Deforestation, Mining & Other Extractive Industries
Removing forests for non-forest purposes, called deforestation, and industries that extract natural resources from our Earth are growing environmental issues worldwide. This month, we share a reflection by Columban Father Sean McDonagh, a leading international ecologist and theologian for more than 30 years, who in December 2007 attended the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, held in Bali.
Deforestation and other extractive industries, such as mining, are an important part of the economy in the United States and, therefore, an important issue in the U.S presidential elections. Following Fr. McDonagh's article, which was written in December during the Convention, you will find questions both for reflection and for presidential candidates as well as suggested action steps you can take to urge your member of Congress to support mining reform.
Protecting Forests To Slow Climate Change
By Columban Father Sean McDonagh
My interest in ecology stems for my experience of working in the Philippines with the T'boli people in South Cotabato from 1980 to 1991. Within a few months after arriving in Lake Sebu, where the T'bolis live, I was convinced that protecting the area's remaining tropical forest was vital to the T'boli people and the settlers who lived in the lowlands.
Tropical deforestation has taken a huge toll on the Philippines. When the Spaniards left the Philippines at the end of the 19th century, almost 75 percent of the tropical forests were still intact.
The onslaught on the forests began in earnest after World War II when companies were given permission to clear cut large tracts of forests. The tribal peoples were never asked for permission to destroy their habitats, which they had managed for hundreds and, in some cases, thousands of years.
A few people made enormous fortunes, while most Filipinos and the environment suffered. Today, less than 10 percent of the Philippines is covered with tropical forests.
Without at least 50 percent forest cover, sustainable agriculture in a tropical archipelago such as the Philippine Islands will decline as soil erosion increases dramatically and expensive irrigation systems become useless. That's because the forests will not secrete water slowly into the rivers to sustain the flow during the dry season.
The legacy of that plunder is now evident every time a typhoon causes flooding, massive landslides and terrible loss of life, especially among the poor. Filipinos could have managed our forests in a sustainable way and, in doing so, have secured long-term employment for hundreds of thousands of Filipino families.
What happened in the Philippines is mirrored worldwide. Between 2000 and 2005, tropical forests disappeared at approximately 10.4 million hectares each year. These forests contain about 70 percent of the world's biodiversity and about 60 million people, many of whom are among the poorest of the poor on the planet.
A last-minute reprieve for tropical forests may emerge here in discussions around the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IPCC scientists have stated that 20 percent of greenhouse emissions globally come from forest destruction. So, stabilizing greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere at safe levels requires significantly reducing deforestation.
One initiative, being pursued here in Bali is called REDD-Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation. Apart of sequestering carbon, REDD initiative's priorities include preserving forests that contain significant biodiversity. These include water regulation, flood control and the protection of local species.
If verifiable and credible emission reductions can be generated, then the carbon markets could provide revenue for REDD initiatives. A November article in The Jakarta Post reported that Indonesia could net $2 billion (U.S.) in potential annual revenues from preserving the country's forests and offering them as a carbon dioxide sink on the global carbon market.
Carbon markets are only one way of promoting REDD. Poor countries are demanding a new, separate REDD fund and that REDD initiatives be recognized under the UNFCCC. Existing forests are not covered under UNFCCC. This is something of an anomaly, since tree planting is recognized by the Convention.
If a significant REDD initiative is to succeed, the financial benefits must be, at least, on par with current economic incentives that drive deforestation at unprecedented rates. During my time in the T'boli hills, I often came across reforestation proposals, from government and other agencies, which completely overlooked that tribal people both lived in the forests and used its resources to sustain their lives. Any REDD initiative must, therefore, address the needs of rural forest dwellers and indigenous people.
In my own experience, ownership is a crucial issue. When a community owns the land, there is a huge incentive to protect it. It is unrealistic to expect people to protect a forest for the benefit of either people who live downstream or the global population unless they have some level of ownership of the forest.
On a national level, if countries such as the Philippines are expected to promote policies that do not harm the climate through deforestation, they will require additional financial support.
Many of the nongovernmental organizations here at Bali argue that REDD should have a standalone fund, outside of bodies such as the World Bank. They also worry that new money might be diverting from existing aid flows, such as a country's Official Development Assistance program.
There are complex issues involved in developing REDD, from designing monitoring mechanisms to choosing the best financial instruments. The complexity, however, should not stand in the way of an agreement, because it will benefit rich and poor countries alike. REDD could deliver climate change benefits, protecting biodiversity and securing a sustainable agricultural base for many countries where food security is becoming a major issue.
Extractive Industries: Creation Under Siege
"The right of life to people is inseparable from their right to sources of food and livelihood. Allowing the interests of big mining corporations to prevail over people's right to these sources amounts to violating their right to life. Furthermore, mining threatens people's health and environmental safety through the wanton dumping of waste and tailings in rivers and seas." - Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines
Extractive industries, such as mineral mining, logging, and oil and gas drilling, have inflicted lasting damage to communities and ecosystems. The large profits these industries produce rarely benefit poor people or countries. Rather, the true costs of resource extraction are borne by these communities through the destruction of ecosystems, exploitation of local labor, displacement of communities, and undermining authentic sustainable development.
The environmental damage caused by the extraction of the Earth's wealth has been incalculable. Gas leaks from the Camisea pipeline in Peru have triggered devastating fires and contaminated rivers, while deforestation to retrieve and transport the gas has caused erosion and landslides in one of the most bio-diverse regions on Earth.
The remarkable biodiversity contained in Chile's forests is being cleared to make way for industrial tree farms, displacing indigenous communities in the process. In the Philippines, cyanide spills from mining operations have leaked into surrounding bodies of water and contaminated rice fields. And in Appalachia, giant earthmovers strip away foliage and dirt, pushing the waste into valleys and waterways, and lowering mountaintops by as much as 500 feet to gain access to coal seams.
Serious health and safety concerns for workers and nearby communities and families accompany this environmental devastation. Extraordinarily high rates of nausea, diarrhea, vomiting and asthma have been documented among children in mining regions. Uncontrolled logging and mining activities in the Philippines have caused dozens of landslides each year, burying villages and killing hundreds of people.
At the same time, dangerous working conditions inside the mines compounded by weak, un-enforced or nonexistent regulations have resulted in increased miner accidents and deaths, including deadly mining tragedies in Sago, West Virginia, and Harlan County, Kentucky.
Communities are rarely informed of or consulted about the expansion of extractive industries into their lands. When they resist the intrusion, they are often met by increasing militarization and repression.
Indigenous peoples have been particularly affected. Traditional livelihoods and cultural practices are undermined when they are pushed off traditional lands to make way for mining operations or gas and oil drilling. Often, they forced to leave as limited water resources are diverted to the mines and what remains is polluted by toxic runoff.
The Earth and its resources should be respected and used wisely, not exploited without regard to human or ecological consequences. Ironically, some of the poorest countries are the wealthiest in deposits of oil, gas, gold, silver, copper and other natural resources, such as trees and coral reefs.
These countries and their populations should be able to benefit from this wealth and use it to determine their own path to development. A more ecologically sound and equitable system of resource management is possible.
Reflection Questions:
- How do extractive industries in your state affect communities and the environment?
- Do your preferred presidential candidate's positions on extractive industries place the care of creation over profits?
- Reflect on the holistic vision of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines. How does our way of being in the world affect the right to life of others?
Columban Response:
Columban Father Shay Cullen from the Philippines
From now on, safeguarding creation will a virtue of a good Catholic. We hope the leadership of the Vatican and the inspiring words of Pope Benedict XVI at the ecology youth rally in Italy will guide the Church in reviving its commitment to protect creation and the environment.
Some Catholic bishops in the Philippines have been outspoken against the destruction caused by the environmental ravages of the irresponsible open-pit mining industry, which is protected by the nation's rich political families as it plunders natural resources at will. With the recent conviction of former President Joseph Estrada for plunder and corruption, we hope the corrupt politicians whose companies and cronies are raping the forests also will stand trial.
Loggers with political protection and influence have received exemptions from the logging ban and the exploitation of the old-growth forests of Samar. They are cutting and felling the Philippines' last exotic, beautiful tropical primary forest. The buzz of the killer chainsaws echoes through the dense forest. It is the new scythe of death.
That high-pitched sound sends shivers down my spine; it is the killer machine deployed by those with no love of nature or creation. They are the millionaire politicians who put profits above the nation or its people.
They reign over logging companies that are bringing to rapid extinction 406 flowers and plants found nowhere on this planet but in the rainforests of Samar, one of the most impoverished provinces in the Philippines.
In addition, 39 species of rare mammals and 197 exotic birds live in these ancient rainforests. All soon will be in grave danger of becoming extinct. The San Jose logging company was able to use political connections to harvest in the Samar forest reserve. They claim they are doing "sustainable" forestry-they are only sustaining big bank accounts, critics say.
The Catholic Bishops of Calbayog, Catarman and Borongan are opposed to this destruction and are calling for a reintroduced moratorium on logging and mining for bauxite in the Samar forests. As much as $40 billion will be lost in the environmental destruction of Samar in 25 years, according to Marcelino Dalmacio, who led the Samar Biodiversity Project funded by the United Nations.
That's more than all the bauxite that could be extracted by mining corporations, the benefits of which will go toward the mining and logging corporations, not the people of Samar.
In a pastoral letter written a decade ago, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines foresaw the destruction and wrote of the forests and all they contain: "These are God's masterpieces through which he displays his power, ingenuity and love for his creation. Humans have forgotten to live peacefully with other creatures. They have destroyed their habitat and hunted them ruthlessly. Even now many species are already extinct and the destruction of species is expected to increase dramatically during the next decade as the few remaining strands of forest are wiped out."
