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Indigenous Impact of Mining & Dams

This document provides background information on mining and dam projects in Benguet province in the Philippines and their impacts on indigenous peoples and the environment. It describes how the Ibaloy and Kankanaey peoples have traditionally lived on and managed the land in Benguet. Corporate mining started in the Spanish colonial period and expanded under American rule, with several large mining companies establishing operations. In the 1950s and 1980s, three major dams - Ambuklao, Binga, and San Roque - were constructed along the Agno River for hydropower, disrupting indigenous lands and livelihoods. Indigenous groups resisted further dam projects in the 1980s but the San Roque dam was later built in the 1990

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115 views3 pages

Indigenous Impact of Mining & Dams

This document provides background information on mining and dam projects in Benguet province in the Philippines and their impacts on indigenous peoples and the environment. It describes how the Ibaloy and Kankanaey peoples have traditionally lived on and managed the land in Benguet. Corporate mining started in the Spanish colonial period and expanded under American rule, with several large mining companies establishing operations. In the 1950s and 1980s, three major dams - Ambuklao, Binga, and San Roque - were constructed along the Agno River for hydropower, disrupting indigenous lands and livelihoods. Indigenous groups resisted further dam projects in the 1980s but the San Roque dam was later built in the 1990

Uploaded by

karen chan
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© © All Rights Reserved
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PFII/2007/WS.

3/7
Original: English

UNITED NATIONS NATIONS UNIES

DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS


Division for Social Policy and Development

Co-organizers
Secretariat of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
Government of Khabarovsk Krai and the Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of
the North (RAIPON)

INTERNATIONAL EXPERT GROUP MEETING ON INDIGENOUS


PEOPLES
AND PROTECTION OF THE ENVIRONMENT

KHABAROVSK, RUSSIAN FEDERATION

AUGUST 27.-29, 2007

Case Study on the Impacts of Mining and Dams on the


Environment and Indigenous Peoples in Benguet, Cordillera,
Philippines

Paper by

CORDILLERA PEOPLES ALLIANCE


I. Background

Land and People of Benguet

The Cordillera region in Northern Luzon, Philippines, is homeland to more than 1 million
indigenous peoples belonging to at least 8 distinct ethnic groups collectively known as
Igorots. Two of these ethnic groups, the Ibaloy and the Kankanaey, are found in the
province of Benguet, which occupies 265,538 hectares of the Cordillera region’s total
land area of 1.8 million hectares. The Ibaloy people live in the southeastern portion,
occupying 8 of the province’s 13 towns. The Kankanaey, meanwhile dominate the
northeast areas of Benguet.

Benguet’s fertile land along the rivers and gold ore in the mountains saw the emergence
of distinct villages engaged in various economic activities. Gold mining communities
rose in the gold-rich areas in Itogon, while gold-trading villages were established along
strategic mountain passes and trails. Rice-growing villages emerged in the river valleys.
Swidden farming combined with gold panning in the streams and rivers.

Land ownership among the Ibaloy and Kankanaey is traditionally recognized by prior
occupation, investment of labor and permanent improvements on the land, specifically
irrigation systems and retaining stonewalls of the ricefields. The community shares
access rights to the forests, rivers, and creeks, and the fruits of these lands and waters are
open to those who gathered them.1

Entry of mining, construction of dams


Mining has a long history in the Philippines. Small scale mining has been practiced by
Philippine peoples for at least ten centuries, and large scale mining by foreign as well as
Filipino firms for about a century. Little is known, though, about mining prior to the
coming of the Spanish colonialists in the 16th century.2

1
Jacqueline K. Carino. Case Study. WCD. 2000
2
APIT Tako. Mining in Philippine History
Corporate mining in Benguet started during the Spanish colonial period when Spanish
businessmen secured a mining concession from the Igorots in Mancayan and launched
the operations of the Sociedad Minero-Metalurgica Cantabro-Filipina de Mancayan in
1856. This mine eventually closed down. When the Americans arrived in the 1900s, they
entered into contracts with local families to file legal claims to mineral-bearing land.
These claims were later used by American prospectors to create the mining companies
that would dominate the mining industry in Benguet. These were Benguet Corporation,
Atok Big Wedge, Itogon-Suyoc Mines and Lepanto Consolidated.3

In the 1950s, the Agno River in Benguet was tapped as a source of hydropower. The first
dam to be built along the Agno River was the Ambuklao Dam, followed by the Binga
Dam. Twelve (12) other run-of-river mini-hydros, all privately operated, were also built
in other parts of Benguet.

In the 1980s, widespread people’s resistance forced the Marcos government and the
World Bank to give up its plans for major dam projects in the region. However, the
Ramos government took advantage of the energy crisis in the 1990s and initiated with
Japanese funding, the construction of the San Roque Multipurpose Project. The San
Roque dam is the third dam to be built along the Agno River, located in the boundary
between Benguet and Pangasinan province of Central Luzon.4

3
APIT Tako. Mining in Philippine History
4
Cordillera Peoples Alliance. December 2002. Cordillera Hydropower Projects and the Indigenous Peoples

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