Christina Toepell, MAAPPS // Feb 11, 2015
When thinking of glorious mining countries in the world, the Philippines is most likely not amongst the first countries that come to mind. The archipelago, located in the Western Pacific and consisting of more than 7,000 small islands, is more known for its political instability in the 20th century, the comparatively good education system and the large Philippine diaspora living around the globe. Our perceptions on mining are not wrong – to date, only 1.28% of the country’s GDP is generated from the extractive sector, and only 0.58% comes from metallic mining.
Why are we even observing this country and its mining activities? According to numbers from the Mines and Geosciences Bureau of the Philippines (MGB), about 30% of its land is geologically promising, with the total estimated value of the country’s mineral reserves adding up to USD 1,387.1 billion. Thus, the work of EITI will become increasingly important in the future.
First engaging with the country in 2013, EITI is still in the initial stage, engaging with mining on a national sector. With its maiden report published in December 2014, it is expecting to gain full EITI membership in the upcoming years. Not surprisingly when looking at the strong level of civil society organizations, it has been warmly welcomed to the country and has been cooperating with national organizations such as Bantay Kita from the beginning.
Bantay Kita, which can be translated to English as “We Guard”, is a national NGO working on increasing transparency and accountability in the extractive industries. Established in 2009, it has had sufficient time to build a strong network across the country and start two subnational activities in the Southern island of Mindanao, the least developed of the three big islands. While the initiative in T’Boli, South Cotabato mainly focuses on empowerment of civil society and artisanal mining, the Compostela Valley transparency initiative was the first subnational organization in the country.
With most of the mineral land falling under special protection due to its Ancestral Domain status, Compostela Valley is one of the regions were subnational reporting is most urgently needed. Bantay Kita’s subnational multi-stakeholder group gained full legitimacy in 2012 and has been working on issuing a subnational report on mining activities ever since. In 2013, it issued a 72-pages handbook with background on the area and the initiative. The main part contains detailed reporting templates for all relevant entities, assisting these institutions in disclosing their revenues, payments and contracts according to the initiative’s standards. While still waiting for the final disclosures of some entities, the Compostela Valley transparency initiative expects to be able to publish the first subnational report in the Philippines later this year.
Starting to focus on our mandate for Mongolia, I am wondering how we could translate the excellent initiative in Compostela Valley to our work in Northern Mongolia. How can we adequately adapt a Philippine project that has put more than 3 years of effort into their subnational report? How can it fit the context of a small UBC graduate student project focusing on the Mongolian mountains with less than 3 months to go? I am more than excited to finally start with our work in Mandal Soum, but simultaneously understand that my expectations will probably need to bow to smaller projects with more realistic outcomes and higher feasibility.