Joan Carling (born 1963) [1] is an indigenous Filipino human rights activist and environmentalist who has defended the rights of native and marginalized peoples for over two decades. She has served as Secretary General of the Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP) and has chaired the Cordillera People's Alliance in the Philippines. Carling has also contributed to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and REDD+ activities and has served as a member of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFii). In September 2018 she received the Champions of the Earth Lifetime Achievement Award from the United Nations Environment Programme in recognition of her work as an environmentalist and a defender of human rights. [2] [3]
Born on 30 June 1963 in Baguio, Joan Carling is the daughter of a half-Japanese, half-Kankanaey father and a Kankanaey mother. [4] The Kankanaey people belonging to the Igorot group are based in the Mountain Province in the Cordillera Central mountain rage. After completing high school, she studied social sciences at the University of the Philippines, College of Baguio, specializing in sociology. She graduated in 1986. [1]
While still at college, in 1984 she was struck by the murder of Macli-ing Dulag who had been campaigning against the Chico River Dam Project in order to safeguard the native Kalinga people. After attending his memorial in Sadanga, for the next three years she joined in efforts towards community integration, becoming a human rights activist in Kalinga. [4] [5]
In 1989, while attending a conference on ethnocide and militarization in Mindanao, she was one of 16 delegates to be arrested on the grounds that they were members of the Communist New People's Army. After a number of protests, they were finally released. In 1998, she campaigned against the construction of the San Roque Dam. [6] On returning to Baguio, she joined the Cordillera Peoples Alliance, becoming Secretary General in 1997 and Chair from 2003 to 2006. [1] [4]
From September 2008, she served for two periods as Secretary General of the AIPP, representing its 47-member organization. She has written and edited publications on human rights, climate change, forest conservation, sustainable development and indigenous women. From 2014 to 2016, she served as member of the UNPFii. [2] In 2014, she edited Her Story of Empowerment, Leadership and Justice on indigenous women in Asia, published by AIPP. [7]
In her role as Co-convener of the Indigenous Peoples Major Group on the Sustainable Development Goals, in February 2018 she was designated a terrorist by the Filipino authorities for an alleged connection with the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People's Army. [8]
In September 2018 she received the Champions of the Earth Lifetime Achievement Award from the United Nations Environment Programme in recognition of her work as an environmentalist and a defender of human rights. [5]
Carling was one of the Filipino women prominently featured in a tribute to female gamechangers at Irish rock band U2's 2019 Joshua Tree Tour during its Manila leg. [9] [10]
Benguet, officially the Province of Benguet, is a landlocked province of the Philippines located in the southern tip of the Cordillera Administrative Region in the island of Luzon. Its capital is La Trinidad.
Kalinga, officially the Province of Kalinga, is a landlocked province in the Philippines situated within the Cordillera Administrative Region in Luzon. Its capital is Tabuk and borders Mountain Province to the south, Abra to the west, Isabela to the east, Cagayan to the northeast, and Apayao to the north. Kalinga and Apayao are the result of the 1995 partitioning of the former province of Kalinga-Apayao which was seen to better service the respective needs of the various indigenous peoples in the area.
The Cordillera Administrative Region, also known as the Cordillera Region and Cordillera, is an administrative region in the Philippines, situated within the island of Luzon. It is the only landlocked region in the insular country, bordered by the Ilocos Region to the west and southwest, and by the Cagayan Valley Region to the north, east, and southeast. It is the least populous region in the Philippines, with a population less than that of the city of Manila.
The Cordillera Central or Cordillera Range is a massive mountain range 320 km long north-south and 118 km east-west. The Cordillera mountain range is situated in the north-central part of the island of Luzon, in the Philippines. The mountain range encompasses all provinces of the Cordillera Administrative Region, as well as portions of eastern Ilocos Norte, eastern Ilocos Sur, eastern La Union, northeastern Pangasinan, western Nueva Vizcaya, and western Cagayan.
The indigenous peoples of the Cordillera Mountain Range of northern Luzon, Philippines, often referred to by the exonym Igorot people, or more recently, as the Cordilleran peoples, are an ethnic group composed of nine main ethnolinguistic groups whose domains are in the Cordillera Mountain Range, altogether numbering about 1.5 million people in the early 21st century.
