The world can’t resist a cup of coffee. From 2014 to 2018, there was an increase in coffee consumption worldwide, and the Philippines is poised to become one of the world’s five largest consumers by 2021.
The global coffee industry is valued at approximately US$77 billion with trade accounting for US$66.5 billion. Eager to be part of the global trade for coffee, the Philippines is targeting to increase its coffee production.
The road to global coffee domination is, however, not without its tensions and casualties. A warm cup of coffee belies the struggles and tensions on the ground.
The bid to produce more coffee has negatively impacted communities and the environment. The Philippines is among the first tropical countries to have critically reduced its forest area by agricultural expansion, destroying biodiverse habitats in the process. The operations of large-scale agricultural companies have also resulted in the internal displacement and dispossession of communities.
LRC’s latest research report, Brewing Tension: A Case Study of a Coffee Plantation in Indigenous Land looks into the story of coffee production: how it has been transformed from a simple agricultural product into a global commodity, and how it impacts on a community of indigenous people in the Philippines.
latest from the margins...
Thursday, December 6, 2018
25 years ago today, Marinduque experienced the worst mining disaster in Philippine history. The Marcopper-buillt Mogpog river dam burst, flooding the downstream villages in Mogpog. A toxic deluge swept through the valley, submerging villages, farmland and the town of Mogpog where two children were swept to their deaths.
Statement of Task Force TAMASCO on the 2nd Anniversary of the TAMASCO 8 massacre in South Cotabato
December 3 - Justice remains elusive two years since the killing of eight members of the T’boli-Manobo indigenous people in Mindanao who are locked in a struggle with a coffee plantation over land.
Task Force Tamasco, a group of non-governmental organizations supporting the T’boli-Manobo S’daf Claimants Organization (TAMASCO), condemns the agonizingly slow action of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to the petition of TAMASCO to cancel the permit for Dawang Coffee Plantation, which is at the heart of their struggle.
Indigenous people file case vs DENR secretary Cimatu at Quezon City RTC
15 November 2019, Quezon City, Philippines — The T’boli-Manobo indigenous people has filed a special civil action today at the Regional Trial Court, Quezon City Hall against environment secretary Roy Cimatu for neglect of duty to cancel a permit for a coffee plantation illegally operating in their ancestral domain.
M&S Company operates Dawang Coffee Plantation, a part of which has encroached on the ancestral domain of the T’boli-Manobo S’daf Claimants Organization (TAMASCO) in South Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat. M&S operates the plantation under an IFMA, or Integrated Forest Management Agreement, authorized by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
Dec 3 Massacre in Lake Sebu
One year ago today, 8 T’boli and Manobo community members in Barangay Ned, Lake Sebu, South Cotabato were killed in an alleged military operations against communist rebels. But to tag them as “rebels” is to disregard their rights as defenders of their land and ancestral domain. For more than 28 years, they have struggled struggled, with Datu Victor, to protect their ancestral domain from the encroachment of coffee plantations and coal mining.
We demand justice for the killings!
We demand for the cancellation of the IFMA, and the ancestral domains to be returned to the community!
We demand a stop to all forms of harassment and human rights violations towards indigenous communities and defenders of territories!
SONA 2018
Today on #InternationalDayOfForests we are celebrating #CommunityForestManagement"
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