The imminent surge in mining activity for transition minerals in the Philippines may further jeopardize local biodiversity and endanger indigenous communities, a report by environment and rights groups said.
A joint Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan) and London-based Global Witness report revealed environmental degradation, militarization, and human rights violations as global demand for critical minerals rises.
The Philippines, the world’s second-largest nickel producer, is at the center of the global “green rush” to secure transition minerals like nickel and copper for renewable energy technologies, the groups said.
Under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the country is positioning itself as a key supplier to meet this demand.
The cost however is steep, the report revealed, with around 20% of Philippine land covered by mining tenements. The Philippines has around 300,000 square kilometers of land area.
Of these, more than 25% are transition mineral zones that encroach on indigenous lands or critical biodiversity areas, according to the report’s findings.
The report said that since 2010, over 211,000 hectares of forest have been lost in mining areas.
In Palawan, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, mining zones overlap with biodiversity hotspots, threatening climate-critical ecosystems.
“Indigenous peoples, who manage lands holding 75% of the country’s remaining forests, are disproportionately affected,” Kalikasan said in a forum held simultaneous with the report’s global release last December 3.
The Philippines is one of 18 “mega-biodiverse” countries in the world. All face significant environmental risks from mining, as well.
The environmental group said that since the 1990s, local indigenous people’s communities have lost land equal to the size of Timor Leste to mining projects.
“Displacement, coercion, and violence have become commonplace,” Kalikasan said.
“At the heart of this issue are real people and ecosystems,” Beverly Longid, national coordinator of Katribu, a national Indigenous Peoples’ alliance and Global Coordinator of the International Indigenous Peoples Movement for Self-Determination and Liberation, said in the forum.
“The global rush for transition minerals cannot come at the expense of communities and biodiversity,” said Hanna Hindstrom, Senior Investigator at Global Witness. “We cannot mine our way out of the climate emergency. Attempting to do so will only worsen the plight of our planet and its people.”
Lia Mai Torres, Executive Director of the Center for Environmental added, “The Philippine government’s ‘green’ mining push violates the rights of Indigenous people to facilitate land grabs and resource extraction for corporate profit, in a continuation of colonialism.”
“Our natural wealth must not serve multinational corporations. It must serve the people,” Torres said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
