II. Environment Aspects

6. Type of Environmental Problem

The environmental issues related to the separatist conflict on Mindanao are primarily “source problems.” Natural resources and their contestability are centrally pertinent to Mindanao’s conflict. The distribution of control over Mindanao’s various resources is at the root of the poor economic condition of the population the rebel groups claim to represent. It happens that the resources that the Philippine state needs and desires, both for their use and for the profits of their sale, are ones with which Mindanao is heavily endowed. The greater country’s dependence on Mindanao’s supply of various resources has led to the state to manage and develop them in a manner discriminatory to the island’s original Muslim population. These resources include energy, water, land, timber, and minerals, the former four of which are discussed below in terms of conflict-generation. Sink problems also exist, but usually the environmental degradation occurs because of source problems.

Energy

It is becoming increasingly obvious that energy is one resource whose pursuit by the Philippine government, both for its utilization and for profits generated by its extraction, is a motivation to refuse to confer greater power to native Mindanaoans. Two full decades ago, Southeast Asian nations were experiencing increasing energy demands and decreasing supplies (Ghee 97), and the situation could only have intensified since then. There is still a stalemate amongst the region’s nations over claims to drilling rights in the oil-rich Spratley Islands (see related case studies, V 15), and the Philippines is not positioned to benefit greatly in the event of the legal resolution of ownership disputes. Furthermore, it is undeniable that it is in a state’s security interests to minimize dependence on foreign sources of oil, because major shortages now have the ability to stall one’s economy.[1],[2] In addition, the Philippines is an oil-deficit nation; theoretically, it will be even more concerned about energy procurement than oil-surfeit nations. And it is worth mentioning that the current war on terrorism and its implications for the oil-rich Persian Gulf region are still unclear in the long-run, which increases the incentive forcountries to reduce their reliance on its exports.

As these factors clearly indicate, the Philippine government finds itself in a position to be concerned about this aspect of its national security, and would logically take steps to secure as much access to energy resources as it can, and domestic sources would be preferable. Mindanao holds a significant portion of the archipelago’s oil and natural gas deposits, much of which resides in Muslim-populated territories. MILF, which lays claim to these areas, has accused the latest intensification of attacks by the Armed Forces of the Philippines of being primarily motivated by the government’s desire to access deposits in the Liguasan Marsh and other representatives of the Muslim Moros, and their estimation is shared by many reasonably unbiased sources.

Water

There is also a current water-related quarrel between MILF and the government. Recently in the Philippines, the government accelerated plans to build a dam on a major tributary of the largest river on Mindanao. Not surprisingly, this dispute has a lot to do with energy supplies. MILF exposed the proposed project as yet another attempt to retrieve oil and gas from the Liguasan Marsh, the deposit-rich portions of which the dam would effectively drain and therefore be easily drillable. The dam poses an environmental threat, too, to the degree that the livelihoods of those living along the river would be endangered: It would flood several thousand hectares of farmland owned and worked by Muslims.
Furthermore, water constitutes a “sink problem.” Mining and lumber operations that have proliferated on the island pollute rivers, streams, and aquifers. Deforestation, through a process detailed later, also harms the water supply by causing sedimentation.

Land

A third contested resource that helps account for Mindanao’s strife is land. The fact that no cease-fires have led to progress towards resolution reflects the fact that economic disparity arising from inequitable distribution of land is a fundamental problem, as the government has yet to incorporate into negotiations. Though agricultural land is estimated to be the Philippines’ single most important natural resource, the country suffers from a vulnerable land base because of geographical and pollution-related barriers to productivity (Porter and Ganapin 1-2). Mindanao has historically been the archipelago’s most abundantly supplied island. In addition to being more sparsely populated [3] than other areas, due to which it earned the status of ‘frontier’, the island is so comparatively fertile that it’s been dubbed the “Rice Bowl” (Oxfam 4-5). The redistribution of Mindanao’s land became a common theme in the policies of administrations in Manila. Numerous governments have aimed to ease population pressures by sponsoring North-South migration programs. Over the past century, they have continually re-structured the island’s land ownership to favor the commercialization of agriculture at the expense of communal and substistence farming. Some date the starting point of Muslims’ “landlessness” problem to the advent of American colonialism at the turn of the twentieth century, which allowed for the conversion of large plots to cattle farms and sugar and pineapple plantations. This transformation has generated substantial social dislocation of native populations, as the loss of their traditional livelihoods is generally inadequately compensated for within new economic structures.

