Indigenous Peoples in the Philippines face a range of threats from what they frequently describe as 'development aggression'. As they struggle to defend their land, much of it is in areas of forest or mountain that are rich in natural resources and so conflicts often arise with companies, many of them based outside the Philippines, who want to exploit those resources - mostly without the consent of the Indigenous Peoples.

The main problems that Indigenous Peoples face are from large-scale mining that digs up their land, in the construction of large-scale dams that floods their land, in widespread logging that deforests their land, or in the creation of nature reserves or agriculture that sees them ejected from or restricted in access to their own land.

All of these activities can lead to conflict which leads to militarisation of their land, and in loss of livelihood or encroachment of settlements which can lead urbanisation.