Pitfalls and Pipelines - Philippine Indigenous Peoples Links

Chapter 1.1: Overview of Impacts of Extractive Industries on Indigenous Peoples
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1.1.3 Social and Cultural Impacts of
Extractive Industries on Indigenous Peoples
The prime social and cultural issues tend to fall into the
following interlinked, areas: economic, women and mining,
internal conflict, cultural and spiritual impacts, and human
rights violations.
Economy: As noted in the introduction, for indigenous
peoples their lands and territories are their life. Those ancestral
domains are valued not only for the life upon them and
the subsistence they provide, but also for the spiritual, cultural
and environmental values which define those peoples. Largescale
extraction can jeopardize the very survival of indigenous
peoples as distinct cultures that are inextricably connected to
the territories they have traditionally inhabited.
Mining activities have devastating impacts on pre-existing
indigenous economies. Large-scale mines deprive flora and
fauna of food and natural habitat. In hunting communities,
there are reports confirming game fleeing from the noise,
lights and disruption generated by mining. Livestock animals
are recorded to have suffered from poisoning by polluted
water and air. Agricultural activities are frequently destroyed
during mining. Some mining companies now increasingly
engage in “development projects” which attempt to increase
in agricultural output. These, however, frequently remain
premised on the belief that indigenous practices are backward
and need improvement. Such an approach enables the
company to claim increased credit for introducing change, yet
such changes may actually erode longer-term and more sustainable
indigenous food security and traditional agricultural
practices. 38
As later examples will show, forced emigration of indigenous
peoples from their traditional lands can take place either
because of direct removal or from loss of livelihood caused
by resource extraction projects. This obviously negatively
impacts on indigenous cultures and social structures, even
with adequate compensation—which is not necessarily reported
as the case. The UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights