Pitfalls and Pipelines - Philippine Indigenous Peoples Links

Chapter 1.1: Overview of Impacts of Extractive Industries on Indigenous Peoples
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these livelihood options and their partial replacement by paid
employment in mining most often filled by skilled male outsiders
(with some lesser opportunities for local men) results
in a double reduction in the position and status of women.
The escalating problems of food security, conflict and lack
of opportunities predispose indigenous women to lowered
self-esteem. Out-migration, in search for employment and/or
an increase in sex work, have become economic options for
women, exposing them to more vulnerable situations. Mining
camp communities studied reveal increased incidences of
gender violence, including rape and trafficking, domestic violence,
marital breakdown, infidelity, and sexually transmitted
diseases. 42 Stories from Burma reveal that the influx of transient
mine workers in the gold rush site in Kachin State, and
the lack of economic options for women has led to increasing
incidences of sex work, while at Barrick’s Porgera mine in
Papua New Guinea there have been six recorded incidences
between 2008-2010 of the use of gang rape by mine security
personnel as a tool of repression. 43
Internal conflict: There are widespread cases of extractive
industries causing a significant deterioration in communal
social cohesion and the erosion of traditional authority
structures among indigenous peoples. Community members
can take opposing positions regarding the perceived benefits
of resource extraction, resulting in conflict that, at times,
erupts into violence. Social conflict appears to be particularly
prevalent when economic benefits are transferred directly to
individuals, either in terms of compensation or jobs. It can also
exacerbate divisions across generations or, as noted, genders.
The risk of corruption and bribery of leaders, or even the setting
up of false leaders who are more amenable to accepting
projects, is prevalent as are well documented in cases in the
Philippines. 44 The World Bank’s own Extractive Industries
Review emphasized the link between mining and corruption
at both the national and local level. 45
Non-indigenous migration into indigenous territories and
its related consequences can also have a negative effect on all
indigenous social structures. This can include the direct entry
of non-indigenous workers brought in to work on specific