Changing Livelihoods: the case of small-scale mining in Northern Luzon, the Philippines

Abstract

When studying the literature about livelihoods it soon becomes clear that livelihoods are changing and shifting from farm to non-farm activities. No longer are peasants seen as rural people who are solely or primarily engaged in farming. This realization has led to the livelihood approach which comes to terms with how rural people actually make a living. This is not to say that farming is declining, but that farmers are diversifying their income, with alternative livelihoods. This broadening of livelihood activities, called ‘livelihood diversification’, is a way for rural people to increase their standard of living or to secure their economic position (Ellis 2000b). One alternative livelihood is small-scale mining, an important livelihood in different countries around the world, but almost absent in the literature about livelihoods. This is how we came to the following research question, which we will explore in this thesis: which livelihoods and livelihood strategies are present in Kabayan and what is the role of farming and mining herein?