According to the latest Global Climate Risk Index report by Germanwatch published in 2021, the Philippines is one of the top five countries most vulnerable to climate change.[1] The country faces at least twenty typhoons per year (with an average of five typhoons becoming supertyphoons) that cause i
Protestors calling for protection for environmental defenders in the Philippines(Photo courtesy of Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE))
According to the latest Global Climate Risk Index report by Germanwatch published in 2021, the Philippines is one of the top five countries most vulnerable to climate change.[1] The country faces at least twenty typhoons per year (with an average of five typhoons becoming supertyphoons) that cause immense flooding, devastation of communities, livelihood, cultural heritage, and displacements of thousands of families. Such vulnerability may be one of the reasons for strong Filipino activism against environmental degradation and climate change.[2] However, being involved in environmental and climate activism can be a dangerous experience in the country.[3] Environmental defenders and climate activists are usual targets of red-tagging or being labeled or accused as part of underground communists and insurgencies.[3] Moreover, the Philippines is one of the deadliest places in the world and the deadliest in Asia for environmental defenders and climate activists.[4] Between 2012 and 2021, at least 270 environmental defenders were murdered in the country. In 2022 alone, 11 environmental defenders were killed; 80% of the total killings were linked to protests against corporations while a third were connected to resistance to mining activities.[5]
All environmental defenders face several consequences to their lives and psychological health due to the nature of their work and the threats associated with protecting the country’s natural environment. However, some specific groups of climate activists and environmental defenders - women, the youth, and Indigenous populations - experience more frequent intimidations, surveillance, violence, and life threats. Women in general disproportionately face the many consequences of climate change (e.g. economic problems, increased violence, etc.).[6] Women environmental defenders are especially vulnerable to the dangers and threats emanating from the commercial and political drivers of environmental exploitation. Globally, women environmental defenders who bravely fight against powerful figures often become easy targets of surveillance, intimidation, gender-based and sexual violence, criminalization, targetting and assassinations,[7] which have dire consequences for their psychological health.[3] Women environmental defenders are considered a minority due to their small number and therefore often remain voiceless.[8] In Asia, only a small percentage of environmental defenders are women[9] because environmental defense is traditionally viewed as a “man’s job” due to its dangers. Environmental Justice Atlas documented at least 3,330 cases of violence against women environmental defenders globally[8] and the Philippines is one of the violence hotspots.[3]
Meanwhile, based on a recent multi-country survey, young people from the Philippines were found to experience the highest levels of “climate anxiety” among study respondents from 10 countries.[11] Filipino youth are already concerned about the threats to their future as climate change-related hazards, such as extreme typhoons, drought, heatwaves, and sea-level rise, are expected to be more frequent and intensified in the coming years.[12] It would be no surprise that Filipino youth climate activists and environmental defenders can also be vulnerable to the emotional distress and mental health problems brought about by climate change and other environmental threats. Many young Filipinos feel frustrated due to the lack of sufficient action and urgent solutions of national and world governments. [11] In response, Filipino youth increasingly engage in climate activism, driven by their intense worries about their future, especially because they know that their country is the epicenter of the climate crisis. For example, the event “Ngayon, Para Bukas [translated as, Today, for Tomorrow], A Call for Collective Climate Action!” gathered Filipino children’s perspective about the climate crisis and their urgent concern being born in an era of increasingly devastating climate change-related events. Through several dialogues, they collected children’s views and presented them in COP28 in Dubai in late 2023.[13] Instead of receiving support for their advocacy, young Filipino climate activists and environmental defenders often have to deal with the political drivers of the environmental damage, involving government forces such as the military and the police. Early in September 2023, two young women environmental defenders, Jonila Castro (21 years old) and Jhed Tamano (22 years old), were abducted and intimidated (allegedly by the military) for expressing their dissent over the current reclamation projects in Manila Bay that are posing threats to the livelihood and welfare of the communities in the area.[14] They were eventually freed after a government-organized press conference where they publicly disclosed their harrowing experiences during their abduction. The recency of this incident highlights the dangers that environmental defenders, including those who are young, constantly face everyday, and the urgent action that must be undertaken in order to protect their wellbeing in all aspects - be it physical or psychosocial.
