The Palawan tribe is one of the many tribes who are in great danger. The Palawan live in 
the forests where they can hunt for food and crow crops. They have been living in the forest for centuries and that is the only way they know how to live. What would happen if they had to leave the forest? Where would they hunt and grow there food? The Palawan tribe located in the Philippines are facing a lot of threats due to mining. There water is being polluted, they are forced to move and they have difficulties to hunt as the mining is destroying the forest
Visiting the Batak Tribe, Palawan, The Philippines. (2014). Retrieved February 07, 2016, from http://www.timetravelturtle.com/2014/10/batak-tribe-palawan-philippines/
Threats
In 2006 there was a big mining push by the Philippine’s president, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Ever since the Palawan tribe has faced varies threats, such as polluted water and deforestation. Thousands of hectares of oil palm have also been planted in the Palawan. This is having a devastating impact on the biodiversity of the region and it is limiting people’s access to customary natural resources.
SkitteryAndRaggedy. (n.d.). Retrieved February 07, 2016, from http://nightwynx.tumblr.com/post/10890084857/palawan-is-one-of-the-most-beautiful-islands-of
Most Serious threat
I personally think that the mining is the biggest threat to the Palawan because it has 4 problems connected to it, one political, social, environmental and economic. Political: The government allowed lot’s of companies to mine in the Philippines without warning the Palawan. There is a indigenous People’s Right act and one of the agreements are: “Consensus and Peace-Building. In resolving conflicts or disputes affecting or pertaining to indigenous peoples, any determination or decision thereon shall be reached through dialogue and consensus as far as practicable.”
The government went forward with the mining without warning the Palawan, so the government is violating the law. Social: As soon as the government announced the mining push in 2006, lot’s of companies began with the mining. They started mining in the forest where the Palawan hunt and it is also their home. A lot of Palawan people were forced to move and find another place to live and leave all of their farms and crops behind. A company called MacroAsia is planning to start mining on the ancestral land of the isolated Palawan’s living around Mt. Gantong. These people are very vulnerable and they will probably not survive the loss of their land. 
Visiting the Batak Tribe, Palawan, The Philippines. (2014). Retrieved February 07, 2016, from http://www.timetravelturtle.com/2014/10/batak-tribe-palawan-philippines/
Environmental: The mining is ruining farms, burial sites, important landmarks, spiritual places and it is polluting the water. The Palawan get their drink water from the rivers and due to mining they are being polluted, this causes a lot of problems. The fish in the rivers die, the crops die due to bad soil and the people can get diseases. Many farmers were forced to move as the soil got poisoned due to the polluted rivers. Economical: Big parts of the forests are destroyed which means that a lot of animals will either die or have to find another place to live. The main food for the Palawan is wild pigs which they hunt in the forest, now due to mining they are having big difficulties with hunting. The Palawan grow rice and coconut to sell but the mining is ruining the soil which makes it impossible to grow crops. A farmer said that his rice production had declined 50% since the mining started, he was forced to move as he didn’t earn enough money anymore. The Palawan can’t grow any food to sell which means that they won’t earn any money which can cause a collapse in their trading system.
Advocacy group lashes out against palm oil expansion on Philippine island. (n.d.). Retrieved February 07, 2016, from http://farmlandgrab.org/post/view/24384-advocacy-group-lashes-out-against-palm-oil-expansion-on-philippine-island
A question that I kept asking myself was, why is the government allowing the companies to mine when they know how it’s affecting the tribes?
The Philippines is a developing country this means that they are one of the poor countries in the world but they are trying to become a developed country like England and France for example. For the Philippines to become a developed country they have to improve their education, security, health care, technology and so on but they need a lot of money for this. The Philippines is ranked the 5th most mineralised country in the world. More than 30% of the countries total land area contains important metallic minerals. They are estimated to have about 840 billion dollars worth of metallic minerals. One third of the Philippines population live in poverty, this about 6.12 million families. Every country wants to develop and the Philippines saw the mining as a great way to earn money to be able to develop their country and make sure that no one lives in poverty. The government had to make a really hard choice, but they decided to offer a small amount of people to save a whole lot more.
Visiting the Batak Tribe, Palawan, The Philippines. (2014). Retrieved February 07, 2016, from http://www.timetravelturtle.com/2014/10/batak-tribe-palawan-philippines/
Solution
Finding a solution to a problem like this is quite hard because the government chose this
decision because it was the best for the people and the best way to earn money fast. The country can earn a lot of money now due to mining but the minerals will eventually end, where will they get their money from then? The 
mining is only a temporary solution to the economy problem. My solution to this problem is to ban mining for good, because in 2012 the mining share in the GDP was only 0.7%, this is very little. Whereas services represent 57% of the GDP and manufacturing 31%. How come mining only represents 0.7 in the GDP? The truth is that the Philippines only earn 3% of the entire mining industry, the 97% goes to the big mining companies who are mining on their land.
Instead of mining they should focus on improving the services and manufacturing, to get more money and eventually become a developed country. But how can they improve their services and manufacturing?
The Philippines has a very poor education and school is only compulsory until 6th grade, drop out rates are very high after this level. All the public schools are free and they are funded by the government. The classrooms are small , materials are lacking, the kids get poor education and the teachers are poorly paid. For every 100 pupils who enter grade 1, only 86 will continue to grade 2. In grade 4, only 76 out of the 100 pupils are left. In grade 6 only 67, and only 58 pupils will go to high school and only 42 of out those 100 will graduate.
The government also spends very little amount of money on the education. They spend around 2.5% of it’s GDP on education. Most mayor Southeast Asian countries spend around 5-6% of there GDP on education. The Philippine’s spend around 318 dollars per child for education, whilst Thailand spends 1’048dollars per child. If they could improve the education, more pupils would graduate and more people would start working. This would improve the services and manufacturing role in the GDP which would eventually help the Philippines turn into a developed country. So the solution to solving this problem is to ban mining for good and focus on improving education to increase the Philippines wealth.
To earn more money for the kids education the Philippines could increase manufacturing of goods requiring only low educated workforce. They could also increase some taxes to raise more money for education.
Thesis statement: The Palawan tribe located in the Philippines are facing a lot of threats due to mining. There water is being polluted, they are forced to move and they have difficulties to hunt as the mining is destroying the forest. The solution to solving this problem is to ban mining for good and focus on improving education to increase the Philippines wealth.
(All graphs are made by myself on: Create Easy Infographics, Reports, Presentations | Piktochart. (n.d.). Retrieved February 07, 2016, from http://piktochart.com/)
Works cited
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Endangered tribes 