Hydropower & Dam Projects Affecting Indigenous Peoples In The Philippines

“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.”

(Read: https://www.katribu.net/post/defend-our-rivers-stop-corporate-plunder-in-the-name-of-renewable-energy)

Indigenous Peoples across the Philippines are under assault from so-called “development” projects imposed on our lands, rivers, and communities. It is not just mining projects, but also hydropower and dam projects that will continue displacing Indigenous communities, destroying ecosystems, and violating the right to self-determination.

Under the DOE Philippine Energy Plan 2023–2050, hydropower remains a major pillar of the state’s energy expansion agenda. Around one-fourth of the more than 400 proposed hydropower projects in the country are located within or near Indigenous lands, while a significant portion of awarded hydropower projects continue to threaten ancestral domains without clear evidence of genuine and meaningful FPIC.

For many Indigenous communities, these are not “development” projects. These are projects that divert and dam rivers, submerge forests and farms, destroy sacred sites, restrict access to water and food sources, and force communities from lands they have defended for generations.

Hydropower projects have long brought devastating impacts to rivers and river-dependent communities in ancestral lands. In Northern Luzon, the Cordillera has become a major target for hydropower development, with multiple dams and run-of-river projects now crowding major river systems that Indigenous communities depend on for irrigation, fishing, transport, livelihood, and daily life. Similar threats persist in other parts of the country: in Sierra Madre, where large dam projects threaten the ancestral lands of the Dumagat; in Panay, where mega dam projects continue to endanger the land, culture, and survival of the Tumandok.

Behind every marker on this map is a community facing the loss of land, livelihood, culture, and life. These projects form part of a broader pattern of state-backed corporate plunder against Indigenous Peoples.

Katribu calls for the immediate halt of destructive dam and hydropower projects imposed on Indigenous territories without genuine consent. We demand accountability from the Marcos Jr. administration and all institutions and corporations complicit in violations of Indigenous rights and environmental destruction.