Philippines: ALDAW Petition against oil palm expansion in Palawan

Please read the following News Update from ALDAW Indigenous Network:

PALAWAN: STOP OIL PALM EXPANSION NOW!!!

Dear ALDAW friends in the Philippines and abroad,

Greetings from Palawan!

My people, the indigenous communities of southern Palawan URGENTLY NEED YOUR HELP. 

Please sign and circulate the two petitions against oil palm expansion that we have just launched through Care.org and Change.org platforms. One is addressed to the National Government - and also includes the case of Mindanao - the other one is only focused on Palawan and it is addressed mainly to the Provincial Government and to the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD). 

These are the petitions links:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/797/568/375/philippines-stop-the-plundering-of-indigenous-territories-by-oil-palm-plantations/

https://www.change.org/petitions/philippines-stop-oil-palm-expansion-on-palawan-unesco-man-biosphere-reserve#share

Our recently accomplished study “The Palawan Oil Palm Geotagged Report 2013” (Part 1 and Part 2) can be downloaded from the links below:

http://www.iccaforum.org/images/stories/Database/issuesexamples/palawan_geotagged_report_pt_1.pdf

http://www.iccaforum.org/images/stories/Database/issuesexamples/palawan_geotagged_report_part_2.pdf

Those who have been following our advocacy know that our struggle against mining companies has been continuous over the years and remains one of our top priorities. Now, however, we are facing another huge issue that is as bad as mining. I am referring to the oil palm boom in our Province (a declared UNESCO Man & Biosphere Reserve). This is moving very fast and we are still in the process of identifying strategies and possible plans to stop oil palm monocultures before it is too late. 

Impacted communities are filing notarized affidavits against oil palm encroachment on their ancestral land, which has taken place without their Free and Prior Informed Consent.

Because of massive oil palm expansion our communities in the South (as well as in some municipalities of Central Palawan) are loosing their farmlands, coconuts groves and fruit trees. In some places, it is now difficult to find even the wood for building our own houses. After land clearing by oil palm companies, nothing survives, no plants, no animals. Kawayan, tiring and other types of bamboos have been destroyed and, together with this, we are loosing non-timber forest products like buri palms, not too mention medicinal plants and other common plants we use in our everyday life. With bamboo we make sawali (big bundles of woven bamboo to make house walls) and from the leaves of buri we make banig mats, etc. We sell these products in the market and with this income we buy what we cannot produce (sugar, salt, soap, house commodities and also notebooks and the things our children need to go to school). 

Also our coconut production is collapsing now, there are pests coming from the oil palm plantations that are destroying our coconuts. Thousands of coconut palms, planted by our parents and grandfathers, are dying and our production of ‘copra’ has dropped of at least 50%. 

We are becoming like prisoners in our own land, the oil palm plantations are surrounding some of our villages. It is becoming difficult even to walk to our upland farms and forest; companies do not allow us to pass through their plantations. 

The government said that oil palms will bring economic benefits to everybody but, as oil palm plantations expand, we feel that we are becoming poorer and poorer, and there will be no future for our children in this place. 

On the other hand, we do hope that with the support of different organizations and institutions we may be able to stop oil palm from further expanding. If you have the time of reading our geotagged reports you would get a better idea of the tragedy we are facing. It is not easy to explain all of this with just an e-mail

Please and, again, support our petitions, share them with friends and post them on your Facebook page. We will try to collect as many signatures as we can and we will protocol them both with the concerned government offices at the national and provincial levels. This is going to be a major fight for us, and a long-term campaign for our ALDAW network.

Perhaps, with your support we will be able to win this struggle. We have faith, we keep hoping and, yet sometimes, we feel discouraged because we are aware that this is a hot issue: powerful people and big interests are behind it. Malaysian, Indonesian and Singaporean enterprises have already entered into joint partnerships with Filipino oil palm companies.

Well that’s all for now, we will keep all of you updated of any future development and look forwards to see your signatures on the petitions!

Maraming salamat po

Tisoy (Artiso Mandawa)

ALDAW Chairman