MANIFESTO OF THE

ASEAN CIVIL SOCIETY SUMMIT

ON THE ENVIRONMENT
July 23, 2017, Davao City

Recognizing the crisis of climate change as a major threat to the survival of peoples and
the planet, and particularly, for ASEAN peoples who are among the most climate-
threatened in the world;

Gravely concerned over ASEAN governments vigorous pursuit of unhampered growth,

driven primarily by the very same fossil-fuel energy sources which historically caused
and have been scientifically proven to exacerbate climate change;

Keenly aware of the heavy toll exacted by the climate crisis from people and
communities especially the poor and vulnerable, the landless, the economically
disempowered and dispossessed, women, children, Moro communities and indigenous
peoples;

Seeing that ASEANs neoliberal development and growth paradigm that puts profit
before people and the environment translate to flagrant and widespread violations of
ASEAN states international human rights obligations to protect, respect and fulfil the
rights to life, secure livelihoods, food, clean water and decent housing, among others;

Understanding that this same growth imperative underpins and spurs the relentless
exploitation of natural resources, beyond what our planet can sustainably bear, and
inflicting on biodiversity and the environment often irreversible damage which serve to
further deepen our vulnerabilities to climate change;

Realizing that urgent actions are required to address the potentially catastrophic
impacts of this crisis by embarking on the strategic shift away from climate-damaging
fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas and oil, and supporting the development and use
of renewable energy;

Recognizing that among these immediate actions is the need for the ASEAN to
establish, in addition to the economic, political-security and socio-cultural community
pillars, a specific pillar focused on the environment, in view of the scale, urgency and
magnitude of the environmental issues we face in the context of climate change;

We, civil society organizations, social movements, church groups, academicians, and
students, gathered here in Davao City for the ASEAN Civil Society Summit on the
Environment, stand firm in our conviction that:
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a. the environment is part of the commons -- the resources needed and used by
life on earth and all of humanity which must necessarily be shared and
collectively protected and managed for the common good;
b. no part of the environment can thus be privately owned and exploited for
private and profit-driven ends. We hold and use natural resources in trust, as
stewards for the future generations upholding the principle of
intergenerational responsibility;
c. sustainable development pathways are vital to changing the current system of
unlimited growth, extractivism and profit-seeking;
d. a just transition should be ensured as part of the process of moving away
from fossil fuel dependence and transforming current energy systems around
renewable energy sources and in the service of people and the promotion of
sustainable development.
e. children are key to the future of humanity, and yet remain largely invisible and
voiceless in society; efforts must be undertaken in earnest to ensure that
mechanisms are put in place to enable them to be heard in policy-making
processes and that they are assured of the environmental resources essential
to their survival and well-being.

In particular, we commit to work for the establishment of fourth community pillar in the
ASEAN -- and press for the following:

On Climate Change
1. Ensuring the protection of the basic rights of people amidst the impacts of climate
change, such as the right to life, food, right to decent housing and clean water.
2. Seriously committing to a global target of keeping temperature rise below 1.5
degrees.
3. Promoting the use of organic farming and agro-ecology.
4. Ending dependence on coal-fired power plants and other dirty sources of energy.
5. Putting in place a just transition to renewable energy and low-carbon economies
and societies.
6. Stopping the promotion of false solutions to the climate change crisis such as
clean coal technologies, agrofuels and big dams.
7. Calling on ASEAN governments to demand accountability from developed
countries historically responsible for the climate crisis.
8. Demanding climate finance for the adaptation needs of ASEAN countries.
9. Calling on ASEAN governments to demand that developed countries implement
ambitious, fair and equitable Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).
10. Ensuring efforts in transitioning towards sustainable economies and societies
that put people, not profit, front and center of development perspectives and
directions.
11. For civil society, strengthening advocacy by forming a regional body on the
environment and climate change, and developing a blueprint or roadmap to
advance our issues and demands.
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On Biodiversity
1. Forging biodiversity and biosafety agreements in ASEAN with biodiversity
conservation as one of its main goals.
2. Strengthening the protection of ASEAN Heritage Sites.
3. Ensuring the protection of agricultural areas, and ASEAN food security.
4. Updating the biodiversity profile of each member country.
5. Strengthening the protection of and sustainable use of shared ASEAN marine
resources.
6. Building regional consensus and positions on sustainable mining that rejects the
profit-driven, extractivist enterprise that it is today in the hands of multinational
corporations, fully takes into account the Earths limits and is undertaken in the
context of sustainable development and national industrialization.
7. Integrating protection of biodiversity and the environment in school curricula.
8. Raising awareness, respecting and promoting indigenous knowledge and
practices as an important source of lessons in environmental and biodiversity
protection.
9. Strictly enforcing policies on bioprospecting/biopiracy of indigenous knowledge
and endemic species.
10. Putting a stop to the conversion of agricultural lands to residential, commercial
and industrial uses and prioritizing support for farmers through direct subsidies to
farmers cooperatives.

