Pitfalls and Pipelines - Philippine Indigenous Peoples Links

110 Pitfalls and Pipelines: Indigenous Peoples and Extractive Industries
or how it is being implemented, take legal action to have the
project stopped. Remember, up to the present most mining
companies have been able to say whatever was needed in such
applications with little fear of being contradicted by anyone.
If a community can show the company has made false or misleading
statements, it should help to slow or block progress.
Another option is to purchase or assert ownership over
land that is critical to the mining project. If there is the chance
for the group to legally own even a small part of land in the
area where the project is to take place (assuming it doesn’t own
it already), then this communal ownership will strengthen the
hand of the community by forcing the company to deal with
it directly. In the case of the opposition to mining in Intag in
Ecuador (originally involving Ascendant Copper Corporation
but changing hands a number of times later), the community
organization DECOIN bought land for communities in the
mining area. This land was eventually used by the community
most at risk from the project as part of their community ecological
tourism project rather than mining. 14
As noted, utilizing the media to promote your arguments
is important. It is useful to ensure that, once activities of any
sort start on community land, there is constant monitoring,
especially via photographs or video footage. If there are concerns
of human rights abuses, it is useful to train organization
members in how to record violations, which can often be done
with the support of national organizations. It is also useful
to create media events, via protests and demonstrations,
including “street theatre.” A recent example is where more
than 1,000 indigenous protesters marched 700 kilometers to
Ecuador’s capital Quito in March 2012 to protest plans for
large-scale mining projects on Shuar lands in the Amazon. 15
These can be local, regional or national demonstrations; all
may be useful at different stages of the campaign. Marches
and rallies have often been used, escalating all the way up to
hunger strikes. Hunger strikes proved very effective in getting
the Environment Clearance Certificate of a Norwegian
mining company in the Philippines suspended in 2009. The
hunger strikers positioned themselves outside the main office
of the Department of Environmental Natural Resources in the