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Category: Mining prohibition El Salvador
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Published: Wednesday, 18 September 2019 14:45
by Eduardo Barahona / Karla Rodas: Vanguardia
El Salvador is the first country in the world to ban metal mining in its entirety, in March, 2017; but who were the precursors of this victory?
It could be said that one of the biggest environmental victories in the world was won in a small country, which for many decades was classified as one of the environmentally worst, not knowing that within its lands there was a struggle to make it better. In 2017, the “pulgarcito”, as El Salvador is called, was recognized in every corner of the world for beating a large mining company, Oceana Gold / Pacific Rim.
Everything in this world has its genesis, and though it is true that the fight for the environment was a collective effort, we must recognize the heroes and heroines who gave their lives at a time of great threat, of metal mining, for our country. This journalistic writing is to remember Dora Sorto, Juan Durán, Ramiro Rivera, and Gustavo Marcelo Rivera, who were the first front line defenders in the department of Cabañas, El Salvador to plant the seeds for our fight and environmental defense.
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Category: Mining prohibition El Salvador
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Published: Wednesday, 18 September 2019 13:30
by Marvin Diaz: Gato Encerrado
The Law that prohibits mining in El Salvador was approved more than two years ago. Along with the law, key measures that needed to be implemented, such as the technical closures of the abandoned mines and remediation measures for environmental damage, remain absent. The government of the FMLN (Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front) had two years to enact these measures and it failed to do so. As such, the Roundtable against Metal Mining has asked the new government of Nayib Bukele to resume the actions still pending from the approval of the Metallic Mining Ban.
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Category: Mining prohibition El Salvador
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Published: Monday, 16 September 2019 16:53
* LA PAGINA
Members of the National Roundtable against Metal Mining requested the President of the Republic, Nayib Bukele, to implement the Ban of Metal Mining, to address problems faced by mining affected communities in country.
"We ask President Nayib Bukele to order the implementation of the Law that prohibits Metal Mining. It is of the outmost importance to carry out environmental remediation processes and ensure the appropriate technical closures of the mines," said La Mesa in a statement.
They indicated that even though the Law was approved in March 2017, the provisions in the legislation have not been complied with to date.
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Category: Pacific Rim/OceanaGold
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Published: Monday, 16 September 2019 16:42
By John Aaron Mark Macaraeg - BULALAT
KASIBU, Nueva Vizcaya — Ronald Pumihic sat on a tent with his daughter on his lap as he watched the barangay police inspect a van entering their community. In some days, Pumihic himself would join a team manning the checkpoint. They bar the entry of supplies for Oceanagold, an Australian-Canadian gold mining company, that he, together with the rest of the community, desperately wants out.
The barricade was set up July 2, following the expiration of Oceanagold’s Financial or Technical Assistance Agreement (FTAA), a license needed for a mining company to operate, on June 20. Despite the provincial government of Nueva Ecija’s restraining order, Oceanagold has pushed through with its operations.
Pumihic’s organization, Didipio Earth Saver’s Movement Association (Desama), is one of those at the forefront of the barricade. His very household experienced the negative impacts of large-scale mining.
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Category: Pacific Rim/OceanaGold
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Published: Monday, 16 September 2019 16:28
“We could say that Oceanagold really crippled our livelihood.”
By John Aaron Mark Makaraeg : BULALAT
KASIBU, Nueva Vizcaya — Ernesto Palpag, 50 years old, used to harvest about 40 sacks of rice every cropping. He could always catch dalag and eels in a nearby river. Every morning, fresh air coming down from the mountain greeted him.
From time to time, he would join his neighbors in small-scale mining for extra income. The other people in the village also enjoyed freshly harvested sweet potatoes, bananas, citrus, and many other fruits and root crops.
Gone were those days. The farmer now laments how the village of Didipio, Kasibu, Nueva Vizcaya has been transformed by large-scale mining.
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Category: OceanaGold Philippines
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Published: Monday, 16 September 2019 14:09
by Kalikasan KPNE
Environmental activists, church leaders, lawyers, economists, scientists, politicians, and indigenous leaders gathered today at the Church of the Risen Lord in the University of the Philippines to launch the Save Nueva Vizcaya Movement, a national campaign to protect the environment, natural resources, and people’s rights in the nationally significant watershed and biodiverse province of Nueva Vizcaya.
In its unity statement, Save Nueva Vizcaya declared that “our most urgent mission is to oppose destructive large-scale mining projects such as the 12,864-hectare Didipio copper and gold mine of Australian-Canadian transnational mining corporation Oceanagold.”
Save Nueva Vizcaya was convened by various leaders and experts, including representations of Diocese of Bayombong Bishop Elmer Mangalinao, renowned environmental lawyer Antonio La Vina, Nueva Vizcaya governor Carlos Padilla, Kalikasan national coordinator Leon Dulce, and UN Champions of the Earth 2018 awardee and indigenous rights activist Joan Carling.
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