Pitfalls and Pipelines - Philippine Indigenous Peoples Links

104 Pitfalls and Pipelines: Indigenous Peoples and Extractive Industries
ers of the community (including KI Chief Donny Morris) for
defying a Court Order to stop protesting. Having exhausted
many other courses of action, the KI asserted their own selfdetermination
with the creation of the Kitchenuhmaykoosib
Inninuwug Water Declaration and Consultation Protocol.
They were passed by a community referendum on 5 July
2011 with the support of 96 percent of ballots cast. They were
then brought into force as Indigenous Law by the KI Chief
and Council through a Band Council Resolution, along with a
spiritual ceremony and blessings of the results. The Protocol
insists activities affecting KI’s lands and resources must only
proceed with KI’s FPIC, according to KI’s own laws and decision
making processes, which are laid out in the protocols. 5
The United Nations Environment Program has a website,
which has gathered together what it calls “community protocols”—effectively
a datebase of documents generated by
communities to set out how they expect other stakeholders to
engage with them. It includes lists of different community or
organizational documents, which can serve as a resource for
others who want to develop protocols of guidelines. 6
Education and Organization
As well as getting communal agreement on local governance,
it is worth understanding the nature of extractive projects
in principle, before any exploration. This is especially the
case if it is known the area has been, or is about to be, leased
to a company. The more informed debate that can be had internally
before dealing with the company directly the better.
This is true regardless of any strategy the community comes
to. Whether the decision is to negotiate, to resist, or simply to
seek more information and advice, then preparations must be
made. Again, it is much better done before external actors can
exert pressure on the community.
In the 2009 Manila Conference, participants considered
the factors in fostering indigenous unity. It was stressed that
there are two competing worldviews. The first is an indigenous
peoples’ view of the earth as a Mother, with humans having a