Ghee chronicles this dislocation, whereby “tribal groups are being squeezed out of their ancestral lands and deprived of their means of livelihood in the name of development” (19). The Philippine government has embraced the development of banana and pineapple plantations by multinational corporations like Del Monte, Dole, and United Brands, in a type of agriculture that “represents a higher level of foreign and local exploitation of resources with minimal benefits for the poor sectors of society” (Ghee 30). In addition to the commercialization of agricultural land in favor of fruit and sugar plantations, thousands of hectares on Mindanao have been reserved for tree farms, the proliferation of which has resulted in the eviction of farming communities (Ibid 20). The employment opportunities brought by tree farm companies are poor substitutes for these communities’ former livelihoods (Ibid 21). A third expansion in agribusiness has been palm-oil production, where again, the creation of plantations covering several thousand hectares has displaced countless farming households. This happened via forcible eviction in the case of the Philippine Packing Corporation, a subsidiary of Del Monte that actually ploughed down the dwellings of resistant residents in a northern Mindanao province (Ibid 30). Ghee concludes that “the various conflicts that now characterize the competition for land can be traced to the breakdown of subsistence farming in favor of commercialized production, or in some cases, the subsumption of the former to the latter” (29). Land tensions grew correspondingly to increasing displacement, and came to a head at beginning of the 1970s when the “frontier” was filled to capacity by the government-sponsored resettlement programs. Armed conflict in the three decades since then has occurred as the MNLF, then MILF, have made reactionary claims to “Moro” lands.

The only nominal achievement to date of an attempt to ease tensions over land was the 1997 Indigenous Peoples Rights Act, which put into Philippine Law a provision for a National Commission of Indigenous People to award allotments of “ancestral domain lands” on the basis of communal ownership (USDOS). In addition, the act would protect indigenous communities from the hazards of environmental degradation to their livelihoods by giving the Commission the right to be informed on and veto any development projects that would adversely affect their lands (“An Act to Recognize…”). However, this piece of legislation’s shortcomings have been too great for it to be effective. The mining and agrobusiness industries are such a powerful lobby that implementation has been extremely slow (USDOS). Furthermore, the act has not prevented the creation of inadequate consultative processes between indigenous groups and companies, which allegedly can be so biased that authorities have been able to misconstrue clear assertions of opposition to projects as approval.[4] Another problem is the outright harassment of people claiming land through this relatively new legal channel, with landlords evicting claimants, sometimes violently. The national government has generally eluded its role as a guardian of the rights of people displaced from their lands, as the process of obtaining land titles through the Bureau of Lands has been costly and time-consuming (Ghee 21). Here is a case of structural marginalization of indigenous groups due to the implantation of Western concepts of property, including private ownership of land (Ibid 14). Revealingly, though, the government has often been a partner in the rise of the tree-farming industry, because it has a stake in the profits from timber processing (Ibid 20). The World Bank cannot be spared blame for this type of damaging commercialization. Through the Development Bank of the Philippines, it has funded loans to persuade farmers to switch to tree production under contracts with large paper companies. These companies’ guarantees of certain income levels for contracted farmers turned out to be false (Ibid 21).

Timber

Timber is another resource that has invited exploitation on Mindanao. The vast tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia have long supplied much of the world’s timber, with the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia providing for 66% of hardwood exports (Ghee 15). The Spanish administration initiated rapid forest depletion in the Philippines, and American colonialists expanded the system of timber extraction. After independence, American multinationals such as Georgia-Pacific and Findlay Millar spearheaded an exploitative logging boom concentrated in the predominantly Muslim regions of Mindanao (Ghee). Between 1971 and 1991, 80% of the Philippines remaining virgin forest was lost (Rush 42).

