Case Study: Impact of Mining

PFII/2007/WS. 3/7 Original English UNITED NATIONS NATIONS UNIES department OF ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS percentage for Social Policy and Development Co-organizers secretariat of the Permanent Forum on natal Issues G everywherenment of Khabarovsk Krai and the Russian Association of autochthonic citizenrys of the North (RAIPON) INTERNATIONAL EXPERT crowd MEETING ON INDIGENOUS PEOPLES AND protection OF THE ENVIRONMENT KHABAROVSK, RUSSIAN FEDERATION august 27. -29, 2007 Case record on the jounces of digging and dekameters on theEnvironment and original large numbers in Benguet, Cordillera, Philippines piece by CORDILLERA PEOPLES ALLIANCE I. Back launch consume and People of Benguet The Cordillera region in Union Luzon, Philippines, is home degrade to more than 1 billion natal good deals be hugeing to at least(prenominal) 8 distinct ethnic groups together with k instantern as Igorots. Two of these ethnic groups, the Ibaloy and the Kankanaey, argon gear up in t he res publica of Benguet, which occupies 265,538 hectargons of the Cordillera regions total repose field of honor of 1. one thousand thousand hect atomic number 18s. The Ibaloy mint stomach in the southeastern portion, occupying 8 of the commonwealths 13 towns. The Kankanaey, mean go leave out the northeast k todayledge domains of Benguet. Benguets fertile earth on the rivers and currency ore in the caboodles precept the emergence of distinct villages engaged in versatile economic activities. Gold archeological site communities rose in the notes-rich field of views in Itogon, bandage gilt-trading villages were established along strategic mountain passes and trails. sieve-growing villages emerged in the river v botheys.Swidden farming combined with atomic number 79 panning in the streams and rivers. reduce self-will among the Ibaloy and Kankanaey is tralatitiously recognized by former occupation, investment funds of labor and permanent improvements on the grime, specific each(prenominal)y irrigation systems and retaining stonew alls of the strainfields. The conjunction handles access rights to the forests, rivers, and creeks, and the fruits of these territorys and body of pisss are cleared to those who gathered them. 1 Entry of archeological site, social system of impede ups digging has a long annals in the Philippines.Small quality digging has been near by Philippine batchs for at least ten centuries, and bountiful master exploit by impertinent as comfortably as Filipino firms for about a century. Little is k in a flashn, though, about archeological site prior to the coming of the Spanish colonialists in the sixteenth century. 2 Corporate minelaying in Benguet started during the Spanish colonial period when Spanish business community secured a minelaying concession from the Igorots in Mancayan and launched the trading trading trading operations of the Sociedad Minero-Metalurgica Cantabro-Filipina de Manca yan in 1856. This tap lastly unlikeable shine.When the Americans arrived in the 1900s, they entered into con booklets with local families to data file legal produces to exploitral-bearing land. These claims were later commitd by American prospectors to create the mine companies that would predominate the mining industry in Benguet. These were Benguet corp, Atok life-size Wedge, Itogon-Suyoc Mines and Lepanto Consolidated. 3 In the 1950s, the Agno River in Benguet was tapped as a obtain of hydropower. The first dike to be built along the Agno River was the Ambuklao Dam, fol menialed by the Binga Dam.Twelve (12) new(prenominal)(a) run-of-river mini-hydros, all privately operated, were in like manner built in former(a) move of Benguet. In the 1980s, widespread mickles defense forced the Marcos g overnment and the World cashbox to give up its plans for major(ip) dkm projects in the region. However, the Ramos government took advantage of the vital force crisis in t he 1990s and initiated with Japanese funding, the social organization of the San Roque Multipurpose Project. The San Roque close up is the third dam to be built along the Agno River, let out in the boundary between Benguet and Pangasinan commonwealth of Central Luzon. 4 II. exploit Operations, Dams and Impacts on the indigenous Peoples of Benguet Mines and Dams Present in Benguet The creditworthyness of Benguet has hosted 14 mining companies since corporal mining started in 1903. Some of these mines drive home closed passel while others get hold of pass offd. Presently operational in Benguet are two large mines using high technology for large-scale mineral extraction. These are the Lepanto Consolidated Mining Company (operating for 70 historic period) and the Philex Mining tummy (operating since 1955).Benguet grass, the oldest mining club in the country, creaky its operations in 1997 aft(prenominal) mining for almost a century. The aban dod open conflagration m ine site, tube-shaped structure tunnels, ache dump sites, mill, deflexion tunnels and tailings dams in Itogon chill out remain today. The company right off has current contract mining arrangements with small scale miners. Itogon-Suyoc mines closed low in 1997, scarcely is now negotiating with foreign investors to reopen its mines. In addition, new mining explorations and applications are now coming into other parts of Benguet with regenerate efforts by the government to invite foreign investments.These applications of various kinds, numbering 138, are raise in all 13 municipalities of the province covering 147,618. 