PMEA Blog

Former British Minister for International Development and Chair of the Working Group on Mining in the Philippines, Clare Short MP, is to host the Westminster launch on Monday 9 February of a new report, Philippines ­ Mining or Food? Alongside her will be Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, an Igorot indigenous woman from the Cordillera Region of Northern Philippines, and Chairperson of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Also present will be the report’s authors, Robert Goodland and Clive Wicks, and two UK bishops who are standing in solidarity with the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines in their opposition to destructive mining in their country ­ Bishop John Arnold, Auxiliary Bishop in the Catholic Diocese of Westminster and Bishop Michael Doe, General Secretary of USPG: Anglicans in World Mission.

The report calls for a moratorium on new mining in the Philippines, a review of existing mining projects, and a withdrawal of international investment in mining until proper procedures are in place to protect human rights and the environment. It provides evidence that mining is causing large-scale ruin of island environments and people’s livelihoods, particularly undermining food production and sustainability.

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