Below is a press release from The Cordillera Peoples Alliance:

On the occasion of the Global Indigenous Peoples' Days of Action on Energy from November 9-10, 2013, the Cordillera Peoples Alliance is circulating the attached CALL TO ACTION against destructive and capitalist renewable energy projects in the Cordillera, Philippines, and a briefing paper against CHEVRON's energy projects in the region and operations in other indigenous territories.

Globally, people are campaigning against continued reliance on fossil fuels for energy since these are the main source of the greenhouse gas emissions that account for the climate crisis.  However, big business is now capitalizing on popular advocacy of renewable energy to devise profitable projects that appear to be environment-friendly but will, in truth, impact heavily on ecosystems and on the communities that live within these.  

The concept of renewable energy can be deceptive.  Power facilities that tap renewable sources of energy – geothermal, hydro, wind, and the like – are often believed to generate little or no adverse impact on the environment or on the people who live in the areas where these facilities are installed.   But large hydroelectric dams are renewable energy facilities.  And the construction of large dams has already displaced at least 40 million people worldwide (World Commission on Dams 2000).   Among those who have been displaced by large dams are indigenous peoples of the Agno river valley in the Cordillera region of northern Philippines.  Our experience shows that if undertaken on too large a scale, with only state and corporate interests in mind, and with no regard for the land or the people they affect, renewable energy projects can destroy lives.

For energy development – indeed, for economic development as a whole – to become viable and sustainable in our indigenous peoples’ territories, it must be underpinned by the recognition and respect of our collective rights to ancestral domain, to self-determination, and to basic survival as human beings.

The Cordillera Peoples Alliance joins the millions of peoples worldwide that are waging struggles against Chevron, whose projects give nothing but destruction and disregard of the natural environment with which indigenous peoples depend on for survival. Chevron is a US-owned energy company that is known as a notorious polluter of land, air and bodies of water; emitter of Greenhouse Gasses (GHG) that worsens the climate crisis; violator of human rights and indigenous peoples' rights; destroyer of natural environments; and causing killer diseases among humans. Indigenous peoples are among the affected populations that suffer the worse from the ill effects of Chevron's operations.