TVIRD’s Environment Unit leads the way
The piercing cool mountain breeze in Canatuan can sometimes be unbearable especially during the cold months of January and February when the fog is thick, the temperatures would drop, and the strong cold winds would thump the rugged uplands of this mountain community – the ancestral domain of the Subanon indigenous people (IP) and site of TVI Resource Development (Phils.) Inc. (TVIRD)’s copper-zinc operations in Siocon, Zamboanga del Norte in southern Philippines.
Despite this condition, Geronima “Emma” Buyayo carries on with her task as head of Reforestation and Revegetation Section of the company’s Environment Department. Today, she leads her team in planting rice at an experimental farm that her department is developing at the lower portion of the surface mine which was previously disturbed by the mining operations. The company’s rehabilitation efforts will make sure that disturbed areas are returned to the Subanons for their productive use in the future.
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Thick fog embraces the mountains of Canatuan especially during the cold months of January and February. Below, Emma Buyayo, TVIRD Environment Department’s head of Reforestation and Revegetation section, plants rice at an experimental farm in a previously disturbed area near the surface mine.
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Emma, a member of the Ifugao indigenous tribe in northern Philippines, says she always feels rejuvenated by the cool mountain breeze while she waits for the service vehicle that will take her to the company’s copper processing plant every morning. She may be new to the company, but within the past 12 months she and members of her environment team have already planted seedlings and wildlings on 27 hectares of areas disturbed by the mining operations.
She joined TVIRD in May 2010 and while she is hundreds of miles away from her family, Canatuan always brings memories of home. One will always find solace in the refreshing environment of Canatuan, with patches of forests and lush vegetation surrounding the village. Even during summer, chilly mists would envelop Canatuan, as if providing a layer of protection from the heat.
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Within the past 12 months, 27 hectares of areas disturbed by TVIRD’s mining operations have been planted with seedlings and wildlings. This brings a total of 84 hectares now under active reforestation in this mining community. Above photo shows Phase 2 of surface mine area now planted with various species of trees including the sturdy Narra.
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Chilly mists envelop Canatuan especially during early morning. Patches of forests and lush vegetation surrounding the village provides the community and TVIRD employees a refreshing environment.
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Before Emma joined the company, TVIRD had already planted a wide variety of tree species on lands disturbed by the company’s mining operations. This is why travelers passing by Canatuan would see tall mahogany and mangium trees lined up along the road through Malusok (a district in Canatuan), towards the Mine Plant, and around some areas at the surface mine. With the 27 hectares now planted since Emma joined the company, TVIRD now has a total of 84 hectares under active reforestation in this mining community.
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“I am amazed by the tall trees I saw in Canatuan,” a blogger from Basilan Province in Mindanao wrote after visiting the place few months back. “I thought all I will see there were bald mountains.”
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Travelers passing by Canatuan would see tall mahogany and mangium trees lined up along the road through Malusok (a district in Canatuan), towards the Mine Plant, and around some areas at the surface mine.
According to Nilda Callora, TVIRD Canatuan Environment Manager, only 198 hectares are being used by the company in its operations within its 508-hectare Mineral Production Sharing Agreement (MPSA) area granted by the Philippine government in 2001. “The 198 hectares represent only 39 percent of the total MPSA area.”
Callora adds that TVIRD also uses another 26 hectares of Subanon land within the more than 8,200-hectare ancestral domain covered by the Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT) issued by the government to the Subanons of Siocon. “The company uses the additional land area for the Malusok staff housing facility, the access road strip, the Skyline area and the area occupied by the Canatuan Elementary School and the Canatuan National High School. All these constitute a mere 5% of TVIRD’s total MPSA area,” she avers.
“All in all, we are only using a total of 224 hectares – not even a half of our total MPSA area. Our surface mine, in fact, is just 31 hectares,” Callora said.
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TVIRD’s Enviroment Crew led by Forester Gemma Tolentino, a Subana, beneath big trees within the company’s mining concession area. Below, tall mayapis trees, hard premium wood specie are found within the MPSA area of TVIRD.
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Earlier, SGS Philippines, Inc., the local affiliate of the global Societe Generale de Surveillance (SGS), conducted a survey on the terrestrial flora and fauna within the MPSA of TVIRD and reported that rare birds, reptiles and plants can still be found and are actually thriving within the retained forest areas and the new reforestation areas.
“The 2010 survey conducted four years after the last survey in 2006 revealed a higher number of species,” part of the SGS report says. “A total of at least 372 flora species representing at least 253 genera and 88 families, were encountered. Of these figures, 30 species or 8% belongs to ferns and fern allies; two species were fungi, 79 species of 21% were herbs, 18 species or 5% were palms, 19 species or 5% shrubs, 199 or 53% were trees and arborescent and 25% were vines species.”
Among the most notable trees the SGS survey has observed are those that belong to the so-called hard premium woods like Bagtikan, Manggasenoro, Mayapis, Loktob, Almaciga, Apitong and Makaasim (Syzygium nitidium). The Makaasim tree is especially important as it is listed as among the critically endangered tree species with a high risk of extinction in the wild.
“The survey would like to emphasize that the so-called Queen of the Philippine Orchids, (Grammatophyllum sp.) was seen in between the top branches of an Ulayan tree in the forest patch down slope of the forested South Waste Dump Area,” the report also says.
John Ridsdel, TVIRD Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, was very pleased with the efforts of the company’s environment team and its vigorous implementation of the reforestation, revegetation and other environmental enhancement and protection program, and pledged his all out support.
During one of his recent visits to the Canatuan Mine, Ridsdel also toured the nursery and the reforestation areas of the Environment Department, including one of the remaining forest patches where he and Canatuan General Manager Heliodoro Valmores were shown the Makaasim tree.
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TVIRD Canatuan General Manager Ely Valmores and Environment Manager Nilda Callora (1st and 2nd from left, respectively) brief SVP and COO John Ridsdel (3rd from left) on the environmental rehabilitation efforts that the company is implementing within the mine area. Also in photo are forester Gemma Tolentino, Buyayo, TVI Pacific’s Executive Director for Investor Relations Rhonda Bennetto, and CReDO Superintendent Joel Alasco. Below, Ridsdel poses with a narra tree planted in one of the areas currently undergoing environmental rehabilitation.
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Aside from revegetating disturbed areas, the Environment Department is also tasked to keep bodies of water around the mining community – including Lituban and Siocon rivers – safe for aquatic life and for people. This is ensured through regular water quality monitoring in partnership with the Multi-Partite Monitoring Team (MMT) whose membership includes representatives from the host municipality of Siocon, the IP community, the provincial government of Zamboanga del Norte, government regulatory agencies bodies such as the Mines and Geosciences Bureau, the Environment Management Bureau, and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
Emma is quite aware of the expectations of the company’s stakeholders as regards the need to protect and to manage the impact of TVIRD operations on the environment. That’s why she is serious about her job; she is committed to achieve her department’s goals of keeping Canatuan green and its surrounding bodies of water clean. She understands fully well the Subanon people’s love for their land and their aspiration to improve themselves while keeping the environment useful for generations to come. After all, she is an IP like them. (Lullie Micabalo)
