Save Palawan Campaign

The Save Palawan Campaign is a policy advocacy effort of  the “Mine Watch” group of Palawan NGO Network Inc. (PNNI) with the people of  Palawan advocating against development aggressions to combat the mounting environmental threats being faced by the province to its biodiversity.

It aimed at reaching out all concerned sectors in order to draw support to the campaign particularly against destructive activities in the province.  Among the many threats to Palawan, PNNI thru its advocacy group who have been actively involved on mining related concerns in the entire province will be focusing on the current mining operations as well as the many applications of various industrial mining companies proposing to exploit minerals such as silica, gold and nickel, in watershed areas more often than not occupied by indigenous peoples and other upland dwellers.  

Based from PNNI documented informations and baseline data from various government organizations and community interviews that northern and southern part of the province contained twelve (12) various areas of abandoned mining sites without any rehabilitation made.   Documents from meetings attended and monitored by PNNI revealed that it is increasingly evident that many areas in the province are under small and large scale mining industrial applications.  As of December 2007, there are twelve (12) mining companies which are currently operational, twenty three (23) were issued permits but not yet operating.  to date, Sixty Nine (69) Mineral Production Sharing Agreement (MPSA) which will consume 205,296.93 hectares consist of old growth forest, One Hundred forty Three (143) Exploration Permits with 443,740.96 hectares, and One Hundred Forty Five (145) Small Scale mining applications which will consume 2,494.88 hectares of forest land totalling to 322 mining applications that will destroy  651,532.77 hectares of forested area.  These mining companies have been endorsed by DENR-Mines and Geosciences Bureau for PCSD’s decision and Provincial Mining Regulatory Board (PMRB) for the Small scale mining applications. 

The continuous engagements of the Palawan NGO Network, Inc. (PNNI) with the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD), the main policy making body in Palawan with regard to development policies and projects which opened up motivating possibilities for the effective participation of Palawan NGOs and POs in sustainable development planning in the province.  Particularly PNNI was able to engaged PCSD in looking into the possibility of declaring a moratorium for industrial mining in the province of Palawan.

However, for such a moratorium declaration to be realized a challenge of being able to justify such call must be with a basis through the strengthening of community participation, a thorough research and policy study, continuous governance engagements, regular information exchanges, concrete monitoring actions and solid linkaging and networking.