Environmental activists restudy partnership with mining industry

The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) Council, in its 57th meeting held in Gland Switzerland, downgraded the mining partnership to mere dialogue that was announced at the recently concluded (WSSD) World Summit for Sustainable Development last Aug. 22 to Sept. 4, 2002 in Johannesburg.

The announcement of partnership, made public through press releases in Johannesburg created a united outcry for mining green wash by indigenous peoples and NGOs as well as members of IUCN.

It is hard to imagine how in the world IUCN,-the world’s leading conservation union, could enter into a partnership with International Council for Mining and Metals (ICMM).

Mining from it’s very nature, of exploring and extracting gold, silver, copper etc., if not regulated, is one of the most unfriendly enterprises to the environment in the corporate world.

It defies environment and most impacted communities especially the indigenous peoples have been at the losing end ever since.

In any dialogue there must be good faith, Antonio M. Claparols, president of the Ecological Society of the Philippines, and Regional Councilor of the IUCN, told council members as they voted for a motion to downgrade the partnership, and that they act in good faith. This was a major victory by civil society to pressure the director-general and president of IUCN to restudy the partnership.

Claparols added, "we did what we had to do. They decided wrongly on partnerships. We elevated it to the Agenda in Council and voted on a motion prepared by the program and project committee."

If this can happen in an international arena, it sure can happen in our country. We have been over-mined. And our social acceptability of the industry is poor. It continues to destroy the environment which affect the most impacted communities and must not be considered by the government, as exporter ore.