Bontoc, officially the Municipality of Bontoc, is a 2nd class municipality and capital of the province of Mountain Province, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 24,104 people.
Itogon, officially the Municipality of Itogon,, is a 1st class municipality in the province of Benguet, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 61,498 people.
The Kalinga people are an indigenous ethnic group whose ancestral domain is in the Cordillera Mountain Range of the northern Philippines. They are mainly found in Kalinga province which has an area of 3,282.58 sq. km. Some of them, however, already migrated to Mountain Province, Apayao, Cagayan, and Abra. The Kalinga numbered 163,167 as of 2010.
The indigenous peoples of the Philippines are ethnolinguistic groups or subgroups that maintain partial isolation or independence throughout the colonial era, and have retained much of their traditional pre-colonial culture and practices.
The pasiking is the indigenous basket-backpack found among the various ethno-linguistic groups of Northern Luzon in the Philippines. Pasiking designs have sacred allusions, although most are purely aesthetic. These artifacts, whether handwoven traditionally or with contemporary variations, are considered exemplars of functional basketry in the Philippines and among Filipinos.
The Kankanaey people are an Indigenous peoples of the Northern Philippines. They are part of the collective group of indigenous people known as the Igorot people.
The Chico River Dam Project was a proposed hydroelectric power generation project involving the Chico River on the island of Luzon in the Philippines that locals, notably the Kalinga people, resisted because of its threat to their residences, livelihood, and culture. The project was shelved in the 1980s after public outrage in the wake of the murder of opposition leader Macli-ing Dulag. It is now considered a landmark case study concerning ancestral domain issues in the Philippines.
The Indigenous Peoples' Rights Act of 1997 (IPRA), officially designated as Republic Act No. 8371, is a Philippine law that recognizes and promotes the rights of indigenous cultural communities and indigenous peoples in the Philippines.
The Cordillera People's Liberation Army (CPLA) was a militant organization based in the Cordillera region in the Philippines founded by Conrado Balweg.
Macli-ing Dulag was a pangat (leader) of the Butbut tribe of Kalinga province in the Philippines. He is best known as one of the leaders of the opposition to the Chico River Dam Project, which led to his assassination by armed forces under the command of then-president Ferdinand Marcos.
Regina Paz "Gina" La'o Lopez was a Filipino environmentalist and philanthropist who served as Secretary of the Philippines' Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in an ad interim basis under the Duterte administration. She was previously the Chairperson of the Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission under two consecutive administrations. Lopez was also a yoga missionary and a pioneer for corporate social responsibility.
Joanna Patricia Kintanar Cariño is a Filipina human rights activist, educator, researcher, and co-founder of the Cordillera People's Alliance (CPA), SELDA Northern Luzon and SANDUGO.
Indigenous people’s resistance against the Marcos dictatorship varied from case to case among the various indigenous peoples of the Philippines. The most documented cases are the various resistance movements towards the Marcos administration’s appropriation of indigenous lands, particularly in the case of the Chico River Dam Project and the Manila Water Supply III project on the Kaliwa River watershed, and the birth of the various separatist groups and their coalescing into the Moro conflict in the wake of news about the Jabidah Massacre.
Maria Ceres P. Doyo is a Filipino journalist, author, human rights activist, and feminist best known as a columnist and staff writer for the Philippine Daily Inquirer, for her numerous books on Philippine journalism, and for the historical impact of her investigative reports during the martial law under Ferdinand Marcos.
Environmental defenders or environmental human rights defenders are individuals or collectives who protect the environment from harms resulting from resource extraction, hazardous waste disposal, infrastructure projects, land appropriation, or other dangers. In 2019, the UN Human Rights Council unanimously recognised their importance to environmental protection. The term environmental defender is broadly applied to a diverse range of environmental groups and leaders from different cultures that all employ different tactics and hold different agendas. Use of the term is contested, as it homogenizes such a wide range of groups and campaigns, many of whom do not self-identify with the term and may not have explicit aims to protect the environment.