Lumads revive reforestation to defy Ned coal mining expansion in South Cotabato

Lumads revive reforestation to defy Ned coal mining expansion in South Cotabato

SOUTH COTABATO, Philippines — It’s been three years since production began at a coal mine in the mountain village of Ned, some 1,500 kilometers, nearly 1,000 miles, south of Manila, on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao. Since then, more than 2 million metric tons of deposits have been carved out of the earth, leaving a wide brown scar through land once teeming with green vegetation. The coal mine in the village of Ned in Lake Sebu towns…