Capacity-building and Campaigning for the protection of Benguet Ancestral Domain against further degradation by mining

The proposed project is to be implemented in the Benguet province of the Northern Luzon Cordillera mountain system of the Philippines. The project area acts as the headwater of major and minor river systems and is a heavily forested area. During the Spanish colonial rule some of these forested areas were converted to agricultural lands but since then due to conservation measures, natural regrowth and afforestation has led to the forest cover being registered at 31.4% as of 2004. However, currently increasing threat is being posed by mining interests as nearly 45% of the area of the province has mineral claims and mining applications by multinational and local mining companies. This in turn threatens the livelihoods of the indigenous peoples that account for a majority of the population in this province. The indigenous peoples lack formal organizations that can counter the threat posed by mining and violation of their human and natural resources rights. It is primarily a tropical pine forest ecosystem characteristically degraded and in a reasonably critical condition. Many parts of this province have been declared protected areas. There have been integrated protected area plans indicating zonation between 1999 and 2002 but actual enforcement of the zoning and management is practically non-existent. The overall objective of this project is to protect the ancestral domains of the indigenous peoples in Benguet province against environmental degradation. This is envisaged by enabling the existing Benguet Mining Alert and Action Network (BMAAN) to establish and strengthen community based organizations for countering the threat of mining, to support communities in efforts of rehabilitating the degraded areas, to strengthen the BMAAN as a network and generate broad public support and to exert pressure on local government to act on the communities' interests and safeguard their rights and prevent destruction of their environment. This would in turn be achieved through training and capacity building of community members, enhancing understanding of ecosystems and the goods and services they provide amongst communities, supporting communities in formulating resolutions for the protection of the environment and their livelihoods in the face of pressure exerted by mining interests, enabling communities to lobby local government officials to uphold resolutions and reject some of the mining claims that affect the ecosystems and the interest of these communities.