The Alyansa Tigil Mina Blog

First posted 00:59am (Mla time) Dec 03, 2005
By Blanche S. Rivera
Inquirer

LEGAZPI, ALBAY—Facing persistent opposition from environmentalists and local officials in Rapu-Rapu, Australian mining firm Lafayette Mining Ltd. said it deserves the loss of its showcase stature in the Philippine mining industry.

For the first time since the suspension of its gold processing operation last month, Lafayette admitted that no one, not even its shareholders and employees, wanted to be associated with the mine spills that caused fish kills and strengthened opposition to the project.

“The shareholders are not happy. We should be producing unhindered and generating revenue that starts to repay their (shareholders) faith and investment in the company,” McIlwain said in an interview at the mine site Wednesday.

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By Anabelle E. Plantilla
The Manila Times

THE Philippines has several centers of diversity and endemism, and its biological richness is described as “Galapagos times ten” (Heaney and Regalado in Ong, et al., 2002). It is also considered as one of the 20 mega-diversity countries in the world (WRI, 2003) and boasts of about 52,177 described species, more than half of which can only be found in the Philippines (Ong, et al., 2002).

The country is considered the only large country in the world with almost all of its territory included as an Endemic Bird Area (EBA), or sites with at least two restricted-range bird species entirely confined to them (Haribon-BirdLife, 2001). However, there remains less than 6 percent of the country’s original forest cover (Ong, et al., 2002), while 409 species are listed on the 2003 IUCN (World Conservation Union) Red List of Threatened Species, thus making the country one of 25 global biodiversity hot spots.

Among the greatest threats to the country’s biological resources are logging, mining, illegal methods of fishing and other land-conversion activities. Today, over 18 million Filipinos who live in the overlogged uplands are directly affected by this loss of forest cover. Among them are most of the approximately 3.5 million to 4.5 million indigenous peoples of the Philippines.

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