55
find it hard to concentrate during the day, and loss of school days due
to physical and mental health impact, and higher dropout rates due
to pressure on household incomes, for example.The government has
identified damages incurred from disasters as one of the key causes of
shortages of classrooms and school materials as well.Typhoon Haiyan
damaged or destroyed over three thousand (3,000) schools and day
care center. Many large schools were also taken over as evacuation
centers, and this resulted in a sudden disruption in education for
more than a million preschool and school-aged children.259
c. Indigenous Peoples
The UN recognizes that indigenous peoples are at the “front lines of climate change”
because they understand what climate change means for societies, ecosystems, and
cultures as inheritors and practitioners of unique cultures.260 Despite their unique role
in conservation, indigenous communities are uniquely at risk because of the changing
climate. Indigenous people are significantly impacted by climate change owing to
their dependence on climate-sensitive resources and deep cultural relationships with
the environment.261
Between 14-17 million Filipinos belong to more than a hundred ethno-linguistic
groups.262 Environmental degradation due to climate change doubly affects indigenous
communities as the environment is a natural extension of their livelihood, survival,
and cultural identity. For instance, the Mangyans, an indigenous group that relies on
fruit farming for their livelihood, have been heavily affected by climate change. Due
to extreme heat, the group has been unable to produce and sell their usual agricultural
products–bananas and coconuts. Often, banana trees wilt and die or produce fruits
that are too thin to sell while coconut trees bear fruits with no coconut meat.263
259
T.S.N. of the Fifth Inquiry Hearing dated 6-10 November 2018, at 4-6.
260
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Indigenous Empowerment is Vital for
Climate Action (Aug. 9, 2017), available at https://unfccc.int/news/indigenous-empowerment-is-vitalfor-climate-action.
261
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs – Indigenous Peoples, Climate Change:
The Effects of Climate Change on Indigenous Peoples, available at https://www.un.org/development/
desa/indigenouspeoples/climate-change.html (last accessed Nov. 11, 2019).
262
United Nations Development Programme Philippines, Fast Facts - Indigenous Peoples in the
Philippines (2013), available at https://www.undp.org/content/dam/philippines/docs/Governance/
fastFacts6%20-%20Indigenous%20Peoples%20in%20the%20Philippines%20rev%201.5.pdf.
263
Norberto Escares, Community Dialogue in Verde Island Passage, June 2018.
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