Like the mining industry, the timber industry causes severe environmental degradation. Denudation decreases the productive quality of other resources that fishing and farming communities rely on. The process is summarized in the following causal diagram:

*The two red-hued items provide for the traditional livelihoods of Moro

As such, logging operations on Mindanao have been blamed for causing surrounding farmland to become infertile (Ghee 22). The island’s particularly plentiful forest cover has made Mindanao a victim to especially excessive deforestation. In 1981 hundreds died and tens of thousands of homes were destroyed in floods made devastating by denudation, and one Muslim province experiences severe flooding whenever it’s showered with two or three days of continuous rain (Porter and Ganapin 24-25). The sedimentation of rivers and streams is another externality of logging operations that has taken a toll on Mindanao, in that there is less water available for cultivation. The irrigation system for one province services only half of its designated area during the dry season because it depends on dams and canals now clogged with sediments (Ibid).

7. Type of Habitat: Tropical

8. Act and Harm Sites: N/A (See 6)

III. Conflict Aspects

9. Type of Conflict

This is a separatist conflict and violence is mostly limited to the island of Mindanao within the Philippines.

10. Level of Conflict - Low

11. Fatality Level of Dispute

Some 120,000 lives have been claimed by the conflict since 1970. (Other estimates range from 100,000 to 150,000.)
800 deaths, including civilians and military, were reported in 2002.

IV. Environment and Conflict Overlap

12. Environment-Conflict Link and Dynamics:

13. Level of Strategic Interest

For most of the duration of armed dispute on Mindanao, the level of strategic interest was State and Regional: It mostly concerned separatist groups and the Philippine government and army, but a degree of regional significance was evident in the Organization of the Islamic Conference’s attempt to bring about a settlement favorable to the Filipino Muslims. Today the conflict borders on a multilateral level of strategic interest because of the U.S. war on terrorism, which has extended its cause to such areas as Mindanao. The justification for this has been that terrorist suspects arrested in other Southeast Asian countries have admitted to being trained in MILF camps. U.S. officials often link the separatist movement to Al Qaeda.

14. Outcome of Dispute: Ongoing

The conflict, especially between MILF fighters and the army, is ongoing and continues to claim lives. It has taken on a new dimension with the war on terrorism, as the U.S. tries to encourage countries to crack down on terrorist groups within their own borders.

In a recent development (March 2003) the Pentagon announced it would send units to fight alongside the Philippine army against the rebels. While the U.S. has been training local anti-terror units for over a month, President Gloria Arroyo-Macapagal dismissed the offer as premature and reaffirmed that foreign forces would not be directly involved in the conflict, in line with the Philippine constitution.

The most recent deaths also occurred in March 2003, with a bombing at the Davao City airport. The Abu Sayyaf group claimed responsibility, but intelligence forces questioned the reliability of the claim and place blame on MILF.




V. Related Information and Sources

15. Related ICE and TED Cases

SUDAN Civil War in the Sudan: Resources or Religion?, by D. Michelle Domke (June, 1997)

NAGORNO Nagorno War and Armenian Deforestation, by Kathy Lalazarian (Summer, 1997)

KALIMAN Ethnic Conflict abnnd Deforestation in Kalimantan (Indonesia), by Dianne Linder (November, 1997) PETEN Guatemala-Maya Civil War snf Deforestation, by Barbara Pando (November, 1997)

SPRATLY Spratly Islands Dispute and Oil, by Jay Krasnow (May, 1997)

GUYANA Gold and Native Rights (Venezuela), by Colleen Reed (November, 1997)

BURMA-PIPE-CONFLICT Burma Gas Pipeline and Ethic Conflict (Cross Link to TED case), by Zaw Oo (May, 2001)

ACEH, Aceh, Oil and Conflict, by Jeremy Schanck (May, 2001)

TEAK Teak Deforestation and Trade in Southeast Asia and Conflict (Cross Link to TED Case 200), by Kevin T. Kunkel and Teri Emmons (June 1995)

MEKONG Mekong Dam in Laos and Environmental Impacts (Cross link to TED case 258), by Paul F. Macek (January 1996)

16. Relevant Literature and Websites

Collier, Paul. “Economic Causes of Civil Conflict and Their Implications for Policy.” World Bank. 15 June, 2000.

