Pitfalls and Pipelines - Philippine Indigenous Peoples Links

Chapter 2.3: International Advocacy with Companies and Their Investors
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Investors brought a resolution to the 2012 AGM reflecting
on the costs of closing Goldcorp’s controversial Guatemalan
Marlin mine, and calling for greater indigenous involvement
in the closure plans. In 2011, activist investors were more ambitious
in tabling a resolution calling for a halt to the Marlin
mine. Although both resolutions failed, they generated a great
deal of education, debate and publicity. 12
One advantage in the increase in public shareholding over
the past decades is that it is bringing new ethical concerns to the
investment market. Socially responsible investors, primarily in
the guise of ethical investment or pension funds, are taking a
more prominent place in the market. The proportion of such
“ethical investors” is still small, but they are a potential ally,
as are the finance vehicles for churches or cooperatives. For
concerned communities it is easier to express your concerns
to these investors, and they may be allies in voicing your concerns
via letter writing, at AGMs and in company resolutions.
Be aware, however, that despite their ethical intentions, they
are still likely to focus on the bottom line for their investors,
and it is still worth making your arguments in the language of
financial risk.
There is even a form of code of conduct for socially responsibly
investors, called the United Nations Principles for
Responsible Investment (PRI). These were developed by a
multistakeholder process including some of the world’s largest
institutional investors. The PRI are aimed at pension, insurance
and institutional investors. The PRI are based on six main
principles, which require investors to consider environment,
social and corporate governance issue in their management
of investment portfolios. In 2011, there were around 950 signatories
who pledged to respect the principles. Signing the
PRI remains a voluntary commitment to the principles and
does not put the signatories under any legal obligation. The
only obligation signatories have is to answer the annual questionnaire
concerning the measures taken to implement the six
principles. Even then the Secretariat has dismissed signatories
for failing to uphold even this one condition. 13
At the time of writing, the “ultimate” ethical investor is
the Norwegian Government Pension Fund. This is a state sov-