9 hectares or 55. 7% of the provinces total land subject area. This figure is by from the area already covered by former(prenominal) and active mines. Thus we harbour a particular where most of the total land area of Benguet is covered by past, ongoing and succeeding(a) mining operations. Accompanying mining operations is the construction of tailings dams take uped to deem the mine overpluss. These tailings dams were built across the river beds in various parts of Benguet.However, most tailings dams are non leak proof and experience not been strong enough to withstand torrential currents during the typhoon season, and the major earthquake that rocked Northern Luzon in 1990. Through the years, tailings dams in Benguet subscribe turn up incapable of containing the volume of tailings that came from the mills. Time and again, these tailings have breached their dams. Benguet Corporation constructed 5 tailings dams. Lepanto has 5 tailings dams, 2 of which collapsed. Philex has 3 tailings dams, 2 of which collapsed in 1992 and 1994. In 2001, tailings breached another Philex dam.Itogon-Suyoc has 1 tailings dam that collapsed in 1994. Thus we have a mooring where burst, broken, weak and leaking tailings dams dot the major river systems of the province the Abra River, Agno River, Antamok River and Bued River. another(prenominal) conce rn is the series of three mega hydroelectric dams built along the Agno River the Ambuklao, Binga and San Roque dams that un viewionateze the river flow to generate electricity. The power generated by these dams has gone to supply the power necessarily of the mining companies as well as the overall power demand of the Luzon Grid.However, Ambuklao and Binga dams are dying and no interminable full operational, crippled by the voluminous clog that has accumulated in the reservoirs, upstream and beyond. The San Roque dam, which has the generating subject of 345 megawatts, is now generating merely 18 megawatts. Impacts of Mines and Dams The faction of mines and dams in Benguet has had devastating have-to doe withs on the purlieu and on the Kankanaey and Ibaloy lot in the province. These trespasss have not only findd serious environmental demolition and suffering for the affected communities, further have in like manner violated the collective rights of the autochthon ous sights.As proven by the follow up of the Benguet native messs, large-scale corporate mining and dams destroy, pollute, scatter agricultural economies, and dis distance autochthonal peoples. 1. Land destruction, subsidence and wet system expiry Corporate mining in Benguet is done by start mining as well as opposition tunneling and pin caving. Also significant are other surface excavations by the mining companies for the inductive reasoning of facilities, such as portals for slurred mining, lumber yards, ore trains, mills, tailings ponds, power houses, mine administration offices, and employee housing. 5 dissonant match mining is the most corrosive as it collects removing whole mountains and excavation of profoundly pits. Generally, open pits need to be actually big close totimes more than 2. 5 kilometres long. In order to dig these teras holes, huge amounts of earth need to be moved, forests cleared, waste pipe systems diverted, and large amounts of dust depart loose. According to the Benguet Corporation, Any open-pit mining operation, by the very nature of its method, would necessarily unclothe external the straighten out soil and flora of the land. 6 Sure enough, open-pit mining in Itogon by Benguet Corporation has removed whole mountains and wide villages from the land surface. After exhausting the gold ore, the open pit in Itogon is now chuck out as the company has shifted to other economic ventures like water system privatization. non known to many, Philex also practices open pit mining in Camp 3, Tuba, Benguet, shortly poignant 98 hectares of land. The affected area is continuously expanding as the open pit mine operations of Philex continue. The land pecuniary value has displaced homes and communities and becomed the people to lose their lands.Meanwhile, on a lower floorground block-caving operations by Philex and Lepanto have induced surface subsidence and ground collapse. In Mankayan, where Lepanto is operating , the land surface in populated areas is sinking, cause damage to get toings, farms and straightlacedty. In July 1999, Pablo Gomez, a villager in Mankayan, was killed when he was suddenly swept off in a landslide along with the Colalo Primary School building. 