Gold does not always glitter for women: Asia Study Session on Women and Mining

By Vernie Yocogan-Diano, Innabuyog
Convenor, TF WEN, APWLD

Gold does not always glitter to women whose livelihoods are greatly affected by large corporate mining. This statement is reverberated by indigenous women, peasant women, herders, fisherfolks  and other communities whose sources of livelihood are threatened and destroyed by mining operations.  The Asia Study Session on Women and Mining organized by the Task Force Women and Environment (TF WEN) of the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD) last 18-20 July 2008 in Baguio City, Philippines has once again proven the damage that large corporate mining does to food resources, the environment which comes in the defacing of mountains, desertification and heavy siltation, pollution to and damage to land and water resources.

The study session is part of the TF WEN’s campaign on Food Over Gold which kicked off in 2005 within APWLD’s Food Sovereignty Campaign by its two Task Forces—WEN and Rural Indigenous Women (RIW). Twenty-five TF members from Mongolia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Thailand, Korea and Philippines with local women leaders and resource persons attended the study session, hosted by Innabuyog, the convenor of TF WEN, and the Cordillera Women’s Education Action Research Center (CWERC), a local women’s NGO.

Most governments all over the world, and specifically in the countries where WEN members come from, are hell-bent in promoting the mining industry, supporting the interest of mining trans-nationals over people’s rights to resources and the environment. This is within the framework of liberalizing the mining industry of which the World Bank pushed in the early 1990s.

Since 2005, the Task Force WEN has had forums on women and mining, and mining fact-finding mission in Loei, Thailand and Mongolia in 2006 and 2007 respectively. The forums and fact-finding missions have served as venues for effectively analyzing the impact of mining on food sovereignty, on women’s rights as a whole and in the light of human security laws/anti-terrorism laws enforced by governments in the Asia- Pacific. These missions serve as support materials for TF WEN members in their advocacy and campaigns work on mining and food sovereignty.  In light of the world’s outcry against climate change and global warming, WEN members are more challenged to pursue actions against mining aggression and raise the issues that rural women and their communities speak about. Mining causes deforestation and pollute the land and water, leading to irreparable change in ecosystem, which contributes to global warming and climate change.

The session on International Developments on Mining and the Challenges for Women was presented by Frances Quimpo, Executive Director of the Center of Environment Concerns-Philippines and a founding member of the TF WEN. Her presentation highlighted the positioning of global mining giants all over the world and how they are able to impose power through national mining policies. Global mining giants such as the BHP Billiton (Australia), Rio Tinto Zinc (UK), CVRD (Brazil),  Anglo-American (SA/UK), Barrick Gold (Canada), Alcoa (US), CRA (Australia), Alcan (Canada), Placer Dome (Canada),  and Western Mining (Australia) are doing all means to extract the world’s remaining minerals, employing the dirtiest tactics and committing the worst human rights violations. These mining giants belong to countries who also dominate the world’s economy.

Presentations from Cambodia, Mongolia, Thailand, Bangladesh, Philippines and Korea spoke of concrete threats and violations to food sovereignty, to indigenous women, to health, to human rights and how national mining liberalization policies have undermined the national sovereignty and welfare of peoples.

The documentary on how people of Pulbari, Bangladesh were mercilessly killed when security forces of the Pulbari Coal Mining Project opened fire to protesters, is just one case of ruthless attacks of mining corporations and states to people asserting their rights and survival. The project is in partnership with an Australian Mining company, with support from the Asia Development Bank. The Centre for Human Rights and Development in Mongolia is advocating for amendments in mining policies and are handling legal cases against mining companies.

In the Philippines, Innabuyog and BAI presented how indigenous women and their communities have become victims of various human rights violations as militarization is used to secure the smooth entry and operations of mining companies. Mining applications and current operations spread in 66% of the country’s land area, same land area is covered by mining operations and applications in the Cordillera which is an indigenous peoples’ territory. Of the 24 national mining priority projects, 18 are located in indigenous peoples’ territories. 

Representative Luzviminda Ilagan of the Gabriela Women’s Partylist shared the legislative actions and initiatives in the Philippines.  The move to repeal the Philippine Mining Act of 1995 is meeting stiff resistance among mining corporations and their allies in both Senate and Lower House of the Philippines.  “The sustained local and national resistance to large corporate mining are a clear position of women and the people in defense of livelihood, rights and survival, and this is what the Philippine Senate and Congress should support,” was Rep. Ilagan’s message.

The presentations of Bantey Srei of Cambodia and Northeastern Women’s Network in Thailand showed how their governments are adjusting national laws and policies to pave the smooth way for mining corporations. KFEM’s presentation on quarrying in Korea to build highways, poses grave threats to peoples’ health and the country’s ecological resources.

The recommended actions include continued education, advocacy, actions-campaign on the mining, fact-finding missions, exchange of experiences and strategies of women’s organizations in the Asia-Pacific region, publication of TF WEN’s mining study session to include the mining fact-finding missions  to serve as reference materials not just for APWLD members but other women’s organizations involved in mining struggles, bringing the issues to forums like consultations with UN Special Rapporteurs (Violence Against Women, Indigenous Peoples Fundamental Rights, Food) and other events to gain attention and support.

The cultural presentations of Cordillera youth through the Dap-ayan ti Kultura ti Kordilyera (Center for Cordillera Culture) added to the messages on how indigenous women in the Cordillera stood to defend their land and resources from mining corporations. So did the community visit in Itogon, a mined-out area, dug of its gold and copper resources for almost a century. It was a realization of corporate greed in collusion with the state, but it was also an inspiration of women’s participation in the resistance.