Tough days for mining, logging
By Madonna T. VirolaThe provincial government of Romblon has adopted an environmental ordinance that imposes strict limitations on mining and logging in the resource-rich province.
The provincial government of Romblon has adopted an environmental ordinance that imposes strict limitations on mining and logging in the resource-rich province.
CAMP PACIANO RIZAL, Laguna—An anti-illegal logging task force recovered 5,321 board feet of illegally cut hardwood valued at nearly P270,000, following an aerial search in Kalayaan and Cavinti towns in Laguna. The municipalities, tagged as logging “hot spots,” serve as the transshipment points of illegal wood products from Quezon province. Isidro Mercado, Laguna [...]
When the government submerged Pantabangan town in Nueva Ecija in 1973 to create a lake that fed what was touted then to be the second largest dam in Asia, more than 1,300 residents yielded to the plan and rebuilt the town on a mountaintop.
A senator and environment officials expressed outrage over the murder of environment officer Alfredo Almueda, linking his killing to the continued defiance of logging operators of an executive order (EO) issued by President Benigno Aquino.
Two high-ranking environment officials in Southern Mindanao downplayed suspicions that illegal logging and mining activities exacerbated the impact of typhoon “Pablo” in the hardest-hit provinces of Compostela Valley province and Davao Oriental.
Unchecked illegal gold mining and decades of indiscriminate logging contributed to the high death toll in the Philippines’ worst natural disaster this year, officials and experts said.
Environment and natural resources officials attributed on Thursday the high number of casualties in several Compostela Valley towns to unheeded government warnings on typhoon Pablo, emphasizing that illegal logging and illegal mining were to blame for the devastation.
While illegal loggers feast on forests left vulnerable by corruption and weak enforcement of the government’s moratorium on logging operations, thousands of wood industry workers throughout the Caraga region face the adversities of joblessness.
While illegal loggers feast on forests left vulnerable by corruption and weak enforcement of the government’s moratorium on logging operations, thousands of wood industry workers throughout Caraga Region must face the adversities of joblessness.
Attempts to defy President Benigno Aquino’s order to stop logging in natural forests continue.
About half a million Filipinos are losing their jobs in Mindanao as a consequence of the government’s drive against illegal loggers, and many of them may turn to crime, according to the embattled head of the Anti-Illegal Logging Task Force.
Environment Secretary Ramon Paje wants to deploy the military in the campaign against illegal loggers in the countryside, noting the increasing danger to forest rangers, some 20 of whom have been killed in the line of duty since 2010.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources on Thursday announced that it would shut down sawmills and wood processing plants in Southern Mindanao that could not present proof of having legal sources of wood.