Tan, Samuel. “Understanding the Mindanao Conflict: Mindanao at the Crossroad.” Cotabato City Peace and Development Forum. 20 July 2000.

Vizmanos, Capt. Danilo, P.N. (ret.). “Military Aspect of the Mindanao Conflict.” Press Statement. 24 May 2000.

McKenna, Thomas M. Muslim rulers and rebels : everyday politics and armed separatism in the southern Philippines. 1998.

Rigg, Johnathan. Southeast Asia : the human landscape of modernization and development. 1997.

Abinales, Patricio N. Making Mindanao: Cotabato and Davao in the formation of the Philippine nation-state. 2000.

Bankoff, Greg, and Weekley, Kathleen. Post-colonial National Identity in the Philippines: celebrating the centennial of independence. 2002.

George, T.J.S. Revolt in Mindanao: the rise of Islam in Philippine politics.

Christie, Clive J. Modern History of Southeast Asia: decolonization, nationalism, and separatism. 1996.

Dixon, Chris. Southeast Asia in the World Economy.

Rush, James. Last Tree: Reclaiming the Environment in Tropical Asia. 1991.

Gochenour, Theodore. Considering Filipinos. 1990.

Chalk, Peter. “Militant Islamic Extremism in the Southern Philippines: The Historical Context of the Islamic Insurgency in the Southern Philippines.” Ch.4 in Isaacson, Jason F. and Colin Rubenstein, eds. Islam in Asia: Changing Political Realities. 2002.

Ghee, Lim Teck and Valencia, Mark J., eds. Conflict over Natural Resource in South-East Asia and the Pacific. 1990.

Porter, Gareth and Delfin J. Ganapin, Jr. Resources, Population, and the Philippines’ Future: A Case Study. World Resources Institute. October 1988.

Oxfam-Great Britain. Anthropometric and Household Food Security Survey among Displaced Families in Central Mindanao. November 2000.

1999 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Philippines. Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. U.S. Department of State, 25 February 2000.

An Act to Recognize, Protect and Promote the Rights of Indigenous Cultural Communities/Indigenous Peoples, Creating a National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, Establishing Implementing Mechanisms, Appropriating Funds Therefor, and for Other Purposes (Republic Act No. 8371). Philippines Government. 28 July 1997. Chan Robles Virtual Law Library. Philippine Environmental Laws Online. http://www.chanrobles.com/republicactno8371.htm.

Moro National Liberation Front homepage: http://mnlf.net/

Project Ploughshares’ Armed Conflict Report 2002 – Philippines-Mindanano: http://www.ploughshares.ca/content/ACR/ACR00/ACR00-PhilippinesM.html



[1] Examples of this in action are ubiquitous in the history of the U.S., for instance, after the 1973 Arab oil embargo demonstrated that ability. President Nixon had an official (but unrealized) goal of energy independence. President Carter labeled the Iranian Revolution of 1979 “a clear and present danger to our national security” because of the threat it presented to our acquisition of that country’s oil. (Nye, Joseph S. Jr. “Energy and Security in the 1980s.” World Politics. The John Hopkins University Press, 1982: pp.2-3.)

[2] The current war on terrorism and its implications for the oil-rich Persian Gulf region are still unclear in the long-run, which increases the incentive for countries to reduce their reliance on its exports. For the Philippines, this is evidence by the fact that its Department of Energy has amassed

[3] Until, that is, government-sponsored North-South relocation movements filled the frontier.

[4] One example of this was the consultation process between a Moro tribe and Mindex, a Norwegian company seeking establish a Nickel Cobalt mining operation. The mining consultation company hired had formerly been discredited for approving operations that led to environmental disasters. Observers feared that the tribe’s representatives were not made sufficiently aware of the potential externalities to their farming land and fisheries. Philippines Indigenous Peoples Links http://www.philsol.nl/B99/Mindoro-may99.htm.