On Energy
1. Promoting peoples access to clean, renewable energy, and prioritizing peoples
needs for energy above the interests of big business.
2. Supporting participatory and community-based energy management systems.
3. Reviewing and auditing all existing coal-fired power plants, and stopping the
construction of new coal facilities.
4. Pushing for a stop to the construction of the ASEAN regional energy grid which
will primarily serve big business interests, not the interests of people for the
realization of their right to clean, adequate and affordable energy access.
5. Putting a stop to financial flows to dirty energy and other fossil fuel investments,
and developing a responsible finance policy that promotes renewable energy
development.
6. Ensuring that efforts are made to stop dirty energy funding in ASEAN by
international financial institutions such as the ADB, World Bank, IMF and AIIB.

On Water Resources
1. Upholding water as a human right and that ASEANs drive for energy does not
impinge on this right.
2. Resisting false solutions to the climate crisis that put freshwater resources at
great risk, and further constrain access especially by poor and vulnerable
communities.
3. Ensuring the protection of water sources from pollution and the impacts of
climate change.
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4. Defending peoples rights to sufficient, affordable, clean, quality water and the
sustainable, equitable and democratic use and management of water resources.
5. Stopping and reversing the privatization and commodification of water.

On Ecological Child Rights

1. Ensuring compliance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), of
which all ASEAN member countries are State Parties, the harmonization of
domestic legislation and enforcement of existing laws.
2. Expanding the substance of the CRC to integrate Ecological Child Rights as a
major child protection concern, and in line with the principle of intergenerational
responsibility.
3. Instituting and ensuring enforcement of stronger protection and accountability
mechanisms by mining corporations particularly in relation to children in affected
communities.
4. Ensure the enforcement of ASEAN instruments against child labor and child
trafficking.
5. Integrate Ecological Child Rights in school curricula.
6. Ensure the development and establishment of mechanisms for the genuine and
substantive participation of children in the integrated management of rivers and
other water systems, including those that are cross-boundary in nature.

On War, Conflict and the Environment

1. Ensuring that projects in environment conservation areas are rigorously
evaluated for protecting biodiversity, and promoting human rights, particularly
compliance and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
2. Demilitarizing ancestral domains and environmental conservation areas.
3. Developing an ASEAN standard for the fiscal regime for extractives.
4. Increasing the representation of civil society organizations in the Extractive
Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI).
5. Integrating sustainable development and natural resources management in
peace processes.
6. Strictly enforcing the policies of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of
the Child (UNCRC) against child soldiers.
7. Ensuring the strict implementation of the international humanitarian law.
8. Ensuring transparency in development projects and diligently reviewing
potentially adverse impacts on Moro and indigenous communities, such as
displacements and environmental destruction.
9. Putting an immediate stop to all forms of development aggression and
militarization in Moro and indigenous communities.

In view of the solutions being put forward by governments/parliaments, multilateral

development organizations, international financial institutions and other entities
solutions which refuse and fail to address the systemic and structural roots of climate
change and shall only deepen the suffering of peoples and the planet we also
specifically call for the following:
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a. Stop false solutions that claim to address climate change, but in fact, undermine
farmers and fishers rights and livelihoods; increase the vulnerability of
communities to the impact of climate change; and exacerbate hunger and the
lack of access to food, land, and water.
b. Stop false climate change solutions that commodify our lands, forests, and
waters in addition to undermining global emission reductions. Ban the use of
agricultural lands for false climate solutions. Ensure transparency and
participatory consultation in development projects.
c. Promote sustainable, equitable, and resilient agricultural systems aimed at
production of healthy, adequate, and affordable food. Avoid agricultural practices
that highly emit greenhouse gases.
d. Stop the promotion of so-called Climate Smart Agriculture, a deceptive concept
and initiative which includes carbon-intensive, unsustainable agriculture.
e. Stop land and water grabs. Stop conversion of agricultural lands to non- staple
food uses. Stop privatization of water and other commons. Prioritize public
interest (including irrigation) in water and land distribution systems.
f. Fast track the implementation of genuine, egalitarian and comprehensive land
reform and other programs for democratic access to land and the commons for
food production.
g. Strictly implement forest protection policies to safeguard them from commercial
activities such as conversion to plantation and logging activities.
h. Ensure the protection and restoration of the degraded ecosystem.
i. Respect and protect ancestral domains of indigenous peoples.

Signed,
Convenors of the ASEAN Civil Society Summit on the Environment
Ateneo de Davao University UCEAC
Asian Peoples Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD)
Association for Community and Ecology Development (ACED) Thailand
Association for Community Development (ACD)
Center for Energy Ecology and Development (CEED)
The Climate Reality Project Philippines
Freedom from Debt Coalition
Green Thumb Coalition (GTC)
GITIB Inc.
Interface Development Intervention Inc. (IDIS)
Mindanao Action Group on Childrens Rights and Protection (MAGCRP)
Our Rivers Our Life (OROL)
Philippine Movement for Climate Justice (PMCJ)
Santi Sena Organization (SSO) - Cambodia

In partnership with:
Terre des Hommes Germany (Help for Children in Need)
German Cooperation (BMZ)