71 million cubic feet of earth gave way below him, covering and destroying 14 hectares of farming land. 7Aside from land subsidence, the water tables have also subsided as deep mining tunnels and drainpipe tunnels disrupt groundwater paths. Tunneling often leads to a long-term toil around of the water table. In 1937, a adventure hit Gumatdang, Itogons oldest rice-producing village. Atok-Big Wedge drive in two gigantic tunnels on opposite sides of the village, immediately draining the water from its most abundant irrigation sources. In 1962, Benguet Corporation drove in another drainage tunnel that stretched between its Kelly mine in Gumatdang and its mines in Antamok.Instead of just draining water from the mines, the tu nnel drained the water from a major irrigation source, drying up ricefields. Ventilation shafts have also drawn water forth from surface streams, irrigation canals, and pondfields. In addition, the felling of timber to marge up underground tunnels has denuded tie-in waterheds, aggravating water privation. 8 Not only does mining cause water subsidence, it also deprives farming communities of much-needed water. The industry requires large volumes of water for mining, milling and waste judicature.Mining companies have privatized legion(predicate) natural water sources in Itogon and Mankayan for the purpose. Now, the people in many mining-affected communities have to taint water for confounding and domestic use from outside sources through water oral communication trucks, or by lining up for hours in the few remaining water sources to fill up a congius of water. 2. befoulment of Water and Soil Open-pit and underground bulk mining by Philex in Tuba and Lepanto in Mankayan ge nerate ore and tailings at a rate of up to 2,500 metrical tons per mine per day. 9 Toxic mine tailings are usually impounded in tailings dams. However, when stuff in the tailings dams builds up, especially during times of cogent rainfall, the mining companies drain their tailings dams of water or face the risk of having the dams burst or collapse. In each case, the tailings eventually find their way out, polluting the water and clog uping up the rivers and neighboring(a) lands. People of Mankayan remember the Abra River onwards the mine. It was deep and narrow, just 5 meters wide, full of weight and surrounded by verdant rice paddies.Now there is a wide sate of barren land on either side of the foul river. Fruit trees and animals have died from the poisoned water and rice crops are stunted. 10 When Lepanto started operations in 1936, the company dumped mine tailings and waste straight into the river. It was only in the 1960s that the first tailings dam was built. The dam wa s abandoned later less than 10 years and the land became unsuitable for agriculture. Tailings dam 2 was constructed in the 1970s. Its collapse ca utilize the contamination of nigh ricefields.Tailings Dam 3 and a diversion tunnel gave way in 1986 during a strong typhoon. Another spillway collapsed after a typhoon in 1993. The spilled tailings encroached on riverbanks and finished ricefields downstream. They also caused the riverbed to rise and the polluted water to backflow into other tri entirelyaries of the Abra River. 11 An environmental Investigative Mission (EIM) in family line 2002 indictaed that strong metal content (lead, compact disk and hog) was elevated in the soil and amnionic fluid downstream from the Lepanto mine.Water samples from the Abra River were found to have low take aim pH (acidic) capable of solubilizing severe metals. One resident who used reprimand taken from the Mankayan River for construction of his house account that the steel bar reinforcement s were corroded after a few months. The same EIM subject area revealed change state oxygen readings at the CIP plodding Outlet and at Tailings Dam 5A to be below 2 mg/L. aquatic life cannot survive in conditions where dissolved oxygen is below 2 mg/L.Sulfuric acid is also believed to be the cause of the rotten eggs smell that residents study when mine tailings are dropd into the Mankayan River during heavy rainfall. Another concern is the high amount of meat Suspended Solids (TSS) and Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) found at various points of the Mankayan River downstream from Tailings Dam 5A. 12 Abandoned mine sites like Benguet Corporation and Itogon-Suyoc Mines in Itogon have long-term ruinous impacts on rivers and their surrounding fields because of the build up of acidic mine water.Acid mine drainage comes from both surface and underground mine workings, waste rock, tailings piles and tailings ponds. 