestral domains of our indigenous tribes and the possible devastation to a booming industry that is tourism.

As Filipinos, we know that the laws of the land should be followed by both government officials and the civil society. Ironically, there are enough provisions in the law that should protect Palawan from mining. A resolution passed in November of 2008 by the Provincial Board secures a 25-year moratorium on small-scale mining in Palawan. In 1967, Executive Proclamation 216 declared Palawan as a “National Game Refuge and Bird Sanctuary.” This classification, along with other environmental qualifications of Palawan, should ban mining in the entire province as stated in the Philippine Mining Act.

It is our task as responsible Filipinos to follow the laws and to aid in enforcing such laws. Although we may not be in office, we are held as accountable as our leaders.

This campaign aims to accomplish all these by ensuring that mining in the province of Palawan is stopped through our main strategy which is an Information Education Campaign.