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Monday, April 25, 2005
Plan to cultivate 2M-hectare land alarms environmentalists
ENVIRONMENT advocates in Region 11 expressed alarm over the Department of Agriculture's (DA) plan to cultivate 2 million hectares of new agribusiness lands in the entire country just to accommodate millions of jobs for Filipinos.
Half of the 2 million hectares of the DA's development plan are in Mindanao.
Dr. Rex Linao, convenor of the Panaghoy sa Kinaiyahan-Coalition for Mother Earth in the region, said the agribusiness development plan of DA will have negative impact on the health of the workers and the people around the farm if the government will not include in its plan protection from use of pesticides.
"This is not to put the plantation owners in the bad light. What we emphasize here is that they should stop using pesticides that harm public health and the environment," Linao said.
The group was, however, glad to hear Mayor Rodrigo Duterte's commitment in protecting upland watersheds from monocrop plantations.
"Mayor Duterte's reply to our call is a good sign to celebrate Earth Day because he has finally exercised his power as the local chief executive, to protect the upland watershed and its dwellers," Linao said Friday.
The group joined the world in celebrating Earth Day on April 22 as it has attended the two-day conference on Agribusiness Plantations: Changing Mindanao's Landscape held at the Mindanao Training Center in Bajada.
Linao said while it is true that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources has devolved to the local government the task to stop or control the expansion of large-scale and monocrop plantations in upland watersheds they however do not agree with the practice as they (DENR) have a clear mandate to ensure a healthful ecology for all.
Last week, 30,000 catfish fingerlings equivalent to 10 tons died in Tugbok fishponds owned by veterinarian and acquaculturist Dr. Greg Domingo.
According to members of the Los Amigos Fisherfolk, the fishkill phenomenon already occurred since last year.
The Panaghoy made an ocular visit of the area and found out that fish pen owners have blamed banana plantations using aerial spraying as the probable reason for the fishkill.
According to the group, Los Amigos fish growers claimed that although the rice fields that must have used pesticides are situated adjacent to their ponds, the fishkill only occurred when banana plantations started to come nearer their area.
"The issue here is pollution, more than just the fishkill. Plantation owners' reaction that they do not pollute the environment is such an irresponsible statement. The moment a plantation uses pesticides there it is polluting the environment. No beautiful words can hide that ugly truth," said Linao.
Linao said whether the test results would show pesticide residue on the samples it is immaterial as the plantations "repeatedly admit to be using toxic chemicals."
He said the fishkill issue helped them advance their call in banning the use of pesticide thru aerial spraying.
For her part, Lia Jasmin Esquillo, executive director of the Interface Development Interventions, said "instead of passing the burden of proof to these losing fish pen owners, plantation companies, in the name of corporate social responsibility must rather employ the precautionary principle by stopping aerial spraying. "
Toxicologist Romeo Quijano from the University of the Philippines College of Medicine, who was here as a guest speaker, supported Panaghoy's call.
"Laboratory equipment in Davao City cannot detect a minute presence of pesticides in a sample. Even if studies say that no traces of pesticides are detected, it should not be taken as gospel truth that there is no contamination," Quijano said.
Quijano urged that tests should be done in Manila laboratories or in countries like Malaysia where the equipment can detect pesticides parts per trillion.
"Davao City is highly vulnerable to pesticide contamination. If in the North pole, pesticide drift has reached as far as chemical-free Greenland, how much more in Davao City where plantations are just located a few kilometers from the urban centers," Quijano said. (BOT)
For Bisaya stories from Davao. Click here. (April 25, 2005 issue)
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