economy

NGO rejects funding
from Petaquilla
by Sustainable Harvest International

Sustainable Harvest International (SHI), a non-profit organization providing families with training and tools to overcome poverty while restoring the tropical forest, announced on August 21 in Surrey, Maine that it has formally turned down a funding opportunity from Petaquilla Copper, Ltd. (Otc: Ptqlf). Petaquilla Copper is seeking to gain governmental approvals to undertake large-scale open pit copper, gold and silver mining projects in an eco-sensitive area of Panama.

Petaquilla Copper invited SHI to submit a proposal for a three year project that would initiate programs for sustainable development of local and indigenous communities surrounding the mine, an area of roughly 3,000 hectares of virgin rain forests. The proposal included sustainable crop development that would service the mining employees and provide marketing opportunities to farmers impacted by the mine.

SHI's executive committee agreed unanimously that the mine's location in this Central American biological corridor makes it difficult if not impossible to reconcile this particular mining venture with SHI's commitment to the preservation of vital ecosystems.

According to SHI's founder and president, Florence Reed, mining in general may be a necessary part of industrial society, but the location of the Petaquilla mine within the sensitive ecosystem of Cocle and Colon Provinces, conflicts with the basic tenets of SHI.

"Even if Petaquilla were truly committed to full mitigation and remediation, this mining venture will result in a legacy of environmental and social disruption because of the immense area that will be deforested and the number of local indigenous communities that will be displaced," said Reed.

"The potential to provide 1,000 families with support was very compelling, but in the end it was about the disruption of social and environmental ecosystems," she added. "Damages that can be anticipated from this mining venture include displacement of local populations, climate change from deforestation, damage to coral reefs, degradation of local water supplies and increased flooding to down river communities."

Reed also explained that potential business supporters must support SHI's organizational values that include: