Pitfalls and Pipelines - Philippine Indigenous Peoples Links

140 Pitfalls and Pipelines: Indigenous Peoples and Extractive Industries
and societies on how to best harness the opportunities created
by extractive resources for development. It provides useful
insights and advice, but—as so often in this subject—because
of its macro-economic starting point of national benefits, it can
underrepresent the concerns of local, especially indigenous,
communities. 19
Also in response to advocacy around these concerns, the
World Bank’s conducted an independent investigation into
the issues in 2003, called the Extractive Industries Review
(EIR). It confirmed the importance of corruption, social
conflict and poor governance as the main drivers in ensuring
that exploiting minerals and hydrocarbons so seldom leads to
poverty reduction.
The EIR’s final report identified three main conditions
that must exist in a country before the Bank should consider
supporting extractive projects, in order to contribute to poverty
reduction and sustainable development. They are:
• Transparent pro-poor governance, based on the rule
of law. This includes the notion that an equitable
share of a project’s revenues should go to the local
community;
• Respect for human rights, including labor rights,
women’s rights and indigenous peoples’ rights to their
land and resources;
• Ensure correct social and environmental policies,
including banning involuntary resettlement and destructive
practices such as the disposal of tailings in
rivers, and an obligation for companies’ to gain the
FPIC of affected communities. 20
The World Bank officially rejected the report’s findings,
while asking the bank management to deal with some of the
issues arising. It has since done its best to bury the legacy of
its own initiative.
The issue raised by the EIR that the Bank felt most comfortable
dealing with, however, was around transparency.
There has been a growing consensus encouraging governments
and companies to publish financial data from the extractive
industries in order to reduce corruption. Initiatives,