Transforming toxic past into promising future through coffee farming
DAVAO CITY – As you sip a cup of coffee, do you ever stop to think about
where it came from?
Unknown to many, Lake Leonard, located within the hinterlands of Maco, Davao de Oro, was a tailing pond of mine wastes in the 80's and 90's.
John Paul Matuginas, a senior agriculturist of the Department of Agriculture-Davao Region (DA-11), described it as an area with no hope for agricultural prospects.
“Chemicals from various mining activities were evident in the area,” he told the Philippine News Agency in an interview Friday.
Apart from the mining activities, massive illegal logging was also rampant at the time, such that when the mining company left the area in the late 90's, the Mansaka community was left with nothing but a wasteland and a lake with cyanide and mercury that are harmful for both humans and fish.
