Pitfalls and Pipelines - Philippine Indigenous Peoples Links

Introduction
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Introduction
The genesis of this book is in the “International Conference
on Extractive Industries and Indigenous Peoples,” which took
place in Manila, Philippines on March 23-25, 2009—referred
to from now on as the 2009 Manila Conference. It draws on
the core inputs to that meeting, and its key appendix is the
Manila Declaration, which was agreed there.
The context for that meeting follows in the second part of
this introduction. It provides an explanation of the history of
indigenous activities around the issue of extractive industries,
and sets out what the meeting itself was trying to achieve.
Although the book draws on sources from that conference,
it seeks to do more than just report it. The aim of the book
is to build on the conference input to inform—and by doing
that, empower—indigenous activists, indigenous community
leaders and their supporters on the issues around the extractive
industries. The book aims to educate this prime readership
of the background to, and latest developments in, how
indigenous communities relate to the extractive industries. It
covers a comprehensive range of subjects. At times some of the
input—especially from experts commentators—is reasonably
technical, but the hope is that it will be of use to interested
indigenous parties.
The book follows the general format of the 2009 Manila
Conference agenda. As such it is split into two parts, with concluding
observations. Part 1 provides a summary of the questions
raised by indigenous peoples facing extractive projects.
Part 2 seeks to explore how indigenous peoples are respond-