News
Mining Now on Fair Trade Agenda
Posted February 22nd 2010
Article for Brandon Sun “Small World” Column, Saturday, Februrary 6, 2010
By Zack Gross
There is more to fair trade than food products and handicrafts. While fair trade practices are better known for their impact on Third World agricultural producers and artisans, a global effort is underway to benefit workers in the mining sector and those who are affected by mining operations. The social and environmental problems caused by the mining industry are of concern to many organizations, and programs, services and regulations are being created so that mining will adhere to the adage of “economics as if people matter”.
Whether it is in Latin America, Africa or Asia, the mining industry creates wealth. It might be by digging up coltan, which is used in cell phones and videogames, or it might be in precious metals, such as gold and diamonds – ultimately, in our world today, that wealth tends to concentrate in a few hands (wealthy corporations and their surrogates in developing countries) or be part of conflict situations, where government and rebel groups fight, with control of territory and resources being both the means and the goals in their violent campaigns.
Resource development around the world, and for hundreds of years, has entailed many negative policies and practices. Populations are often moved to make way for such activities, and rivers are dammed, trees are cut down, land torn open, and hunting grounds and natural species wiped out. Mwanza, once a remote town in northwestern Tanzania, East Africa has become its country’s second largest city, with modern roads, population growth and economic development, thanks to the affects of gold-mining by a Canadian company. Along with these positive aspects of better infrastructure and employment opportunities, however, come environmental degradation, the spread of HIV/AIDS and the growth of poverty in the midst of wealth.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), more than five million people have died in internal and regional conflict since 1998. Political instability is in part a hangover from how the country was constituted during colonial times, such as territory being divided up without due consideration being given to tribal lines. This area is also rich in globally coveted resources and, again, the home of at least two Canadian mining companies. Much of the mining in the DRC has been done in the past and present by forced labour, and much activity connects to corruption and violence.
Our mining companies feel that they can make a difference to the Congolese by juxtaposing social and economic programs with their mining operations. This would include paying artisanal miners, who usually operate at the family or community level, as opposed to setting up only large scale operations, and in investing a portion of their profits in well-digging, and road, school and clinic building. Critics of the mining industry – or those who feel they are more realistic about the situation in Congo – say that our companies are either guilty of “fair-washing” (making us think they are fair trade when they are not) or naivety.
A British company, Fairtrade Mining, operating gold and diamond mines in Sierra Leone, is trying to combine resource extraction with human development in unique ways that, they say, constitute “fair trade”. First of all, they promote artisanal mining, where no population needs to be moved, as the local people do the work in their home area, working around their homes and gardens. The company makes “appropriate technology” available, so that labour will be less back-breaking but still small-scale and less invasive of the earth. They try to use any timber cut for mining or clay dug up in the process for people’s homes afterward, as timber and bricks. They put some of their profits toward micro-credit schemes for local women to start up small businesses, and toward literacy and primary health care programs.
In Guatemala, Central America many communities have spoken out against longstanding abuse caused by mining’s unsustainable practices that affect people’s health and welfare. For example, run-off from mining operations, water that includes toxic mining chemicals, severely pollutes people’s landholdings, killing their gardens and cattle, poisoning their drinking water and causing numerous health issues. Those who protest or try to organize against the companies are often arrested or killed in the name of economic development and “law and order”.
The principles of fair trade are, of course, a fair return for one’s labour, working and living in safe conditions, and doing no harm to the environment. Some would argue that there is no way to make mining fair, safe and clean. Others would say that one can push the envelope to the point where the benefits outweigh the down side of these practices. The lumber industry is another resource extractor that has addressed similar concerns by trying to develop regulations that are more acceptable to consumers, environmentalists, aboriginal peoples and those who take such concerns to the public and legislators.
Whether these industries can meet the demands of workers, the environment and their critics - and meet the standards of fair trade and sustainable development – is a source of controversy. Companies realize that they need to clean up their image, but government and citizens are now demanding more than good public relations.
