Pitfalls and Pipelines - Philippine Indigenous Peoples Links

Part 3: Concluding Observations
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viable and profitable by externalizing many costs onto nearby
communities and the environment. Therefore for these activities
to continue in anyway that could be considered beneficial,
there must be a seismic shift towards recycling and reusing
extracted minerals, rather than allow an increasing expansion
into new and wider green field areas.
In practice, however, this seems unlikely. And with a growing
population, and a growing global middle class, the longterm
pressure on the resource-rich lands where indigenous
peoples live will be great. The 2009 Manila Conference took
place early on in the global financial crisis, and although a lack
of credit slowed down the need for minerals slightly, there has
still been something of a boom in commodities. Roger Moody,
in his essay in this book, casts doubt on whether the engines
that have been driving this, namely China, and to a lesser
extent India, will keep up their frantic industrialization over
the next decade or so.
In the longer term, however, it is clear that population
and wealth increase are likely, and will no doubt, lead to further
displacement and conflict for indigenous peoples. The
words of Naomi Klein, a known social activist and critic of corporate
globalization, in this instance seem prescient, when in
2008 (around the start of the crisis) she said: “Nobody should
believe the overblown claims that the free market ideology is
now dead. Rest assured the ideology will come roaring back
when the bailouts are done. The massive debt the public is accumulating
to bail out the speculators will then become part of
a global budget crisis that will be the rationalization for deep
cuts to social programs and for a renewed push to privatize
what is left of the public sector. We will also be told that our
hopes for a green future are too costly.” 4
There is however definitely cause for hope, and mostly
this is in the continued struggle of indigenous peoples, and
the framework of international human rights norms that are
developing as a result of it. In the 2009 Manila Conference,
Roger Moody in his presentation highlighted the role that
indigenous peoples had played in leading to the abandonment
of certain mining projects. He emphasized the potential
significance of the concept of FPIC becoming increasingly