Indigenous climate activists and environmental defenders also face serious threats to their safety and mental health. These threats are not only contemporary but also historical, rooted in centuries of oppression, destruction of their culture and ancestral treasures, and even denial of their rights and existence. Surveillance, harassment, intimidation, and attacks on Indigenous climate activists and leaders contribute to the high rate of violence against environmental defenders in the country. These violent attacks are often driven by private and governmental entities that seek to use ancestral domains for commercial (e.g. mining) and government projects (e.g. creating a dam). For instance, in 1974, the Philippine government planned to install a massive dam along Chico River, located in the ancestral land of Butbut tribe in the mountain of Bugnay in the Cordilleras in the northern part of the country. The resistance of Indigenous communities resulted in the murders of several Indigenous peoples including Macli-ing Dulag, an Indigenous leader who fought to protect their ancestral treasures despite the violence, bribery, and intimidation of the government at the time.[15] The death of Macli-ing Dulag caught the attention of the global community, building international pressure that eventually led to the cancellation of the project.
Later on, efforts to protect the rights of Indigenous peoples in the Philippines were pursued. For instance, the Republic Act No. 8371 or the Philippine Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 1997 was passed by the Philippine Congress. [16] This law aims to recognize, protect, and promote the rights of Indigenous cultural communities and Indigenous peoples, including their rights over their ancestral lands and their rights to freely express dissent against forces that aim to exploit natural resources owned or protected by Indigenous communities and their ancestors. Despite the presence of this law for almost three decades now, the murders of Indigenous environmental defenders continue to increase and private and governmental entities persistently grab Indigenous communities’ ancestral lands and use (para)military forces and legal instruments to intimidate and silence them (e.g., red-tagging) up until today.[17] The Butbut tribe is only one of the many Indigenous communities in the Philippines that face increasing violence in the name of environmental protection and preservation of ancestral lands and culture.
Despite the alarming threats faced by climate activists and environmental defenders, there remains no law or legal protection mechanisms that were specifically enacted to address their plight. The closest effort is the Human Rights Defenders Bill, which is still being reviewed and debated in the Philippine Congress.[10] Importantly, there is not enough attention given to mental health of climate activists and environmental defenders, especially women, the youth, and Indigenous peoples.
The following are the insights and recommendations that aim to protect climate activists and environmental defenders in the Philippines, and more especially promote their physical and mental health and wellbeing. First, grounded, collaborative, and participatory research that captures the lived experiences of those at the forefront of the climate crisis is needed. This allows for the design and development of contextualized mental health interventions that are unique to the experiences of the target group. Women, the youth, and Indigenous people face multiple (and often intersecting) consequences of their work as environmental defenders, such as sacrificing their time for family in pursuit of their advocacies, letting go of their traditional roles at home and work, and facing serious threats to their lives.
Such an approach to the research on the mental health challenges faced by climate activists and environmental defenders will allow the design of interventions that are specific and contextualized, based on the salient and most pressing climate hazards faced by climate activists and environmental defenders as well as the communities they serve. For instance, environmental defenders may be working directly with communities grappling with a wide range of climate hazards, such as typhoons, severe flooding, drought, and sea level rise, while others are fighting against environmental issues which may not be a direct result of climate change, but in some ways contribute to it (such as deforestation, overfishing, and mining).
When mental health interventions are designed for environmental defenders in the Philippines, there must be translation of tools into different major dialects in the Philippines to ensure that environmental defenders, regardless of their geographic location or ethnic background, can access these mental health interventions that are tailored specifically for their needs. Moreover, the creation of online and mobile app mental health toolkits is recommended as they can offer easy access to any climate activist and environmental defender who might need mental health support anywhere in the country (given the high penetration of mobile phones in the Philippines).
