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Mines to be banned in protected forests; power plants allowed |
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Mining operations in protection forests will be totally banned when the proposed law on sustainable forest management being finalized at the Philippine Senate gets through the legislative mill.
This was the agreement reached Thursday by members of a technical working group of the Senate Environment Committee finalizing a consolidated bill on forest management. New power plants may, however, be allowed to be built.
The issue on whether to allow or not mining operations, big and small, in what have been classified as protected forests was the most debated section of the proposed law by experts from government and the private sector tasked to finalize the bill in the Senate committee on environment headed by Senator Miguel Zubiri.
In Thursday's session of the technical working group, members agreed that mining, one of the best bets of the country at becoming a newly industrializing economy, will only be allowed in production forests provided the company that discovers commercial quantities of mineral ores get the consent of the holder of tenurial rights to the forest land.
Mining will be absolutely banned in forest lands that are classified as protected forests under present laws which are to be clearly delineated under the proposed sustainable forest management act.
The proposed law has classified forest lands into two general categories: production forests and protection forests.
Production forests will be opened for investments by the private sector including individual upland dwellers who will be given by the national government tenurial rights to the land they occupy. The leasehold or stewardship contracts covering production forests could, however, be revoked within five years of its effectivity and re-awarded to others if the beneficiary fails to develop it.
This will open private participation to the regreening of the country's bald forests, produce in forest plantations sufficient wood and other forest products that the economy requires and help alleviate poverty in upland communities.
The protected forests which presently fall under different categories like critical watersheds, biodiversity forest reserves, parks and wildlife reserves, mangrove preserves and other supposedly untouchable forest lands will be declared out of the reach of the mining industry.
It was pointed out during the discussions that until today, the mines bureau has not stopped mineral exploration permits over those protected forests. This has created confusions on what government policies are to prevail.
The same ban, however, would not apply to the building of power plants. Most power plants that use renewable energy to generate electricity like geothermal steam plants and hydro-electric dams are often located in forest lands sustained by thick forest covers which the government is seeking to preserve and protect. -- Abe P. Belena, PHILEXPORT News and Features
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