Blogs
Bilateral Blog, Anneke, Australia - Philippines
I learnt that the Philippines’s school have 1422 students and are the oldest catholic school, St. Josephs. They are one of the most populated country in the world and are highly polluted. Their waters, air and forests are being destroyed and they’re trying to stop that. They’ve participated in COP for 3 years now. They’ve been in lockdown since March and have strict lockdown rules. The issue they chose was dolomite mining, and how it’s being dumped onto beaches in Manilla Bay, creating the signature white sand. Another problem they have is mangroves being removed and deforested to beautify the beaches, ironically. The mangroves keep the sand together and support the beaches from being swept away from the 8-9 tropical cyclones throughout the year. Total mangrove coverage dropped 50% from 70% during 1938 to only 20% in 2007. This not only affects us as people but the ecosystem around them which depend on the mangroves for food and shelter. Since the government is ignoring this issue, the community is fixing this problem by running a petition to dig up the sand and replant the mangroves, so far 771 people have signed up. Despite having the hardships of lockdown and Covid, they still presented an amazing PowerPoint and introduced themselves.
Our case studies were different but faced the same issue, pollution and deforestation. Both the unconventional exploration for oil and gas ruins the landscape, air and affects bore water. Their issue on dolomite mining is terrible and is effecting the environment badly, while their government isn’t doing anything about it, leaving it up to the community, ours, specifically Department of Economic Development, is introduce legislation to permanently ban the exploration and development of unconventional gas.
The Philippines have faced many challenges regarding the conference with us, Covid-19 interrupting, time zones, and the language barrier for some. Despite this they still organised a conference overseas and digitally, presented a wonderful PowerPoint and communicated with us very well. I learnt many things that they consider an issue that I’d never thought of. We faced similar issues in regards to time zones and figuring out when we could conference.
Post comment
1 Comment(s)
Hey Anneke,
I'm Maya from Calgary, Canada.
This is a great response and I can see that you got a lot out of the conference. I'm sorry to hear that you had some challenges when it came to technology and language but it seems that didn't impact the experience too much. It's crazy that they're still in quarantine but that probably means their cases are low so I think that's a good thing. I find the case study on dolomite mining and mangrove removal very interesting, but it's quite sad that the government isn't doing anything about it. Climate change has been seen to increase the frequency and severity of tropical cyclones, and if the mangroves are removed and aren't keeping the sand together and supporting the beaches, that could have very negative impacts. The idea of the mangroves providing habitat for wildlife is also important, and should be taken more seriously by the government. Despite all that, I love how the community is coming together and taking action on the issue. Sometimes tough times can bring people together and I think that's a great example of that. I'm glad that your government is introducing legislation to ban the exploration and development of unconventional gas, and hopefully they also put resources to fixing the environmental impacts that the exploration for unconventional gas has caused.
I'm glad you had a good conference and learned a lot! Great response!
Maya Omary
Nov 13, 2020