Despite serious concerns from the civil society, the affected municipal government, environmental groups and experts, the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD) under the chairmanship of Governor Abraham Kahlil Mitra endorsed the construction of a 15MW coal-fired power plant in Panacan, Narra, Palawan. The proposed site for the plant is about a kilometer away from Rasa Island Wildlife Sanctuary which is home of a large number of globally threatened animal and plant species, including the critically endangered Philippine Cockatoo. Since 1998, Katala Foundation (KFI), so called after the local name of the cockatoo, implements a comprehensive conservation project on the island and adjacent mainland, which harbors one quarter of the world population of this extremely rare parrot. Experts and KFI stated that the coal plant would result in cockatoo casualties due to collisions and electrocution at the feeder power lines. Even more seriously, the power plant would block the flight path of the birds from the mainland to the island, which in turn would result in a reduction of the carrying capacity of Rasa Island for the species, since parent birds could not any more provide their young with sufficient food.
Please find the full press release online.