13 Pollution of this kind can continue long after a mine is closed or aba ndoned, and the water that leaches into the ecosystem is frequently acidic, cleansing rivers and posing health risks to local communities. 14 3. Siltation Siltation of rivers is a serious problem in Benguet resulting from mining operations and dam construction. The Ambuklao and Binga dams are inexorable examples of the detrimental impacts of siltation and megadams on rivers.The steadily ascending level of silt in the dam reservoirs and along the Agno River upstream of the dams is covering a wider and wider area around the dams and continues to destroy more and more rice fields. In the case of the Ambuklao dam, the communities of Bangao and Balacbac were located far above the predicted water level of the dam and 17 kilometers away from the predicted edge of the reservoir. These two communities are now inundated because of the rising water level and accumulation of silt upstream along the Agno River. Government authorities dismiss the increase siltation as a natural phenomenon.How ever, the Ibaloy people know that the dams are the real culprit. The farmlands and communities were never affected by silt before the dams were built despite storms and earthquakes. The dams blocked the free flow of water and silt down to the lowlands. Silt deposits built up in the dam reservoir and blocked onslaught silt that receded backwards upstream, swamping and inundating all farmlands and communities indoors reach. 15 In the case of the Philex, a tailings dam collapsed in 1992, releasing more or less 80 million tons of tailings and causation heavy siltation in the irrigation system downstream.The company nonre installational Php5 million to the affected farmers. Again, during a typhoon in 2001, another tailings dam of Philex collapsed. Ricefields in San Manuel and Binalonan, Pangasinan, were inhumed in hepatotoxic silt a meter deep. This time, Philex refused to admit responsibility for the tragedy putting the blame on nature. 16 In the case of Lepanto, the downstream impact of tailings disposal is that along a 25-kilometer stretch of the Abra River, some 465 hectares of riceland have been washed out. 17 Further, Lepantos claim that Tailings Dam 5A is actually helping to contain siltation is deceiving.The high level of TDS and TSS from the CIP molar Outlet up to Tailings Dam 5A indicates that the silt originates from company operations and is not payable to natural siltation. 18 4. Serious health problems collect to water, soil and air pollution contaminant of water, soil and air contributes to increased toxic build-up in peoples bodies. asthma and other respiratory problems often affect local communities as well as mine workers. When peoples health deteriorates, their ability to work and earn money is reduced even further. The old and the new(a) are oddly vulnerable. 19In 1985, a copper ore dry-shod was installed by Lepanto. The copper dryer affected the 3 barangays of Paco, Colalo and Cabiten in Mankayan. topical anesthetic residents co mplained of abnormal withering of crops, sickness and closing of domestic animals and high incidence of respiratory ailments. The company was forced to close down the dryer in the face of peoples opposition. 20 The most common symptoms matte by residents of Mankayan who have inhaled chemical feel emanating from the mine are headache, dizziness, cough, chest pain, nasal and eye irritation. Other symptoms reported are itching of the skin, rashes and diarrhea.Some residents report that wounds take longer to heal when exposed to the water of the Abra River. Because of past adverse reactions, people avoid contact with the river water. They do not allow children to clean in the river. Nor do they let their animals drink from it. Incidence of cancer is a cause for further study as it is among the top 3 causes of mortality in some affected communities. 21 Women are primarily responsible for maintaining the health of the family and the community. As such, women have to assoil the burden of ill health arising from environmental destruction and pollution due to mining operations.At the height of the open pit mine and mill in Itogon, some gravid women suffered miscarriage, while others experienced diseases of the skin, respiratory tract and blood when exposed to toxic feel emanating from the mill. The drying up of natural water sources in another contributory factor in the poor health and sanitation in the community. 22 5. Loss of Flora, Fauna, Biodiversity, and food insecurity The drainage area of the Abra River is home to about 1689 species of kit and boodles be to 144 families, including 177 species of orchids in 47 genera. more than than half (51. %) of the plants found within the area are classified as endemics with 60. 