DAVAO CITY — Dumaguete City has an area of roughly 34 square kilometers, translating to 3,400 hectares. It’s a fact I bring up for comparison so that when I quote the figure of 10,000 hectares, you have an idea of the area I mean.
So now think of that space, roughly thrice the size of our fair City, blasted, shorn, and stripped to make way for open pit mining operations. That’s how big the mine in Tampakan, South Cotabato is meant to be.
Though the environmental compliance certificate has thankfully been held in abeyance for the nonce, fears of damage of such scale is what was at the heart of the International Conference on Mining in Mindanao held at Ateneo de Davao these past two days. The conference brought together some 200 members of civil society and academe to discuss the dangers posed by mining for the island and for the country.
Dr. Catherine Coumans of Mining Watch gave the keynote address to the conference. Some pertinent points of her speech:
The scale of mining is growing at local and national levels, but much of it is increasingly mechanized, and that actually leads to decreased employment. Rather than enjoying prosperity, countries dependent on mining are more likely to have lower economic development. The earth’s wealth is being privatized and concentrated, not shared. Inevitably, corruption in mining becomes a risk factor for the people.
Few developing countries have the institutions to regulate large scale mines. The costs of developing and funding monitoring are prohibitive. Mining encroaches on vulnerable indigenous remote communities who rely on natural water to survive. When this happens, people are moved off their land. People who are harmed by mining do not have access to justice.
Rising opposition leads to the use of paramilitary forces, and then to human rights abuses. Activists are labeled as terrorists, targetted and killed. Moreover, many mines operate in conflict zones, and move into undeveloped and protected lands.
Mines are increasingly developing in areas where it is difficult to manage the environmental risk. This is the Achilles’ heel of mining: the production and containment of environmental toxic waste.
Mining is one of the Top 10 pollution problems worldwide, and puts 12 million people at risk of toxic contamination.
Properly managing mine wastes is difficult, more so in mountainous areas, rivers, and populated areas. Threats to water and land do not end when mine closes down, and long-term effects last for centuries. Long-term environment destruction left by them can still affect people for generations.
The problems going on in the Philippines are not unique, and this is why international solidarity is very important. The root cause of the business and human rights predicament today lies in the governance gaps created by globalization — between the scope and impact of economic forces and actors, and the capacity of societies to manage their adverse consequences.
These governance gaps provide the permissive environment for wrongful acts by companies of all kinds without adequate sanctioning or reparation.
How to narrow and ultimately bridge the gaps in relation to human rights is our fundamental challenge.
