Activists hit Aquino for exempting mining from total log ban 11/12/2011

Activists hit Aquino for exempting mining from total log ban

11/12/2011
President Aquino’s move to exempt mining operations from the total logging ban was slammed yesterday by environmental activists of the “Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment” as a serious offense to the critical state of the Philippines’ forest cover and to the Filipino people.

With over 1 million hectares of land, including watersheds and protected forest areas already covered by mining permits and applications, mining’s exclusion from the log ban is feared to contribute to the worsening of various environmental and social crises faced by Filipino communities.

“The move of President Aquino to exempt foreign and private mining corporations from logging ban will surely lead to fast deforestation and degradation of our remaining forests. The President is committing a grave environmental crime. Aquino deliberately forgets that most of the mining concessions are located in ecologically critical forest areas. This logging ban exemption will surely result to loss of biodiversity and also to community displacement as we have seen in the provinces of Surigao del Norte and Palawan,” said Clemente Bautista, national coordinator of Kalikasan..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20111112nat2.html