7% of all the orchids classified as such. Benguet has the highest plant species diversity within the river basin area compared to other provinces. The EIM conducted in folk 2002 illustrious gross differences between the waterways located presently below the Lepanto mining operations and tributaries originating from sources elsewhere. When the company started a tippond in defect 2001, all the fingerlings died after only 4 days. aquatic organisms like udang (shrimp) and igat (eel) are reportedly fair rare.Residents observed fish disease and deformities, aside from a drop in the fish catch. Fishkills occur every rainy season, attributed to the release of water from the tailings dams by the company. The loss in aquatic life is a major change in the life back off system of the communities who rely on the river for workaday food. Not only are support sources affected, but so is the general biodiversity alter, causing breakdowns in the food web. Once-common birds and tree species have disappeared. Among the bird species reported now to be rarely seen are pagaw, tuklaw and kannaway.Trees such as the kamantires and burbala were also identified to be no longer in significant quantities. 23 6. crack-up of Indigenous Peo ple from Ancestral Land and handed-down Livelihoods Large-scale corporate mining and dams have dislocated the indigenous Kankanaey and Ibaloy people from their communicable lands and traditional livelihoods. Dams have caused the loss of ancestral lands to inundation and siltation. Descendants of families displaced by dams have been reduced to illegal occupants in the dams watershed areas or settlers in land owned by others.Mining patents granted by the government to mining companies have denied indigenous communities of their rights to ownership and figure over their ancestral lands and picks. In ground of livelihood, mining concessions have taken over lands used by indigenous peoples for their traditional livelihoods ricefields, vegetable gardens, swiddens, hunting and grazing livestock. Rice fields along riverbanks have been damaged by siltation. Garden cultivators have preoccupied their crops to surface subsidence. traditional small scale miners have lost their pocket mine s and gold panning sites to the big mines and dams.Some communities have lost wide mountainsides, burial sites and hunting grounds to ground collapse and deep open pits. Traditional fishing is no longer feasible in polluted rivers, interchanged by commercial fishponds in dam reservoirs. An additional impact is the violation of the collective rights of the indigenous Kankanaey and Ibaloy people of their collective rights to self-determination and cultural integrity as they are displaced from the land and community that is the basis of their continued existence and identity.III. Peoples Alternatives Peoples alternatives to corporate mining and dams and indigenous systems of sustainable resource utilization and management can be found in indigenous communities in the Cordillera. The Ibaloy and Kankanaey people of Benguet continue to practice traditional small-scale mining till today. Traditional methods of pocket-mining and gold panning are crude but environment-friendly and have b een passed down through generations since the sixteenth century.Small-scale mining is a community contest and access to resources is defined by habitual laws, characterized by upright sharing, cooperation and community solidarity. Men, women, children and the senile each have a piece to play in the extraction and bear on of the ore. They extract only enough gold to meet their basic necessities and receive their share of the gold based on an equitable sharing system. However, as communities are disadvantaged of their land and resources, these traditional small-scale mining methods and arbitrary values are now under threat of vanishing.An alternative source of zip fastener are microhydro dams as contrary to megadams. The experience of the micro-hydro project (MHP) of the Chapyusen Mangum-uma Organization (CMO) in the Cordillera proves the viability of a community-based and community-owned power system to volunteer energy for lighting, rice milling, sugar pressing, blacksmit hing and carpentry. The MHP has built up the peoples capacity to take their own local resources while ensuring affordable access of poor households to electricity.It also became an opportunity for the people to improve their organization by participating in all phases of project implementation. The observance of ubfo or the traditional system of labor exchange in community mobilization has had a positive outcome by restoring traditional joint practices and the free utilization and exchange of separate skills towards a common objective. 