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Mining firm’s reforest program gaining support from LGUs, resident |
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Ported from Business Mirror
GENERAL SANTOS CITY—Efforts by a minerals development company to help conserve the environment has been drawing support and participation from local government units (LGUs) and residents in the company’s project area.
Committed to a role as steward of the environment, Sagittarius Mines Inc. (SMI) has been supporting reforestation programs involving communities and project stakeholders, SMI communications manager John Arnaldo said.
The company launched in 2005 a five-year reforestation program that will plant trees in more than 1,000 hectares of open and denuded forestlands, including watersheds and river banks.
Arnaldo said the SMI reforestation program aims to plant 50,000 seedlings of quality endemic and high-value fruit trees annually in areas identified by the local communities.
“It is not just mere planting of seedlings. What were planted are being monitored on a regular basis to ensure that survival rates are met,” he said.
Since 2005 more than 200,000 seedlings have been planted in areas surrounding the Tampakan project, he added.
The planting were done in close collaboration with host barangay and municipal governments, nongovernment organization, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources , schools and universities, religious organizations and residents, he said.
In 2008 more than 750 volunteers and 17 community groups participated to meet the 50,000 annual target.
By end of 2008, SMI has prepared its nursery to provide another 50,000 seedlings for this year’s reforestation program.
Just recently, the Local Council of Women (LCW) of Columbio town, Sultan Kudarat, has cited the efforts of SMI in supporting their efforts on environmental conservation,
Council chairman Cherry Bermudez expressed her appreciation of the support extended by SMI in a recent tree-planting activity of the LCW and the local government of Columbio through the Municipal Environment Natural Resource Office.
Bermudez said their group, being a self-sustaining municipal organization of women, cannot by itself emphasize its role in community building without its partnership with the government and the private sector, like SMI.
The activity mainly showed the vitality of the private and public sectors’ partnership in social and environmental activities.
“With this, we are able to eliminate the negative impressions toward minerals development,” she said.
More than 300 women and youth volunteers from the 16 villages of Columbio planted about 420 seedlings of perennial and fruit-bearing trees in barangay Maligaya in Columbio, a watershed area which was identified by the Community-Based Environment Monitoring Program (CBEMP) of Columbio as the primary source of water in the local communities.
CBEMP is a multisectoral group composed of representatives from the community-based organizations and the LGU of Columbio, SMI and host communities that monitors environmental impacts of development activities in the municipality.
“We hope that by supporting tree-planting activities, we help raise public awareness and promote a multistakeholder collaboration in forest restoration in the communities,” said Lauro Domondon of SMI’s Stakeholder Engagement and Partnership Team.
The positive impact of the reforestation program and the expectation of communities toward environmental management in general, has seen similar reforestation programs develop throughout the Philippines.
SMI provides regular support to a number of these programs outside of the project area by providing seedling stocks to the national Plant a Tree Movement, an organization of volunteers tasked with the “greening” of the Philippines.
In the past three years, SMI’s strong social and environmental culture has been recognized as an industry benchmark by the Philippine Mine Safety and Environment Association, winning several awards including the Best Mining Forest Program-Exploration Category in 2008, runner-up in the Mining Forest Program-Exploration Category in 2007 and Best Mining Forest Program-Exploration Category in 2006.
Arnaldo said SMI recognizes that its reforestation program is more than just good environmental management.
It is an opportunity and ability to work in close partnership with its stakeholders and neighbors by providing capacity development, economic growth and a sustainable environment.
The Tampakan project is approximately 65 kilometers north of General Santos City in Mindanao. The project borders three provinces—South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat and Davao del Sur.
The Tampakan copper-gold deposit is in the province of South Cotabato, municipality of Tampakan.
The Tampakan deposit represents one of the largest undeveloped copper-gold deposits in Southeast Asia. The latest mineral resource estimate confirmed 2.2 billion tons, containing 12.8 million tons of copper and 15.2 million ounces of gold at a 0.3 percent copper cut-off grade.
On March 30, 2007, Xstrata Copper acquired 62.5 percent of the controlling interest in the Tampakan Project and assumed management control through its Philippines-based affiliate Sagittarius Mines Inc. |
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