Pitfalls and Pipelines - Philippine Indigenous Peoples Links

102 Pitfalls and Pipelines: Indigenous Peoples and Extractive Industries
2.1.1 Local Actions
Community Unity
As raised in the first part of this book, one of the key problems
associated with the extractive industries is social division.
Some of this occurs because the nature of extractive projects;
some sectors of the indigenous community may benefit, or
incur less of the costs, than others. These differences may
be concerning land ownership or current livelihoods, intergenerational,
or gender-based issues. They also may be over
contesting leadership claims, e.g., between formal/informal or
traditional/elected leaders. Many of these are based on tensions
already within the community, but the advent of external
pressures will likely increase the divisions, and lead to internal
conflict. Companies can also deliberately play upon these divisions,
seeking to make deals with some and excluding those
who do not wish to make such deals.
One of the first actions that any affected indigenous community
should do is to ensure that the community is as united
as possible. Organizing communal meetings, which affirm
the shared values of the community and reassert communal
or traditional decision making processes, is very useful. It is
worthwhile publicly substantiating these, but—where it does
not break cultural taboos—often better still to write them
down, and get the community to publicly verify them. This
makes it undeniable for the company that they are aware of
the community position and it can—at the appropriate time—
be easily shared with potential allies. This statement can primarily
focus on the principles of governance, but will be useful
if a company or government later tries to deny knowledge of
opposition or undermine that process by seeking to install its
own “leaders” or to impose a culturally inappropriate method
of decision making. If there are a number of forms of leadership
or sectors represented within the community, it is advisable
the statement explains how they interrelate, and where