Need for social responsibility in mining industry stressed

With the partnership announced in the WSSD-World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, the Millennium Development Goals have taken a backward movement. Despite the United Outcry on Mining Green which was launched in the summit, IUCN members and other NGOs have worked hard to convince the IUCN council to downgrade the pre-mature partnership into a dialogue.

The dialogue between IUCN and ICMM has gone through a series of events. Firstly the terms of reference (TORs) have been changed and strengthened in behalf of the conservation mandate and mission of IUCN and working group composed of IUCN members, NGOs, the industry and ICMM. The dialogue has not made considerable progress and little has been done on the ground.

With respect to legacy mines and the rights of indigenous peoples, ICMM has made pronouncements in the dialogue and in its website that they have done good things and best practice actions. This is totally wrong; on the contrary they have failed in doing their duty as per the new TORs. Members of ICMM have been mining and disregarding the communities where they have mining operations.

The Marinduque mining clean-up operations of Placer Dome has not been acted upon. The island, the Boac River and the people of Marinduque have still to be compensated. The children and the community continue to suffer. There has been no clean up and rehabilitation despite the UN, FAO and WHO getting involved in the site.

There are moves to promote mining in the Philippines and other mineral and natural rich countries. The poor are getting poorer and the biodiversity is being destroyed. The government has given tax perks and incentives to these mining companies to mine and extract our minerals at all cost. Already the country is suffering from the effects of mining and those of oil and gas extraction.

They have been given the right to go directly to the mayors and governors in the local communities to mine, thus increasing the corruption which is already at an all-time high. The people continue to suffer and the battle to stop them has gone down to the grassroots and the communities.

Despite the EIR prepared by Dr.Emil Salim of the World Bank, despite the critique done on the MMSD, despite the many other studies done on the extractive industries causing negative impacts on the environment and the people, the mining companies continue to mine the country dry at the expense of the people and biodiversity. The World Bank and other lending institutions have pledged to lend the mining companies and finance their operations at the expense of the country’s economy, people and biodiversity.

New players have entered the arena, some of them non-ICMM members such as Chinese and Japanese companies. They want to take advantage of the new laws and incentives given by the government. How can ICMM and IUCN police them if they are not members? Should this continue, there will be an ecological time bomb as well as a social volcano ready to explode. Poverty is on the rise, the economy is collapsing and biodiversity is degrading at a rate never experienced before.

What good is the dialogue if they do not practice what they say? What good are all the studies and negative impacts proven if all they care about is greed and profits without a social responsibility? IUCN must restudy this dialogue and be firmer in their stand to complete their mission and vision.