It is also necessary to identify other groups and communities (e.g. low-income communities) that are the most vulnerable not only to climate change but also to the threats posed by its political and commercial drivers. When designing interventions, it is imperative to look at the bigger picture as the mental health problems experienced by people in the context of the climate crisis may be influenced by several interacting factors, not just climate change, but also competing political and commercial interests.
Lastly, a long-term solution is to advocate for policies and laws that protect environmental defenders, especially women, the youth, and Indigenous populations, not only in the Philippines but also in other countries in Eastern and South-Eastern Asia, as they also have their shared experiences and challenges related to environmental and climate activism. Legal protection and mental health welfare for climate activists and environmental defenders need to be enacted and enforced to ensure that they are able to continue their mission to protect the environment without fear or distress.
1. Germanwatch. Global Climate Risk Index 2021. https://www.germanwatch.org/en/19777
2. PAGASA. Climate change in the Philippines. https://www.pagasa.dost.gov.ph/information/climate-change-in-the-philippines
3. Aruta JJ. Environmental Defenders in the Philippines: Ecological Grief, Loss, Trauma, Hope, and Protection. Journal of Loss and Trauma. 2023 Jun 14:1-3.
4. Aruta JJ, Guinto RR, Clements GR, Mahmood J. Protecting environmental defenders to prevent pandemics. The Lancet Planetary Health. 2022 Jun 1;6(6):e458-9.
5. Global Witness. (2022, September). Decade of defiance: Ten years of reporting land and environmental activism worldwide. https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/environmental-activists/decadedefiance/
6. Terry G. No climate justice without gender justice: an overview of the issues. Gender & Development. 2009 Mar 1;17(1):5-18.
7. Tran D, Hanaček K. A global analysis of violence against women defenders in environmental conflicts. Nature sustainability. 2023 Jun 5:1-9.
8. Le Tran, D., Martinez-Alier, J., Navas, G., & Mingorria, S. (2020). Gendered geographies of violence: a multiple case study analysis of murdered women environmental defenders. Journal of Political Ecology, 27(1), 1189-1212.
9. World Wide Fund for Nature (2016). Ranger Perception: Asia [Internet]. Available here: https://files.worldwildlife.org/wwfcmsprod/files/Publication/file/3ijzw1rbax_Ranger_Perception_Survey__Asia_.pdf
10. Lagman, E. Human Rights Defenders Protection Bill approved. 12 June 2019. https://www.congress.gov.ph/press/details.php?pressid=11552[11] Al Jazeera. Two activists freed in Philippines after being ‘abducted by the military’. September 22, 2023. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/two-activists-freed-in-philippines-after-being-abducted-by-the-military/ar-AA1h1Uch
11. Hickman C, Marks E, Pihkala P, Clayton S, Lewandowski RE, Mayall EE, Wray B, Mellor C, van Susteren L. Climate anxiety in children and young people and their beliefs about government responses to climate change: a global survey. The Lancet Planetary Health. 2021 Dec 1;5(12):e863-73.
12. Aruta JJ, Simon PD. Addressing climate anxiety among young people in the Philippines. The Lancet Planetary Health. 2022 Feb 1;6(2):e81-2.
13. UNICEF Philippines. Young people in the Philippines are leading the fight against climate change. https://www.unicef.org/philippines/press-releases/young-people-philippines-are-leading-fight-against-climate-change
14. Aspinwall, N. (2023). ‘We will cut out your tongue’: Filipino activists recount kidnap ordeal. Al Jazeera. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/19/we-will-cut-out-your-tongue-filipino-activists-recount-military-kidnap
15. Martial Law Museum. The Heroes Who Fought Martial Law: Macli-ing Dulag. https://martiallawmuseum.ph/magaral/martial-law-heroes-macliing-dulag/
16. Republic Act No. 8371. Philippine Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 1997. https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/1997/10/29/republic-act-no-8371/
17. Human Rights Watch (June 2023). Philippines: Officials ‘Red-Tagging’ Indigenous Leaders, Activists. https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/01/26/philippines-officials-red-tagging-indigenous-leaders-activists
John Jamir Benzon Aruta, PhD
