Pitfalls and Pipelines - Philippine Indigenous Peoples Links

108 Pitfalls and Pipelines: Indigenous Peoples and Extractive Industries
pany should also conduct its own baseline studies, but it is best
if the community has its own—where possible verified—data
to challenge the company both in its Environmental Impact
Assessment (EIA), but also if there are later incidents of pollution
or habitat destruction.
Community Actions
Once educated and empowered, there is an array of possible
strategies with regard to a proposed extractive project.
Both negotiations and legal actions are covered later (see
Chapters 2.4 and 2.7), as are some actions around networking
in the next part of this chapter (please see Section 2.1.2).
So assuming the community plans to resist the mine, the
first strategy to explore is the idea of a local referendum or
vote on natural resource development. There may be a legal
provision for this already, but even if this is not accepted by
the national government as legally binding, it can carry moral
weight and be a good indication of the strength of feeling on
a project. It is also an empowering activity, and can stimulate
education campaigns and debate on the issue, apart from
being a popular way to democratize the decision making process
around natural resources.
The idea of referenda became popular in 2002, after over
90 percent of a non-indigenous community in Tambogrande
in Peru voted to reject a mining proposal. Since then, the
practice of local voting on mining projects has spread to other
parts of Peru, and other Latin American countries including
Guatemala, Costa Rica, Argentina, Mexico, and Chile. In virtually
every case, voters overwhelmingly rejected extractive
projects. Referenda are particularly useful where a country
has ratified ILO Convention 169, but has not put in place
the procedural rules to decide on broad community consent
(which may explain its relative popularity in Latin America,
the continent with the most countries who have ratified ILO
Convention 169). 11
They have also proved effective in projects with funding
from the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation