The World Development Committee - Whose Earth?

Whose Earth?

   Background
   Ethiopia
   Hondouras
   Phillipines
   Children's Talk
   Biblical Reflection
   Eco Ideas
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Focus on Phillipines

Background: The Philippines is an archipelago comprising some 7,100 islands with a total land area of almost 300,000 square kilometres. Of a population of 88 million, 28 million live below the poverty line, and around 45% of people exist on £1/€1.5 per day or less. Recent food price increases are estimated to have pushed a further 3 million people into poverty. Although the Philippines has experienced a high level of economic growth in recent years, the wealth generated has not been shared fairly and has resulted in vast environmental destruction--in some cases to the point of ecological vandalism.

This is particularly true of the mining industry, in which the environmental and social impacts of large-scale mining have been huge. Large mining operations are usually open cast. This involves bulldozers firstly deforesting swathes of land and so adding to carbon levels in the atmosphere. This is then followed by the stripping of large areas of top-soil, resulting in massive soil erosion that pollutes rivers and farmland, and ultimately clogs up coastal coral beds where fish breed.

The processes to extract minerals often use large quantities of dangerous chemicals such as mercury and cyanide. The resulting residue, or 'tailings', are either dumped at sea or stored behind dams to form poisonous ponds. In both cases, the consequences are ecologically devastating: the ecosystems of the sea are destroyed and the ponds overflow during the rainy season, contaminating groundwater and poisoning the land.

The richest mineral deposits are often found in the highlands. These are crucial watershed areas where most of the Philippines' remaining natural forests are to be found. In these places the top-soil is generally quite thin and the steepness of the land and heavy rain means it is easily washed away when deforestation occurs. For local communities, this type of mining is a disaster for in destroying the natural environment it destroys the basis of a viable life for indigenous people. It is also a significant factor contributing to global warming.

Empowering the Poor; Defending the Forest; Cutting the Carbon: Through this year's World Development Appeal, we will support Christian Aid partner the Diopim Committee on Mining Issues (DCMI), a Christian organization empowering indigenous people to defend the forests on which they depend for life itself. In the process, when forests are protected rather than cut down, carbon is absorbed rather than increased, and climate patterns stabilized. The area where DCMI works is the Zamboanga Peninsula, a hilly place where most people depend on agriculture or fishing for a living.

Absentee landlords own large tracts of land and many of these have been handed over to large-scale mining companies. These companies have established opencast mines that have negatively impacted local communities and the environment through deforestation, soil erosion, and pollution. In this situation, DCMI has assisted small-scale farmers to gain proper title to more land as part of a land reform programme known as CARP (Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Programme). Big mining companies are then excluded from these lands. More broadly, a campaign has been successfully run to get the whole area declared a special watershed region. This means that no more tree cutting can take place, and trees that have been felled must be replaced. In addition, the adoption of farming methods that work with the forest demonstrate that a better quality of life can be achieved without the destructiveness of large-scale mining. DCMI has trained farmers in sustainable organic agriculture and encouraged them to plant fruit trees. Tilling of the soil in the upland areas has been discouraged and instead farmers have been shown the benefits of planting different crops between fruit trees. As a result, there has been a 50% increase in people's income.

Noel Ydayan sums up a deep development truth when he says: "Without the environment I believe the quality of life for people here would be much worse."

When we support this year's Whose Earth?-Cut the Carbon World Development Appeal, we support communities creating a viable long-term future for themselves, we enable communities to reduce their carbon emissions, and we challenge ourselves to adopt more sustainable, less carbon dependent lifestyles.