Ecological Terrorism in ASEAN
ASEAN as it is at the moment, is experiencing a new form of terrorism - an ecological terrorism. Its mode is
quiet and gradual but its effects are widespread and long term. It is slowly killing the peoples of southeast asia. The region's resources are plundered by powerful states outside of the ASEAN member nations and clearly, this is anathema to the common good.
It is paradoxical that while the region is richest in natural resources, it is also home to some of the poorest countries. The resource curse created conflicts far beyond what we can imagine as corporate greed displaces communities of peoples, of flora and of fauna. The integrity of creation is disturbed. People are killing one another for survival. The environment has become the battlefield between securing what is green and pursuing what is greed. This must be transformed by securing environmental protection as a platform for peace whereby management of natural resources must be integrated in all efforts to attain peace, whether through the vertical or horizontal process.
In the Philippines, the armed conflicts and even the extension of the declaration of Martial Law will continue to threaten its environment and natural resources. The war and social unrest will only exacerbate environmental degradation as airstrikes, shelling, and gunfires kill the trees, animals, bodies of water and ultimately people who are essentially connected with the natural environment. The prolonged war will only result to displaced people competing for the limited resources. At the tailend of this will be the rape of our natural resources.
In fact it is interesting to explore China's interests in our minerals and how can this be further assured through Martial Law knowing for a fact that China supported the war in Marawi through its donation of sophisticated weaponry. Will there be more Chinese investments in Mindanao protected by the cloak of military rule?
The ASEAN integration, while very economic in its vision must not forget that only through the protection of the region's environment can genuine development be achieved. It must rethink its economic framework to ensure that a new pillar for environment is set up. ASEAN's attempt to liberalize its investment policies to attract huge businesses must not lead to the the loss of the region' s biodiversity, contamination of its waters, pollution of its air, and the plunder of its minerals.
By way of recommendations, ASEAN must:
1. Ensure that projects in environmentally critical areas are rigorously assessed to ensure protection of biodiversity human rights particularly in compliance with the UN Guiding Principles in Business and Human Rights
2. Demilitarize Ancestral Domains and environmentally critical areas
3. Integrate sustainable development and management of natural resources in the peace processes through the wealth sharing scheme
4. Enact legal instruments to stop development aggression in indigenous peoples territories
5. Develop an ASEAN standards of fiscal regime for the extractive indsutry.
6. Increase representation of CSOs in the EITI and
7. Strictly enforce UNCRC prohibition against child soldiers and the IHL. Ultimately, the resources of ASEAN must benefit the ASEAN.
