Int’l Groups to UN: Help Stop Destruction of Marine Resources in Philippines

Int’l Groups to UN: Help Stop Destruction of Marine Resources in Philippines

Pamalakaya, the fisherfolk group, is seeking the UN Special Rapporteur on Food to intervene in what it says is the continuing destruction of marine resources in the Philippines under President Aquino’s public-private partnership program. The group says these projects not only damage the environment but affect as well the livelihood of communities.
By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
Bulatlat.com
MANILA — The communiqué the Philippine fisherfolk organization Pambansang Lakas ng  Kilusang Mamamalakaya (Pamalakaya) to the United Nations on the destruction of local coastal waters was recently endorsed by some 24 international groups from Asian and African.

Participants to the Aid Effectiveness Forum sponsored by the People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty (PCFS) and the 3rd General Assembly of the Asian Peasant Coalition (APC) endorsed Pamalakaya’s communiqué to UN Special Rapporteur on Food Olivier de Schutter regarding so-called national development projects along Philippine coastal shores.

Pamalakaya has made the position that said projects are damaging the marine resources as well as negatively affecting the livelihood of communities. They are seeking the UN Special Rapporteur’s intervention on the matter.

“We want Special Rapporteur de Schutter to dispatch a team to investigate the development projects carried during the administration of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo,” said Pamalakaya chairman Fernando Hicap.

Hicap said the anti-people and anti-national development programs began during the Arroyo regime are being continued under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) scheme of the Aquino administration. He said Aquino’s PPP projects will continue to a have negative impact on the lives and livelihood f thousands of small fisherfolk.

Pamalakaya activists protesting the oil spill in Guimaras (Photo by Anya Mendoza / bulatlat.com)

“Fishing areas primed for corporate takeovers are also under threat of being irrevocably destroyed,” he said.

Advocates around the world have been working for years to protect coastlines from ill-advised development projects. Intact beaches, mangroves, sea grass beds, and coastal waterways buffer inland areas from hurricanes and typhoons. When development projects destroy these ecosystems, the potential for storm damage increases. All this besides the devastation wrought against the livelihood of residents.

In the communiqué, the group originally sent to de Schutter in Ocober 2010, the fishers group cited at least nine cases wherein food and fish production, livelihood rights and the environment are placed under constant jeopardy by public-private partnership projects.

1)The impact of offshore mining in Tanon Strait, a protected seascape separating the island provinces of Cebu and Negros.

From year 2005 to 2008, the Philippine government through the Department of Energy allowed the Japanese oil and gas exploration firm JAPEX to explore the protected seascape despite the resistance from small-scale fishermen, coastal residents and environmental groups.  Fish catch of small fishermen were significantly reduced from 10-15 kilos a day to 1-3 kilos a day because of offshore mining activities..... MORE

Source:  Bulatlat.com

URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2011/02/01/intl-groups-to-un-help-stop-destruction-of-marine-resources-in-philippines/