Making A Difference in Mindanao. Joel Mangahas

      Source: Mindanao Development Authority.

      The Mindanao island group has bountiful natural wealth. As of 2008, Mindanao’s agricultural land represents 38% of the country’s total farm area, but yields 43% of the country’s total farm produce. Mindanao accounts for 87% of the national harvest of pineapples, 78% of the bananas, and 75% of the cassava. The country’s total production of rubber comes from Mindanao. For livestock, Mindanao contributes 41% of the country’s total production of goats and 36% of its cattle. More than 60% of the country’s coconut and copra export products also come from Mindanao, which houses most of the country’s coconut oil mills.

      Mindanao supplies 40% of the country’s food requirements and 30% of the national food trade.⁶ It also grows commercial and export crops such as coffee, abaca, and tobacco on 51% of its arable land. This island group further accounts for 32% of the country’s total fisheries products, and more than half of the country’s commercial fish catch. In the cities of General Santos and Zamboanga, 13 fishing firms export 80% of the country’s tuna.

      Mindanao also has lush forest cover, amounting to 41% of the country’s green cover and 56% of the country’s commercial forestland. More than half of the timber licenses issued in the country are granted to Mindanao operations. Over 90% of the country’s total production of wood products such as plywood, veneer, and lumber also come from Mindanao.

      The island group also holds the world’s largest nickel reserves in its northeastern and southern regions, in addition to mineral deposits of gold, copper, chromite, coal, and silver. Early in 2010, its mineral wealth attracted the biggest foreign investment in the country’s mining sector to date when Sumitomo Metal Mining Company announced plans to devote $2.1 billion to its operations in Surigao del Norte.⁷

      Mindanao accounts for 25% of the country’s total exports. Most of the country’s banana and pineapple exports come from this region. Almost 43% of the country’s coconut product exports and 60% of its wood product exports also come from Mindanao.

      Mindanao has great tourism potential, with spectacular landscapes marked by the country’s highest waterfall, tallest mountain, and, its most awe-inspiring feature, the Mindanao or Philippine Deep, an ocean trench 10,540 meters deep at its deepest point, one of the greatest depths known on the earth’s surface. Mindanao also has at least three active volcano peaks. One of these is Mount Apo; at 2,954 meters it is the highest point in the Philippines.

      Mindanao also has beautiful canyons and roaring waterfalls crisscrossing the Bukidnon and Lanao del Sur provinces. Limunsudan Falls in Iligan is the highest waterfall in the Philippines, dropping approximately 250 meters.

Mindanao’s scenic waterfalls are used for generating power. While the rest of the country may still be moving toward clean power, Mindanao has been drawing about 52% of its power from water (Figure 2). Mindanao has nonetheless been recently experiencing acute power outages due to a supply shortfall.

Figure 2 : Power Capacity Mix in Mindanao

      Source: Basic data from the Department of Energy. 2007.

      Given its natural bounty, Mindanao has immense development opportunities despite myriad challenges—social, economic, and political.