The Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center-Kasama sa Kalikasan/Friends of the Earth Philippines (LRC-KsK/FoE Phils.) is organized and registered as a non-stock, non-profit, non-partisan, cultural, scientific and research organization. Established in December 7, 1987, it started actual operations in February 1988.

LRC-Kasama sa Kalikasan is the Philippine member of Friends of the Earth.

LRC works for the recognition and protection of the rights of indigenous peoples and upland rural poor communities to land and other natural resources. The Center seeks to bridge the gap between the informal articulation of the aspirations of these marginalized communities on the one hand, and the formal, technical, bureaucratic and legal language used by the state.

To accomplish its goals, LRC-KsK maintains the following programs: Research and Policy Development, Direct Legal Services, and Campaigns Support.

History

Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center-Kasama sa Kalikasan/Friends of the Earth Philippines (LRC-KsK/FoE Phils.) was founded by three young law student activists in 1987, around the time of the EDSA People Power Movement.

LRC-KsK’s areas of work and campaigns have included indigenous peoples‘rights, rights to land and natural resources of indigenous peoples and upland rural poor directly dependent on the land and natural resources, human rights, natural resources in general, including water, forest, energy, climate change. LRC-KsK was instrumental in the crafting and defense of the constitutionality of the Indigenous Peoples‘ Rights Act of 1997 (IPRA). It was the legal counsel for marginalized and poor communities, and campaigned for the repeal of the Mining Act of 1995.

Recent national campaigns include the push for an Alternative Minerals Management Bill (AMMB), and petitions questioning the Mining Act of 1995 again for its unjust, inequitable, and unconstitutional provisions on government and people’s share of the proceeds. LRC became a member of Friends of the Earth International in the early 1990s.

Vision-Mission

LRC-KsK envisions a society where the rights of marginalized indigenous peoples and upland rural poor communities are respected, recognized and upheld. We aspire for a society where the ownership, use, management, conservation of our natural resources are carried out in a democratic, ecologically-sustainable, culturally-appropriate, economically-viable, gender-just and equitable manner.

Through Strategic Progressive Legal Intervention or policy-determining litigation, research and policy development and advocacy, the LRC-KsK partners with marginalized indigenous and upland rural poor communities for the respect, protection, and promotion of their rights to land and other natural resources, towards a society that is gender-, ecologically-, culturally-, democratic, peaceful, and just.

Goals

The two main goals of the Center are:

- To catalyze change through changes in laws, policies and structures; and
- To defend the rights and enhance capacities of local communities in addressing inequities.

Themes

LRC-KsK’s main themes are:  Indigenous Peoples’ Rights and other Human Rights, and Natural Resources.