{"id":310988,"date":"2025-07-31T13:23:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T12:23:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.iucn.nl\/?p=310988"},"modified":"2025-07-31T13:23:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T12:23:13","slug":"meet-the-conservationist-grizelda-mayo-anda-protects-the-people-of-palawan-in-the-philippines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iucn.nl\/en\/story\/meet-the-conservationist-grizelda-mayo-anda-protects-the-people-of-palawan-in-the-philippines\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the conservationist: Grizelda Mayo Anda protects the people of Palawan in the Philippines"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The worldwide demand for\u00a0minerals such as copper ore, bauxite (aluminium), cobalt, nickel, lithium and manganese is growing due to the energy transition. Nickel mining in the Philippines is expanding rapidly, but at the expense of forests, biodiversity and nearby communities. Environmental lawyer Grizelda \u201cGerthie\u201d Mayo Anda has dedicated her life to amplify the voices of the people hit the hardest by environmental damage. For over 35 years, she has been actively working on the island of Palawan in the Philippines with her NGO the Environmental Legal Assistance Center (ELAC)<\/a>. In these years, she has dedicated herself to protect the people of Palawan against the devastating environmental effects caused by the mining industry.<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Header photo: Grizelda Mayo-Anda in San Manuel, 2017<\/em> \u00a9 ELAC<\/em><\/mark><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Motivation to become an environmental lawyer<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n\n
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When Gerthie was still a child, she experienced the loss of her father who worked as a lawyer and prosecutor in Puerto Princesa and the Province of Palawan. \u00a0Her father was publicly murdered by an accused that he was prosecuting against.\u00a0 This painful loss left a chilling effect on the whole family. It was Gerthie\u2019s father who had a big influence in her life. She said: \u2018He was a prosecutor and was encouraging me to become a lawyer because he said you have to serve the poor. That was his advice: be kind, be helpful and serve the greater good.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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At the beginning of her career, there were only a handful of NGO representatives who could advocate for communities\u2019 rights to safeguard their natural resources. She believed that access to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment should be considered a human right. In 1990 she founded ELAC, an NGO committed to helping communities uphold their constitutional right for a healthy environment. After 35 years of work, the fight for a clean, healthy and sustainable environment has become her declaration and personal belief.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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\u2018We are not many, we are probably not even 100 lawyers doing this public interest environmental lawyering and advocacy work in the Philippines. We are dealing with a\u00a0planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution which have intensified. The government\u2019s problems are also aggravating. So I believe that this somehow sealed my journey. This is the path, the direction for me.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Mining industry in the Philippines<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n\n
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The Philippines holds many endemic species and possesses 70% of the earth\u2019s flora and fauna. The island of Palawan has 26 key biodiversity areas and is home to Critically Endangered species such as the Palawan pangolin (Manis culionensis)<\/em>. But the island contains high amounts of nickel and is therefore a target for corporate mining businesses. Mining poses a severe threat to Palawan\u2019s rich biodiversity as reforestation with the current nickel mining method<\/a> is extremely difficult. \u2018It’s not just removing trees, you remove the wildlife\u2019 Gerthie says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Through ELAC, she helped launch the Safe Palawan Movement\u2019s NO2MININGINPALAWAN campaign in 2011, as a voice against mining activities on the island. The campaign was a great success, the coalition collected ten million signatures in 2015. The campaign influenced the national government in institutionalising reforms in the mining industry. A moratorium on the processing of new mining applications was imposed by an executive order under the administration of President Benigno S. Aquino III. The executive issuance resulted in a large drop in mining applications and mineral agreements in Palawan: from 429 to just 11. However, the transition away from fossil fuel energy, in which nickel is essential for batteries of electric vehicles and other green technologies, introduced a new challenge. The demand for nickel increased and the moratorium was lifted in 2021.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Strip mining in Palawan \u00a9 IUCN NL<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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A protest against open-pit mining in the Philippines<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Mining effects on the people of Palawan<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n\n
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The nickel mines in Palawan caused destructive effects to the people and the forest. Indigenous peoples from  Southern Palawan suffered from the effects of mining. In Brooke\u2019s Point, the Indigenous peoples\u2019 livelihoods are tightly connected to the forest for their survival, as they collect valuable non-timber forest products such as resin from the Almaciga tree. But after a mining company established operations on their land, they were denied access to their ancestral domains and the resources essential to their survival.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Other people from Palawan such as farmers and fishers were displaced or lost their jobs. The COVID-19 pandemic caused poverty to rise and given the government\u2019s lack of support to livelihoods, the local communities were easily drawn to offers from the mining industry and other extractive projects. Tensions increased, and community divisions took place. Local leaders were drawn to job and development offers from the mining industry. This was especially difficult for Gerthie: \u2018I was drawn to tears together with my fellow NGOs because the local communities we assisted were divided on the issue of mining. It was very painful to see how communities we assisted for several years suddenly allowed extractive projects inside their biodiversity-rich areas. It’s very, very painful because we invested, you know, labour of love and time.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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\u2018The legal empowerment process is not just simply enhancing community\u2019s knowledge of the law and the remedies. It is also building leadership, building inspiration and creating the appropriate and necessary values.\u2019 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

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