The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is expected to announce at a news briefing on Monday the fate of mining projects that are facing possible cancellation.
The news briefing, which will also highlight the DENR’s partnership with the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC), will include updates on the motion for reconsideration filed by mining companies.
Environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu has earlier promised to reveal his decision on the appeals made by officials of mining companies whose mining operations were ordered closed or suspended for failing the mining audit conducted by Cimatu’s predecessor, Regina Paz L. Lopez.
The DENR chief has been inspecting mines as part of an ongoing review of Lopez’s controversial closure and suspension orders.
The mining industry suffered huge setbacks as a result of a 10-month crackdown waged by Lopez, prompting mining stakeholders to call on the Department of Finance (DOF) to convene the Mining Industry Coordinating Council (MICC) and conduct a review of Lopez’s orders.
Aside from the MICC’s review, the DENR is also reviewing Lopez’s orders. Some companies claimed Lopez’s order was inconsistent with the findings and recommendations of her own audit teams, while others said closure or suspension was “too harsh” for violations they allegedly committed.
Antimining groups, led by Alyansa Tigil Mina, Defend Ilocos and Kalikasan-People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan-PNE), want Cimatu to heed President Duterte’s strong statement against irresponsible mining during his State of the Nation Address (Sona) on July 24, and enforce Lopez’s orders.
Last Saturday Cimatu was quoted in a DENR press release ordering mining companies to integrate biodiversity conservation into their operations as part of their adherence to the principle of responsible mining being espoused by the Duterte administration.
“Responsible mining companies should seek not merely to minimize and mitigate but, where possible, to enhance the biodiversity in areas where they operate,” Cimatu said.
Biodiversity considerations was one of three major criteria of Lopez’s mine audit last year.
In a statement, Cimatu reiterated his “unwavering” support for Duterte’s resolve to prioritize environmental protection and his nonnegotiable policy against irresponsible mining.
Cimatu made the statement in the wake of an international study, which led to the discovery of new mammal species in Luzon, the largest island in the Philippines.
The study by the Field Museum of Chicago (FMC), titled “Doubling diversity: A cautionary tale of previously unsuspected mammalian diversity on a tropical oceanic island”, involves 56 newly discovered mammal species, 93 percent, or 52 of them, are found nowhere else in the world.
It was conducted by a team of Filipino and American researchers led by Dr. Lawrence Heany, and was published in the scientific journal Frontier of Biogeography.
Heany is an ecologist, and evolutionary biologist and curator of mammals at FMC.
“The study has arguably amplified the President’s call to mining companies to strictly comply with existing rules and regulations,” Cimatu said.
He added that taking a proactive stance on biodiversity conservation efforts being implemented by the DENR would “serve well the mining sector in showing its sincerity in its response to the President’s call and goodwill beyond the immediate host communities where they operate.”
According to Cimatu, the discovery of additional mammal species in Luzon was a big boost to the new mining policy direction of the Duterte administration, which puts premium on the protection and preservation of the nation’s flora and fauna species and their habitats.
“Integrating biodiversity conservation into their mining project cycle would surely help mining companies restore, possibly to near-original condition, mining-affected forests in the country,” he added.
He said the mining sector will “benefit immensely” in giving a positive image to the general public as such move would “amplify their efforts” to reduce biodiversity loss and provides significant contributions to national and global conservation initiatives.
Director Mundita S. Lim of the DENR’s Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB), for her part, said the FMC findings support the President’s directive to mining companies to adopt more responsible measures in their operations.
“We urge the mining industry to take this opportunity to take the center stage with us in striking a balance vis-à-vis mining. Our potentials are limitless if we can continue to conserve and sustainably manage our biodiversity,” Lim said.
Mainstreaming biodiversity into the sectors of energy and mining is a major agenda for discussion in the upcoming Meeting of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Body of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (UN-CBD). Lim was elected by the Conference of the Parties of the UN-CBD last December 2016 to chair the said subsidiary body meeting set for December of this year in Montreal, Canada.
The Philippines has a total of 228 key biodiversity areas (KBA) located in various regions. These KBAs are home to 855 globally important species, including those freshly discovered.