Philippines is deadliest country for defenders of environment
Jonathan Watts
@jonathanwatts
Mon 29 Jul 2019 20.01 EDT Last modified on Mon 29 Jul 2019 20.02 EDT
The Philippines has replaced Brazil as the most murderous country in the world for people defending their land and environment, according to research that puts a spotlight on the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte.
More than three defenders were killed across the world every week in 2018, according to the annual toll by the independent watchdog Global Witness, highlighting the continued dangers facing those who stand up to miners, loggers, farmers, poachers and other extractive industries.
The latest global total of 164 deaths was down from 2017’s peak of 201, a decrease that campaigners partly put down to growing focus on the subject by indigenous groups, NGOs, the United Nations and the media.
But Global Witness said companies and governments were increasingly using non-lethal tactics to quash dissent, including criminalisation and threats, while killings remain at an alarmingly high level.
More:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jul/30/philippines-deadliest-country-defenders-environment-global-witness
= new reply since forum marked as read
Oh, I want to mention some of these same companies are known for their own record of hiring paramilitaries (death squads) to terrorize and assassinate workers trying to create unions, seeking "small things" like safety standards, working conditions, increases above slave labor wages, etc., throughout the Americas, both in agriculture, and in extraction businesses, oil, and mining. They have been able to get politicians to allow them to rape the landscape and the cheap labor pools, keeping the nearly destitute work forces living in fear to speak out. Hideous.
And our stupid fascists contend all that's wrong with the poor in those countries is that they are "commies," wanting to take all the wealth for themselves.
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Mindanao elite investors
By: Rolando T. Dy - @inquirerdotnet Philippine Daily Inquirer / 12:40 AM October 31, 2016
Read more: https://business.inquirer.net/217898/mindanao-elite-investors#ixzz5v7hNopnN
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Top Mindanao agri products post solid growth
DAVAO CITY, Philippines - Mindanao continues to make substantial contributions to the country's agriculture output, maintaining its strength as an agriculture-based economy despite natural calamities that pulled down production in some sectors.
Selected industrial crops, fruit crops, and fisheries in Mindanao fared well in their production output as reported in the "Performance of the Philippine Agriculture" by the Department of Agriculture - Bureau of Agricultural Statistics 2013.
The island-region accounted for almost 100 percent share in the nation's rubber production in 2013. Out of 444,793 metric tons (MT) produced by the country, 444,653 MT were sourced from Mindanao. This represents a minimal growth of 0.4 percent, spurred by an increase in areas planted and in number of mature tappable trees.
"Mindanao is the biggest rubber producer in the country, attributed to rich soil and good climatic conditions in its rubber-producing regions," said Luwalhati Antonino, chair of the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA).
Zamboanga Peninsula was the country's top rubber producer with a 43.9 percent share in the total output, followed by South Cotabato Sultan Kudarat Sarangani General Santos (SOCSKSARGEN) Growth Area at 38.9 percent and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) at 10.5 percent. Combined production of these two regions accounted for 93.3 percent of the nation's rubber production in 2013.
Mindanao also contributed 88.8 percent to the total pineapple output in the same year, contributing 2,182,171 MT to the country's total production of 2,458,423 MT, representing a 2.4 percent growth. Production growth was influenced by reduced insect infestation and bigger fruits harvested in Zamboanga Peninsula, and expansion of corporate farms in Northern Mindanao.
More:
http://minda.gov.ph/news/92-top-mindanao-agri-products-post-solid-growth
