Participation: key to moving forward as united community

IN A “Biodiversity and No to Mining in Palawan” symposium held at Rockwell last May 9, an Australian technical person questioned the premise of Gina Lopez’s group that all mining operations impact negatively on the environment. The Australian said their big mining group has zero impact on their concession, and land conversion of forest for agricultural use through “kaingin” is in fact being done by individuals, and those doing charcoal-making are the ones despoiling the environment. He invited Gina’s group to visit their concession, which Gina accepted. I leave the mining issue for now, as the proof of the “zero impact” still has to be borne out by an actual examination of the site.

The points raised however are valid. “Carbon” is a term used by people who burn wood like kamagong and hardwood trees for charcoal. (Shocking isn’t it!).   I believe that this is the worst of all the negative practices impacting our forest.

The other point the Australian raised is about the present kaingin practice which is just as bad.  My experience with this is: individuals set fire to a place so that the trees die and they can get the wood for charcoal, and then they look forward to the new grass that will grow for their cattle to graze on.

I would not put the primary blame on the ordinary citizen who transgresses the law but on high society that does not want to see that their life of comfort and luxury is exacerbating a problem. We have created a most unwelcoming society for our own people, making them feel worthless and of no consequence. How can true progress happen when we negate people’s humanity in so many ways every day?  Is it any wonder, that tourism has a hard time flourishing here (except in Boracay where no developer set the trend for exclusivity and so everyone is welcome). There is even a Magna Carta for homeowners that encourages exclusivity!

My way of addressing this situation has been to try to make my provincial officials realize they should not abdicate their power to provide new roads, lights, water, security, community centers, etc. to a developer; that they are actually mandated to do this; that they can be the enlightened “Ayalas and Landcos”  for their people. It’s a slow process, but we are getting there and when our people feel welcome and participate in creating real community, I know we will be moving together to better things and be a model to other communities.

—JACQUELINE C. VEGA,

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