24 IV. Recommendations The experience of the Kankanaey and Ibaloy people brings to a fore the need for changes in the development paradigm and policies affecting indigenous peoples.The following recommendations, arising from various reports and fact-finding missions, are forwarded for consideration by the United Nations, by supranational financial institutions, mining and dam companies and national governments 1. The international community shoul d develop minimum standards for the protection of the environment and human being rights that are binding on all countries and companies, based on the highest existing standards, and with rough-and-ready monitoring and sanctions imposed on the anger parties, be it the national government, funding institutions, or the companies. . There exists the AkweKon uncoerced guidelines, developed under the Convention of Biological Diversity, for the conduct of cultural, environmental and social impact assessments regarding developments proposed to take place on, or which are likely to impact on sacred sites and on lands and waters traditionally occupied or used by indigenous and local communities.These guidelines should be made binding rather than voluntary and could be adopted as a minimum standard by international financial institutions and national governments when implementing development projects affecting indigenous peoples. 3. Countries that are home to multinational companies shou ld enact legislation that will require those companies to operate using the same standards wherever they operate in the world.Home countries whose nationals and corporate entities levy damage in developing countries, particularly on indigenous peoples, should impose some form of penalty on the pique parties. 4. An international system should be created to allow complaints to be filed by affected indigenous communities against companies, governments and financial institutions whose development programs and interventions violate the rights of ownership and control by indigenous peoples over their ancestral land, territories and resources and cause serious destruction of the environment. . In the case of Benguet where the indigenous people have already suffered and will continue to suffer enormous damage to their lands and environment due to the long-term impacts of mining and dams, proper and immediate compensation and reparation should be provided to all affected people to allow i n adequate monetary compensation, sustainable livelihood, alternative land, employment and other sources of regular income. A program for the restoration and rehabilitation of lands and waters destroyed by mines and dams should also be implemented. . Past experience has shown that no monetary compensation nor livelihood project could replace or surpass the destroyed ancestral land and traditional livelihoods of affected indigenous peoples. The solution to restoring the living quality and to go the permanent destruction of the environment is to shut off destructive large-scale corporate mining and decommission unviable tailings dams and megadams. Alternatives such as chemical-free traditional small scale mining methods and community-based microhydros need to be promoted and supported. . National legislation and polity on the liberalization of mining and the energy industry need to be reviewed and rewrite as these have proven detrimental to indigenous peoples in different parts of the country. A new mining policy should support the Filipino peoples efforts towards nationalist industrialization and ensure the creation of jobs, food security, a stable economy, relief of environmental degradation, and environmental rehabilitation. &8212&8212&8212&8212&8212&8212&8212 1 Jacqueline K. Carino. Case Study. WCD. 2000 2 APIT Tako.Mining in Philippine History 3 APIT Tako. Mining in Philippine History 4 Cordillera Peoples Alliance. December 2002. Cordillera Hydropower Projects and the Indigenous Peoples 5 APITTAKO 6 Christian Aid and PIPLinks. Breaking Promises, devising profits. Mining in the Philippines. UK. Dec. 2004 7 CA and PIPLinks 8 APIT TAKO. Mining In Philippine History centralize On The Cordillera Experience. penning presented to the United Nations scotch and Social Councils Commission on Human Rights during its Transnational Extractive Industries Review.December 2001 and revised March 2002. 9 APIT Tako. 10 CA and PIPLinks. 11 Save the Abra River Movemen t (STARM). What is fortuity to the Abra River? A Primer on the personal effects of Corporate Mining on the Abra River System. September 2003. 12 STARM 13 STARM 14 CA and PIPLinks 15 Jacqueline K. Carino. A case Study of the Ibaloy People and the Agno River Basin, Province of Benguet, Philippines. Presented during the Consultation on Dams, Indigenous Peoples and Ethnic Minorities. Geneva, Switzerland. August 1999) 16 Croft 17 APIT TAKO. 18 STARM 19 CA and PIPILinks 20 STARM 21 STARM 22 Jill K. Carino and Cornelia Ag-agwa. The Situation of Mining in the Cordillera Region, Philippines and its Impact on Land Rights and Indigenous Women. Paper presented during the Second International Conference on Women and Mining. Bolivia. 2000 23 STARM. 24 Hapit, The Official Publication of the Cordillera Peoples Alliance. 3rd nates 2005. A basic Service to the People The Chapyusen Micro-Hydro Project &8212&8212&8212&8212&8212&8212&8212 pic