Defend Our Rivers! Stop Corporate Plunder in the Name of Renewable Energy!

Under the administration of Ferdinand Marcos Jr., rivers in Indigenous territories are increasingly being assigned price tags and commodified for profit. Our rivers are being opened to corporate exploitation. What were once gifts of nature that sustained Indigenous communities for generations are now treated as economic assets to be sold, or collateral damage for the building of dams, wind farms, solar plants, and other large-scale energy projects.

On the commemoration of the International Day of Action for Rivers and Against Large Dams, Katribu highlights the worsening impacts of the aggressive push for renewable energy projects on our rivers and waterways as the global demand for alternatives to fossil fuels continues to intensify. The Marcos Jr. administration has openly endorsed this expansion of renewable energy projects, promoting initiatives such as Green Bonds and the Renewable Energy Trust Fund while reiterating the Philippines’ commitment to renewable energy development in international forums, including the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week in 2026.

But while the shift away from fossil fuels is often presented as progressive and necessary, the reality on the ground tells a different story. Indigenous Peoples and rural communities are experiencing the destructive consequences of the rapid and forceful expansion of renewable energy projects. As of 2025, there are at least 414 hydropower projects for commercial use in the Philippines. Under the banner of “green development,” corporations are granted access to rivers stewarded by Indigenous communities, often through manipulated consent processes, land grabbing, and militarization. The promise of clean energy thus becomes a convenient justification for the continued encroachment on ancestral lands and the violation of Indigenous Peoples’ rights.

Hydropower projects, in particular, have long caused devastating impacts on rivers in Indigenous Peoples’ lands. In Northern Luzon, the Cordillera has become a major target for hydropower development. Dams have already been constructed along key rivers, including at least eight along the Apayao-Abulug River. In Kalinga, multiple hydropower facilities now line the Chico River and its tributaries, including five along the Pasil River and four to five along the Saltan River, altering natural river flows that communities depend on for irrigation, fishing, and daily life.

In the Sierra Madre, the Kaliwa, Kanan, and Laiban dam projects threaten to submerge portions of the ancestral lands of the Dumagat and disrupt river systems that form part of the watershed supplying water to millions in Luzon. The Kaliwa Dam alone threatens to displace around 6,000 households while altering the natural flow of the Kaliwa River and flooding forest and riverine ecosystems. Meanwhile, the Wawa-Violago Dam project in Rizal has already displaced farmers and Indigenous Dumagat-Remontado communities while placing the Marikina River watershed under corporate control.

In Panay Island, the Jalaur Mega Dam Project threatens to transform the Jalaur River by submerging nine communities and six sacred burial grounds within Tumandok ancestral territory. The project risks displacing around 17,000 Tumandok while disrupting river ecosystems that sustain agriculture, fisheries, and local water sources, further threatening the food security, biodiversity, and cultural heritage tied to the river.

Solar and wind farms are also rapidly expanding across ancestral lands, bringing new threats to rivers and watersheds that sustain Indigenous communities. Large-scale solar projects require vast tracts of land, often involving the clearing of forests, leveling of mountains, and large-scale earthmoving that destabilizes soils and watersheds. Wind power projects bring similar impacts. The construction of wind turbines requires deep concrete foundations, extensive access roads, substations, and transmission lines, often built across mountains and upland areas where many rivers originate.

These impacts are already being experienced by Indigenous communities. In Zambales, hundreds of hectares of land are being converted into solar power facilities, threatening to displace Ayta communities from at least seven barrios. Projects such as the Olongapo Solar Power Project, the San Marcelino Floating Solar Project, and the Cabangan Solar Project involve large-scale land conversion that can disrupt surrounding watersheds and affect rivers and water sources that communities depend on. Wind projects such as the Abra-Kalinga Wind Power Project and the Abra de Ilog Wind Farm Project in Mindoro also threaten upland ecosystems and watersheds that feed surrounding river systems.

The renewable energy industry is heavily dependent on the expansion of mining. Renewable technologies require vast amounts of so-called “transition minerals” such as nickel, cobalt, lithium, and copper—materials used in batteries, solar panels, wind turbines, and other energy infrastructure. According to Global Witness, an estimated 26 percent of mining areas for transition minerals overlap with Indigenous territories in the Philippines. This explains the simultaneous aggressive push for both renewable energy projects and mining operations in ancestral lands, further intensifying land grabbing and environmental destruction.

Renewable energy projects are not inherently harmful. The shift away from fossil fuels is necessary in addressing the global climate crisis. However, the critical question remains: who controls these projects, and whose interests do they serve? Development cannot be called sustainable or just when it displaces Indigenous communities, destroys rivers and ecosystems, violates the right to FPIC, and militarizes communities defending their land.

Katribu calls for an immediate halt to destructive dam projects and other large-scale energy developments imposed on ancestral lands without the genuine consent of Indigenous Peoples. We demand that Marcos Jr. and his administration, and corporations be held accountable for violations of Indigenous rights and environmental destruction. Indigenous Peoples of the Philippines are rights-holders, and thus also hold the right to the development that our industries are pushing for.

Reference: Funa-ay Claver, national coordinator