3- Tips to Go Green

Re-use detergents and water. In doing laundry, use a semi-automatic washing machine, which allows you to reuse the detergents and rinse water. Avoid using automatic washing machine, which discards all detergents and water automatically. The detergents can be used three times or more. First, for the white clothes, then the colored clothes, then for rugs or rags, and finally, it can be used to clean up the driveways, pathways, and floors. You can use the rinse water in the same way just like the detergents. In addition, you can use the rinse water to water the lawn, trees or plants that are not so sensitive to this type of water.

Don’t wash clothes in small loads. Try to wash these by batches or full load depending on the capacity of your washing machine. Remember that you are using the same amount of detergents and water per load.

2- Tips to Go Green

Sort and reuse plastic bags. Don't just throw these away as litters. You can facilitate reuse by sorting the plastic bags according to size: Small, Medium, Large and Very Large. Use four properly labeled old sacks or  bags to easily segregate plastic bags at home. Remember it is difficult to reuse if you don’t sort. This can save you from buying garbage bags and new plastic bags.

This will also reduce clogging of canals and drainage, and flooding, as plastic bags and wrappers are found to be the major causes of these problem in most urban areas.   

1- Tips to Go Green

     Plant trees as long as you can. Select the right tree species for your need. There are the several tree species available for shade, fruits, wood, fuel, fence, medicine, industrial, protection, ornamental or many other purposes. If in doubt, ask the advice of foresters. 

    

     Planting trees is one of the greatest things a person can do in this world. It can do the humanity a lot of good more than we can imagine. As trees have social functions and benefits like cleaning our air, averting climate change and beautifying our world , we all have a collective responsibility to take care of the trees too. 

My personal home experience in waste segregation, waste minimization and composting

To practice what I preach, I tried to do waste segregation and composting at home. My idea is to collect all dried leaves that fell from our mango and avocado trees, coconut and other plants. To speed up the process, I tried burning bulky coconut leaves and voluminous dried leaves and twigs once a week. The ashes and charcoal are then mixed with fresh organic litters like dogs’ popooh and kitchen wastes, and finally layered with garden soil including all earthworms and other microorganisms in it. The mixture is collected in sacks and watered once a day to maintain moisture that is conducive for the earthworms to grow and do their thing. Then these are left to decompose for about a couple of months, and voila, I have a super enriched bio-char soil, which I used for our small garden. Our household waste was also reduced from 6-7 plastic bags to 2-3 plastic bags weekly.

Sounds perfect but reality always sets in. As people always say, talk is cheap. Our neighbors have different ideas. One complained that the leaves from our trees are a constant source of wastes in their front street as wind carries the dried leaves in their frontage, and they have to sweep these leaves time and again. Although they do not complain about parking under the shade of trees, despite it is a bit far from their house. Another complained about the smell of our dogs’ litters, as if we are the only ones in the neighborhood that own dogs which wander the streets 24/7 like askals. To avoid silly argument, I cleaned up after our dogs, and as well other neighbors’ dogs. In fact, I collect any popooh and dried leaves that I can find in front of our house and beyond, and use these as fertilizers. Then another complaint followed: the sacks of organic wastes and mixtures in front of our house are so unsightly!

No wonder waste segregation, waste minimization and composting are hitting so many snags. It is easier to gather all kinds of unsorted wastes in plastics bags, and throw these away or have these collected by garbage truck weekly. That was what my neighbors are doing for so long and nobody is complaining… perhaps until we run out of dump sites or land fill. Who really cares by then?

The problem must have been alarming that no less than DENR Secretary Paje is appealing to parents to teach children on proper waste segregation. But the prejudicial question is: Who is going to teach the parents first?

Paje appeals to parents to teach children on proper waste segregation

Protected area law revises land classification system under the 1987 constitution

Batanes Protected Landscape and
Seascape

A major change has happened in the land classification system of the country, and many are not aware of this new modification. When the National Protected Areas System (NIPAS) Act of 1992 or RA 7586 was enacted in 1992, many people did not realize that the national park as a category of land classification and as contemplated under the 1987 Constitution could encompass the sea. It was unthinkable but it was quite true. The NIPAS law did not only include terrestrial areas and wetlands, designated as protected areas, as national park, but it also incorporated all marine protected areas proclaimed under the NIPAS law. The land classification of national park under the constitution now includes land under the sea. The provision can be found in Article 2 of the NIPAS law or Rule 2 (Declaration of Policy) of the DENR (Department of Environment and Natural Resources)  Department Administrative Order No. 2008-26.

