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First Posted on Inside Mindanao (www.insidemindanao.com) on March 13, 2010

Caraga Region: The center of resource conflict in the Philippines
By Carl Cesar C. Rebuta
Secretariat, Caraga Biodiversity Summit
Team Leader, LRC–KsK

BUTUAN CITY—Caraga Region is now famous for its new label as the Mining Capital and the Timber Corridor of the Philippines.

Caraga hosts 42 approved Mineral Production Sharing Agreements (MPSA) covering 103,643.25 hectares or 55.29% of the entire mining permits approved in Mindanao. In the pipeline, 80 more MPSAs are pending for approval, 124 applications for Exploration Permits and 15 pending applications for Financial and Technical Assistance Agreements (FTAA).

Caraga is also the center for Forest Plantation – competitive producer of wood chips for pulp and paper. Close to 75% of the total land area for forest tenurial instruments like Industrial Tree Plantations, Integrated Forest Management and Timber license agreements are in the region which covers 903,811 hectares.

The glaring implications to these development projects are the relevant conflicts around the access to, control and use of our natural resources in the uplands, lowlands and coastal marine areas. The region, no doubt, could be called as the center of resource conflict in the Philippines.

Escalating community resistance against development project is not an isolated story.

Close to four months now, alarmed that the mining operation of Marcventures Mining Development Corporation will affect their coastal and agricultural food, residents of Cantilan in Surigao del Sur have established a checkpoint to prevent the mining company from transporting mineral ores to the nearby wharf.

In Anislagan, a small village in Placer town, province of Surigao del Norte, the Anislagan women for the last nine years have been in the frontline opposing the mining exploration activities of Manila Mining Corporation and Anglo–American Plc.

Disgruntled communities are ever present all over the logging areas of PICOP, Ventura, SUDECOR in Agusan del Sur and Lanuza, Madrid, Carmen, Tandag — all part of Surigao del Sur.

The resource conflict analysis in Caraga Region was presented by LRC–KsK during the March 11–12 gathering dubbed as Caraga Biodiversity Summit held at San Lorenzo Seminary, Brgy. Ampayon, Butuan City. The Conference was sponsored by Alternative Law Groups (ALG) through LRC–KsK⁄FoE–Phils, Kaisahan, PBPF and Balaod Mindanaw.

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