NO less than 50 leaders of indigenous peoples (IPs) will tackle alternatives to large dams in ancestral domains nationwide in a conference to be held in Tinglayan, Kalinga, from February 28 to March 3.
Dubbed as “2017 National Indigenous Peoples’ Community Exchange Program”, the meeting was organized by the Philippine Task Force for Indigenous Peoples’ Rights (TFIP), which unites 11 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) under Executive Director Jill Cariño, an Ibaloy and supported by the Timpuyog dagiti Mannalon ti Kalinga (TMK) and Sibol ng Agham at Teknolohiya (Sibat).
Cariño said the indigenous peasant organization Ngibat Farmers Association will host the event.
The TFIP officer said that, while large hydroelectric dams produce power for rural and urban communities, support irrigation services to farmers and serve as infrastructure for flood control, IPs have, nevertheless, been subjected to their adverse impacts.
“Large dams built on ancestral lands for so-called development have put our communities in perilous conditions, displaced thousands of indigenous peoples, destroyed our rivers and eroded our identity and culture,” Cariño said.
It is high time for IP leaders and officials of the Duterte administration to know the real face of large dams, she added.
Cariño cited the impacts of the Ambuklao, Binga and San Roque Dams on the Ibaloy people along the Agno River.
Moreover, thousands of Dumagat and Remontado families are now being threatened by the Laiban Dam construction in Quezon and Rizal, as well as the thousands of the Tumandok in Panay about to be displaced by the Jalaur megadam project.
Cariño said the Kalinga meet will highlight the history, experiences and practices of the Ngibat community in the establishment and management of their local micro-hydropower (MHP) energy system.
The project was one of the Igorot peoples’ collective community responses to assert their customary rights to land and water against corporate control during the height of the Chico Dam struggle in the 1970s, she disclosed.
“The National IP Exchange this coming week in Kalinga will serve as a timely and relevant venue for indigenous peoples to learn from the experiences of the indigenous communities on dams and the Community-based Renewable Energy System (CBRES) experience of the Ngibat community,” Cariño added.
“Instead of building dams and destroying the environment, the government should support and promote microhydro projects as an alternative to destructive and large dams,” Sibat Executive Director Vicky Lopez added.
CBRES are small, decentralized energy-supply systems that are established through multistakeholder efforts with the major participation of organized communities in project development.
Lopez explained that these systems, which are owned and operated by community organizations, do not only provide lighting to households, but also energy for food and crop processing and livelihood needs for rural households.
Cariño stressed that through the exchange, TFIP network, along with numerous IPs’ rights advocates and organizations, hopes to promote appreciation of indigenous-knowledge systems and practices, customary natural environmental governance and ecological values related to river systems.