Indigenous Rights and Environmental Protection

Indigenous people in the Philippines and around the world have been leading protectors of the environment.

In the Philippines, for instance, the Lumad and other indigenous people have been fighting mining companies, loggers, and dam projects for taking away their land and despoiling the natural environment that they rely on for sustenance.

Indigenous people have led the fight against deforestation, excessive logging, strip mining, the contamination of the rivers and sources of clean water, and the overhunting of endangered animals.

Thus the fight for indigenous rights and the fight to protect the environment are intertwined.