If this provision of the NIPAS law is not rendered unconstitutional, this could represents a tremendous shift in legal and management paradigm as lawyers, foresters, geodetic engineers, land surveyors, resource managers, government officials, statisticians and other professionals will ponder with this new and expanded context of national park. In effect, this could also effectively increase the total land area of the Philippines substantially from 30 million hectares as there are at least 29 (out of 101) proclaimed protected areas across the country that fall under this category. 

Since national park refers to a forest reservation (as defined under Section 4e (Definition of terms) of the NIPAS law) or forest land, it will essentially redefine the science of forestry altogether, including the textbooks and curricula used in universities, while old forestry graduates will find themselves ill-equipped to handle marine science or management of ‘marine areas of forestry’. 

New Mining Law is Needed to Protect the Environment

Filling up of a subsidence area in an underground mining
operation. 

A new mining law is needed to correct its infirmities and replaced the existing Philippine Mining Act of 1995 or Republic Act 7942.

Among the features that should be included in the new law/regulations are:

1. Specify the mine rehabilitation goals, apart from the general environmental protection objectives like preservation of water quality and natural habitats and prevention of air and noise pollution.  Specific objectives and criteria like the need for sustainable and productive ecosystems, resilience to disturbance, and increase in job opportunities and business promotion should be considered.
2. Obtain the full participation of all stakeholders, including the property rights owners or claimants, in the determination of the post-mining land-use capability and the compensation level for possible damages. For new mines, this should be conducted during the pre-mining phase, as the penultimate part of environmental impact assessment and cost-and-benefit study of the mining project, so that everyone would know what is expected of them if the mining operations push-through. For old mines, it should be done as soon as possible.
3.  Shift the burden of proof from the victims of mining damages to the agent causing the damage or from the recipient to the source of the unwanted cause. This applies to the surface rights or property rights owners who were inadvertently ignored, as well as those who suffer damages as a result of the mining operation. This will also preclude the possibility of some victims or recipients of damages from not being compensated at all.
4. Establish an adequate amount of sinking fund or trust deposit during the productive life-of-the-mine that is proportional to the degree of disturbance. This is to ensure there are enough funds for rehabilitation at the suspension or closure of the mine, independent of the fate of the mining operator. The adequate amount should be determined by in-situ assessment and study of the area to be rehabilitated, not as a percentage of the cost of implementing the EPEP (Environmental Protection and Enhancement Program) with P5 million maximum.
5. Require the DENR-MGB a transition plan (from the old regulatory system to the new one) and commitments, in consultation with the stakeholders, to increase effectiveness of implementation of the new regulations.
6. Instead of ad hoc groups or committees (MMT, MRF Committee, and CLRF Steering Committee), whose members' resources are thinly spread which prevents timely, responsible, and efficient decisions, full time and qualified officers in the MGB should be commissioned  to discharge the functions.

New mining regulations - not seen to improve environmental protection and mine rehabilitation

Open pit mining in Benguet, Philippines. A small community
is situated at the upper left background.

The new mining regulations in the Philippines intend to pursue policies that balance economic growth with environmental protection and rehabilitation.

However, comparative review and qualitative analyses of the specific provisions of the new regulations on mine rehabilitation with the old regulatory regime reveals that the expected changes are not forthcoming. The new regulatory system can not ensure successful rehabilitation of mine-disturbed lands because the specific standards, measurable targets, rehabilitation funds and administrative support mechanisms that will bring profound changes to the current rehabilitation practices were not sufficient. 

With a wide range of uncertainties and the difficulty of attributing damage to a certain mine operator, the current mode of compliance tended to favor cost minimization and unwarranted risk-taking by the mining operators, to the disadvantages of other stakeholders. Any additional actions and costs are voluntary and unsustainable if not accompanied by clear targets and benefits. Moreover, any improvement brought about by the voluntary mode can not be ascribed to the new regulations.

This analysis was based on the MS thesis of Alexander D. Anda Jr. entitled ‘The New Mining Regulations in the Philippines and their Implications for Current Mine Rehabilitation Practices’ presented on January 1999 at The University of Western Australia. The study was supported by the AusAID (Australian Agency for International Development) and the Philippine government through the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Natural Resources Development Corporation.