Over the past 30 years, The Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center-Kasama sa Kalikasan/Friends of the Earth Philippines (LRC-KsK/FoE Phils.)  has devoted its resources, developed expertise and deepened its commitment to the assertion of the rights of marginalized indigenous peoples and upland rural communities, particularly in the areas of land rights and resource tenure.

With its partner communities and networks, LRC-KsK has launched and participated in local, national and international campaigns against large-scale commercial development projects and extractive industries – dams, mining, timber plantations and dirty coal plants.

Together with other advocates, LRC-KsK has monitored, led and contributed in policy debates which have stirred and sharpened public discourse on indigenous people’s rights, natural resources, environment; as well as the role of corporate globalization, trade and international financial institutions in disenfranchising local communities from their rights to resources and their right to life.

Through these 27 years, LRC-KsK/FoE-Philippines have continually affirmed its view that the law performs a historical, cultural, economic and political role. The law is not monolithic. It contributes to a reality that is multi-layered and multi-dimensional. It reflects the balance of social, political and economic power at a given historical moment. The struggle for the recognition of rights of marginalized sectors and the oppressed is not only a contest of the better articulation of norms, but a collective and continuing effort of each woman and men in indigenous peoples’ and rural poor communities to effectively assert and realize, their rights and aspirations, and to exercise their sovereign will as citizens and peoples. Critically engaging the legal and policy landscape with our partners continues to be an important focus of this ongoing struggle and where the Center will contribute to relevant change.