“Indigenous peoples are often left unaware of the potential risks and costs of allowing mining activities in their ancestral lands; they are often talked into only seeing the positive economic benefits of mining.” — Bantay Kita
22.2%
difference between contracted royalties and actual royalties
2nd
country in the world with most killings of environmental activists (The Philippines)
October 2016 End date
September 2017
Issue
Mining companies operating within the ancestral lands of indigenous peoples in the Philippines are required to pay them royalties. This requirement is laid down in community-based agreements (CBAs).
But there is no mechanism by which indigenous peoples can monitor mining companies’ compliance with the CBAs, and they have no way of knowing if they are receiving correct royalty payments.
Project
Bantay Kita aims to address the problem by improving the capacity of indigenous people to monitor mining companies’ operations. They are facilitating the development of a monitoring tool on company operations, royalty payments and agreements, and working to enhance knowledge management.
The project will be delivered through engagement with an indigenous community, a local CSO, an academic institute, and Making All Voices Count project Map the Philippines.
As well as the monitoring tool, the project is developing a set of guiding principles and advocacy materials for indigenous peoples to develop other such tools and mechanisms for transparency and accountable royalty management processes. It is also carrying out spatial monitoring of mining concessions using coordinate plotting and high-resolution mapping.
Partner
Bantay Kita is a coalition of CSOs advocating for transparency and accountability in the extractive industry, based in Quezon City. Their activities focus on networking with different actors and using research as a basis for monitoring, policy advocacy and capacity building. Bantay Kita has also developed a monitoring tool for all stages of the mining process which tracks the availability of information mandated by law.