Philippines biodiversity hotspot pushes back on miningbr br A nickel stockpile towers over farmer Moharen Tambiling's rice paddy in the Philippines' Palawan, evidence of a mining boom that locals hope a new moratorium will tame.br "If mining operations here do not stop, the soil quality here will deteriorate, until the land's already unusable and crops can no longer grow," Tambiling tells Agence France-Presse.br Despite promised jobs and tax revenue, there is growing pushback against the sector in Palawan. The island's governing council in March unanimously passed a 50-year moratorium on any new mining permits.