Lessons from the “Counter-Environmental Impact Assessment”: A Reflection on the Methods of Community Science

• Main Authors: Lagos, Devralin T., Eco, Rodrigo C., Hernandez, Vito C., Carag, John Warner, Gasmen, Harianne J.
• Format: text
• Published: Archīum Ateneo 2023
• Online Access: https://archium.ateneo.edu/phstudies/vol71/iss1/7; https://archium.ateneo.edu/context/phstudies/article/1157/viewcontent/Lessons_20from_20the_20_5Bvol._2071_20no._201_20_282023_29_20107_E2_80_9333_5D.pdf
• Institution: Ateneo De Manila University

In 2017 San Miguel Corporation proposed the construction of a ₱735-billion “New Manila International Airport” (NMIA), which would destroy 2,500 hectares of coastal environment in northern Manila Bay. Environmental impact assessments (EIAs) should evaluate such large-scale projects; as a scientific process EIAs arguably benefit certain social groups by reserving assessments to accredited scientists but exclude the affected communities. Motivated by the struggles of coastal communities, we facilitated a participatory process, later coined counter-EIA, a practice of community science that is a knowledge coproduction process between university-based “scientist-activists” and “community scientists” from the fishing communities affected by the NMIA. Its potentials and limits as resistance to knowledge production inequities and development aggression are explored in thisarticle.KEYWORDS: COUNTER-ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT •COMMUNITY SCIENCE • MANILA BAY • LAND RECLAMATION • BULACAN AEROTROPOLIS