DENR to require mining firms to reforest denuded minesites

Nagoya, Japan – Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Ramon Paje said he plans to require mining firms operating in the Philippines to engage in the reforestation of denuded or degraded forest areas.

As part of the country’s biodiversity efforts, Paje told The STAR that he plans to impose a new requirement on mining firms that would require them to reforest 100 hectares for every one hectare of land they destroy or excavate in the course of their mining operations.

The new requirement would particularly target mining firms that engage in open pit mining, he stressed.

Furthermore, Paje said he also wants to require mining firms to immediately restore and replant areas that they have already finished excavating as they move on to other development sites.

However, if mining firms cannot do the reforestation in their immediate area, they could do the reforestation in other areas provided they comply with the 100:1 hectare ratio.

 Paje said imposing such a requirement would help in the government’s reforestation effort, and stressed that the reforestation effort should not be a mere “tree planting” but a long-term effort at “tree growing.”

Paje, who attended the high-level segment of the 10th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 10) to the Convention on Biodiversity here, agreed on the need to undertake more measures to address ecosystem destruction and losses. A healthy forest ecosystem is crucial in mitigating the effects of climate change.

The United Nations has pointed out that deforestation and forest degradation – through agricultural expansion, conversion to pastureland, infrastructure development, destructive logging and fires – account for 20 percent of global gas emissions, more than the entire global transportation sector and second only to the energy sector.

Thus as part of global efforts to mitigate climate change, programs such as the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degration (REDD) and REDD + would encourage countries to protect their forest ecosystem and refrain from its further destruction.

Unfortunately, certain provisions of the REDD+ program are deemed controversial by the Philippines because it would basically tie the hands of the country in harvesting the forest for some needed resources.

Likewise, the Philippines is also wary over moves to link the REDD + program to the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) under the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change.

Under the proposed linkage, donors or private firms that provide funding assistance for reforestation programs could apply for the so-called carbon credits.

Carbon credits are used by countries or firms that are not able to meet the required emission reduction targets imposed under the Kyoto Protocol set under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

A profitable carbon trading market has arisen as a result.

Thus, while developing countries get funding to undertake carbon mitigating project, the carbon credits from the project accrues to the donor or private firm.