TVIRD employees, Subanon hosts work together in beach cleanup
After planting trees on a mountain ridge during the World Environment Day
celebration less than a month earlier, employees of TVI Resource Development
Philippines, Inc. (TVIRD) and residents of the Company’s host community
at Mount Canatuan in Siocon, Zamboanga del Norte proceeded down to a coastal
village in this town to collect the rubbish that have accumulated at the sea
water’s edge. The beach cleanup was part of TVIRD Canatuan’s contribution
to the nationwide observance of the Philippine Environment Month.
TVIRD Canatuan employees scour Dolongin
Beach for rubbish: the cleanup netted a total of seven sacks of litter.
Some 50 employees and villagers participated in the activity,
which attracted crowds of onlookers – beachcombers at Dolongin Beach
celebrating the Feast of St. John the Baptist last June 24. The feast is a
popular event in these islands, usually celebrated along beaches and rivers
to commemorate the event that gave the saint his moniker – the baptism
of Christ in the Jordan River.
Dubbed “Beat the heat! Let us work for a safer climate”,
the beach cleanup netted a total of seven sacks of litter and other non-biodegradable
materials, mostly plastic bottles and other packaging materials.
TVIRD Canatuan employees, their Subanon
hosts, and Feast of St. John the Baptist revelers with their “harvest”:
working together for a safer climate.
Mae Villar, TVIRD Environment Department supervisor, said:
“TVIRD is committed to responsible stewardship of the environment, especially
in our host communities. Aside from planting trees to preserve the forests,
we also have to make sure that our seashores are clean since the seas, the
land and the air meet at the seashores. Waves, flows and winds are generated
at the seashores. If we do not stop polluting our seashores, there will be
climate changes that would most likely lead to natural disasters.
“Together with our host Indigenous Subanons, we do our best to promote
awareness and monitoring of coastal areas. Through this beach cleanup, we
hope that beachgoers will learn to properly dispose their garbage and to be
more responsible in taking care of the seas and the environment as a whole,”
Villar added.
“Through this beach cleanup, we hope that
beachgoers will learn to properly dispose their garbage and to be more responsible
in taking care of the seas and the environment as a whole.”
Last June 5, TVIRD and the Canatuan ancestral domain owners
planted 1,000 more trees to the already more than 100,000 trees that the
Company has planted since it began gold-silver mining operations in the
area. Before TVIRD came to Canatuan, a large portion of the land had already
been denuded due to the slash-and-burn farming method of early generations
of Subanons, and to the illegal logging and mining activities in the area
which also left the rivers and seas of Siocon highly contaminated with toxic
chemicals.
TVIRD conducted a massive yearlong cleanup to restore environmental
balance in the area. Siocon River has since recovered from chemical contamination
and Mount Canatuan now has more trees. (Rene Patangan)
TVIRD’s environment volunteers:
“Together with our host Indigenous Subanons, we do our best to promote
awareness and monitoring of coastal areas.”
