Pitfalls and Pipelines - Philippine Indigenous Peoples Links

322 Pitfalls and Pipelines: Indigenous Peoples and Extractive Industries
In the 2009 Manila Conference, Loreen Jubitana of the
Association of Indigenous Village Leaders in Suriname presented
a case study of the problems that can come from a situation
with little regulation to support community rights. 21 She
pointed out that, at the time, Suriname was the only country
in the western hemisphere without constitutional recognition
of indigenous peoples rights, despite ratifying international
agreements such as the Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Racial Discrimination and the UNDRIP. There was
also essentially no existing environmental legal framework.
Meanwhile, the current draft Mining Act failed to provide for
consultations with indigenous peoples and ignored the recommendations
made by the UN Committee on the Elimination
of Racial Discrimination to the government.
In this context, BHP Billiton and Alcoa signed a joint
venture for exploration in a 2,800 sq km lease area, called the
Bakhuys Project. No environmental, social impact assessment
(ESIA) was conducted for advanced exploration (which ended
in October 2005), and there was no consultation or participation
of the communities in relation to the initial memorandum
of understanding created by the company and government. In
addition, there was no cumulative assessment of the impacts of
the mining phase, and communities were not informed prior
to the commencement of these ESIAs. Initial communication
with chiefs was inadequate, with insufficient advance notice,
a lack of information, and inappropriate material. The time
provided was too short for information to be processed by
the communities. Initial requests by chiefs for information
sessions were denied and downstream communities were excluded
from processes until mid 2006.
The government informed the communities that they
had to discuss their issues with them rather than the companies,
while the companies told them that they did not have to
adhere to standards, such as FPIC, which were not recognized
by the government. Ms Jubitana concluded that it was essential
to put the government under more pressure to recognize
indigenous peoples’ land rights, which are the crux of the
issue. While companies had brought the chiefs to mine sites
in Colombia and Brazil, they had not shown them the real