The Vatican plans to install hundreds of solar panels on the roof of the Pope Paul VI audience hall in Rome, but we need more than that to stop the destruction of nature, a nature that sustains all creatures including us humans. Why do nothing while a few greedy moguls destroy the heritage of the whole nation and the next generation?
The Church ought to speak out and act as one more forcibly on the national and international stage against the evils of such exploitation and social sin. The corrupt emperor Nero fiddled while Rome burned, but now do we all fiddle while the planet burns?
We have joined a global campaign for environmental justice and the protection of the last of the remaining forests and species. None of us is exempt from doing our part.
For information about the report "Mining in the Philippines: Concerns and conflicts," which Columban missionaries participated in and that chronicles environmental destruction in the Philippines, visit www.columbans.co.uk/page177.html.
ACTION ALERT:
Time to Reform the Outdated Mining Law
Current U.S. hard-rock mining law is outdated and passes the heavy costs of mineral extraction onto local communities and ecosystems. The law, passed in 1872, contains no environmental protections or cleanup standards, prioritizes mining over all other uses of public lands and practically gives such land away to corporations at a rock-bottom price of $5 an acre.
In the absence of an appropriate and comprehensive mining law, mining activities have contaminated more than 40 percent of the headwaters of Western watersheds and released billions of pounds of toxic chemicals into the environment each year. Moreover, the approximately 500,000 mines now abandoned will take billions of taxpayer dollars to clean up. Yet companies pay no royalties on what they extract and continue to purchase land for next to nothing.
This past November, the House of Representatives passed the Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act of 2007 (HR 2262), which provides a strong template for reform. Now it is the Senate's turn to take up the legislation, although many fear that the Senate version will leave out critical issues that will render the legislation largely useless.
Reform is urgently needed to protect communities' health and well-being in the United States and generate pressure for improvements in mining standards around the world.
In many countries where Columbans missionaries are present, mining activities have led to environmental devastation, community displacement, harm to human health and even violence, particularly in Peru, Chile and the Philippines. Yet mining companies are rarely held accountable for their actions or the damage they create.
Legislative reform would provide a valuable platform for communities in these countries as they work as advocates for their rights against multinational companies, often based or financed in the United States.
Take a moment to write U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and encourage him to work for real and meaningful reform. A sample letter, which you can adapt, is copied below.
Fax your letter to the committee office at (202) 224-6163 or send it using the electronic form at energy.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.Home.
For more information, please visit www.earthworksaction.org/us_program.cfm.
Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act of 2007 Letter Template
Dear Senator Bingaman,
I write to you as a concerned citizen and a person of faith to urge you to work for real and meaningful reform of the 1872 Mining Law during the current congressional session. The outdated 1872 law externalizes the heavy costs of mineral extraction onto local communities and ecosystems. Protecting the environment is a task given all of us by God, and reform will be positive for environmental standards and sustainability in the United States and around the world.
The lack of effective environmental provisions and reclamation standards, mechanisms for community input and local control, and sensible fiscal and land-use policies in regards to public lands within the 1872 Mining Law are becoming an increasing threat to the health, well-being and ways of life of those who live within the shadow of existing mines, as well as for surrounding ecosystems.
The House of Representatives provided a strong template for reform with the passage of HR 2262, the Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act of 2007, late last year. We urge you to use this bill as the basis for Mining Law reform and to include these important principles in any reform bill that is introduced in the Senate:
Establish Environmental and Reclamation Standards. The 1872 Mining Law contains no environmental provisions, allowing hard-rock mines to wreak havoc on Western water supplies, wildlife and landscape. Strong standards are needed to make sure damage to land and water is prevented. Perpetual pollution should be banned and mines should be required to reclaim public lands to sustain post-mining uses.
Implement Fiscal Reforms. Under current law, mining companies, both foreign and domestic, have been able to purchase public lands for $5 an acre and take valuable minerals from public lands for free. The sale of public lands to corporate interests should be permanently ended, and mining companies should pay a gross royalty similar to what other extractive industries pay for what they extract from public lands.
Create Funds to Clean Up Abandoned Mines. Money generated by this new royalty should go to clean up the more than 500,000 abandoned mines scattered across the West.
Give Local Communities a Voice in Land-Use Decisions. State, local and tribal governments should be able to put lands important to their community off limits to mining.
Allow Mining to be Balanced with Other Land Uses. The federal government currently interprets the 1872 Mining Law as mandating that mining is the highest and best use for public lands, above clean water, fragile ecosystems or recreational uses. Land managers should be able to balance mining with other valuable land uses, and have the authority to deny mining permits when necessary.
Protect Special Places from Mining. Treasured areas, such as Wild and Scenic Rivers, Roadless Areas, Areas of Critical Environmental Concern and Wilderness Study Areas, are not appropriate places for open-pit mines and should be put off limits to new claims.
Thank you for your leadership on this issue and your efforts to ensure a meaningful and effective reform of the 1872 Mining Law that will be fiscally responsible and will protect local communities and ecosystems.
Sincerely,
[NAME]
[Congregation, if appropriate]
[City, State]
|
