Pitfalls and Pipelines - Philippine Indigenous Peoples Links

340 Pitfalls and Pipelines: Indigenous Peoples and Extractive Industries
between the industry and indigenous peoples and has exacerbated
conflicts.
In addition, states and mining companies’ failure to respect
the right to FPIC have undermined trust in democracy
and the resilience of society at large, and has disproportionately
harmed indigenous women and indigenous children.
Women—in particular indigenous women—are more likely
than men to depend for their survival on access to communal
land and water. Violence against women and increasing cases
of HIV/AIDs have also been documented to increase in some
mining estates where prostitution has propagated and alcoholism
and machismo encouraged.
Social dislocation of indigenous peoples and resulting
conflicts inflict far-reaching social, political and economic costs
at national, regional and international levels. These include
migration pressure and the use of state and non-state security
forces to protect mining infrastructure, which in turn can
cause further human rights abuses, further loss of life and the
need for mediation and/or legal remedy.
Such impacts continue to be dismissed as “externalities”
in conventional cost/benefit analysis. It is gradually being realized,
however, that failure to respect the rights of indigenous
peoples causes a wider ranging harm. Governments that ignore
those rights have to deal with the costs of escalating conflict
and lost opportunities from more sustainable development.
Companies that fail to address the requirements of FPIC and
fail to achieve community consent risk short-, medium- and
long-term financial losses. These include stalled project commencement
or disrupted production due to local indigenous
community opposition; reputational damage undermining
their ability to secure or retain host government contracts
and project finance or to recruit and retain high-caliber staff;
shareholder censure, potentially leading to divestment, litigation
or falling foul of regulation by home and host states.
The seriousness of the many reported adverse impacts of
extractive industries presents the clear need for enforceable
standards and strong sanctions, backed by legal frameworks
that offer genuine routes to redress. States are often failing