• Africa: “The more you know, the less gold glows”
• Democratic Republic of Congo: World Bank behind logging interests
• Ghana: The World Bank in the gold scenario
• Swaziland: Timber plantations at the expense of Swazi people

- Africa: “The more you know, the less gold glows”

"No Dirty Gold" is the consumer campaign launched on February 11, 2004, by Earthworks/Mineral Policy Center and Oxfam, intended to shake up the gold industry and change the way gold is mined, bought and sold. Right before and a few days after Valentine's Day --a major occasion for gold jewelry sales in the U.S.-- activists distributed Valentine's cards with the message, "Don't tarnish your love with dirty gold" in front of major jewelry and watch stores, including Cartier's and Piaget's on 5th Avenue in midtown New York City. Consumers are also asked to sign a pledge at the campaign website (www.nodirtygold.org).

The production of a single 18 Karat gold ring weighing less than an ounce generates at least 20 tons of mine waste. Metals mining employs less than one-tenth of one percent of the global workforce but consumes 7 to 10 percent of the world's energy. Eighty percent of gold is used to make jewelry. Most consumers don't realize that in Southern countries gold mining is associated with human rights abuses, and even imprisonment and death, along with environmental devastation.

As part of the campaign, Earthworks and Oxfam released the report "Dirty Metals: Mining, Communities and the Environment," ( http://www.nodirtygold.org/dirty_metals_report.cfm ) which details the massive pollution, huge open pits, devastating community health effects, worker dangers and, in many cases, human rights abuses that have become hallmarks of gold and metals mining in several countries. The report also shows that mining renders no wealth for the people and rather becomes the so-called “resource curse” for Southern countries such as Guinea, Niger, Zambia, Togo. Though their percentage of total export value from non fuel minerals is high (71, 67, 66, and 30 respectively), they have a high percentage of population below national poverty line (40, 63, 86, and 32 respectively). Mining becomes twofold a curse for local communities, which frequently suffer not only direct displacement but also a displacement of their traditional livelihoods.

Furthermore, mining targets places which are considered world heritage sites. Such is the case of gold mining in the Okapi Wildlife Reserve, Democratic Republic of Congo, the Tai National Park, Côte d’Ivoire, Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda, and Kahuzi-Biega National Park, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and iron ore mining in Mt. Nimba Strict Nature Reserve, Guinea and Côte d’Ivoire.

In the west African nation of Ghana, a country with extensive gold mines, the Ghanaian Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice issued a report in 2000 that found “overwhelming evidence of human rights violations occasioned by the mining activities, which were not sporadic but a well established pattern common to almost all mining communities.” Between 1990 and 1998, more than 30,000 people in Tarkwa were displaced by gold mining operations. "Our people have suffered beatings, imprisonment, and murder for standing up for our community rights against multinational mining companies," said Daniel Owusu-Koranteng, a mining activist from the Tarkwa district. "We want buyers of gold to support our rights and demand that mining companies adhere to higher ethical standards."

An investigation by the Ghanaian community group WACAM (Wassa Association of Communities Affected by Mining) found evidence that between 1994 and 1997, AGC (Ashanti Goldfields Company) security personnel, acting in conjunction with the police and the military, had killed three artisanal miners. In one incident in January 1997, 16 artisanal miners were severely beaten by AGC security personnel. WACAM also collected testimony from six other artisanal miners who say they were beaten and attacked by AGC security’s guard dogs.

Even as a job source, mining is unsustainable. The destruction of the traditional employment base is followed by the loss of the mine itself. When ore deposits are exhausted, the jobs disappear. Most large-scale projects have a lifespan of between 10 and 40 years, after which the mining companies close up shop and move on to new projects. Any schools, clinics, and other services established by the companies usually lose their funding. When this happens, the miners and communities are generally left to fend for themselves. Since mining is specialized employment, miners typically have few other marketable job skills. There are few “just transition” programs, in which former mineworkers are retrained for other work. For these reasons, laid-off miners are likely to stay unemployed for long periods.

The social effect of these layoffs is often profound, because the miners generally have a large number of dependents (although the majority of them may not be in the mining communities themselves). According to an estimate by the South African Chamber of Mines, one in every eight people in southern Africa is economically dependent on mining. In South Africa itself, the world’s largest gold producer, the gold mining industry laid off some 400,000 workers between 1985 and 2000 --nearly half its workforce-- thus depriving them and their numerous dependents of their sources of income.

The time has come to reform our “metals economy,” reforming the way metals are produced, finding ways to use metals far more efficiently, and continuing using metals that are already in circulation. If some metals mining may be necessary, most important extraction operations should never take place in nature reserves and native lands.

"What we're asking for is reasonable, fair and possible," said Keith Slack, Senior Policy Advisor with Oxfam America. "The symbol of your enduring love should not have to come at the expense of clean drinking water or respect for human rights." "Gold doesn't seem so shiny when you consider the colossal damage gold mining inflicts," said Payal Sampat, International Campaign Director with Earthworks. "We're asking consumers to consider the real cost of gold, and we're enlisting their help to put an end to mining practices that endanger people and ecosystems."

Article based on information from: “Africa/Global: New Campaign Targets Dirty Gold”, Pambazuka News 144, E-mail: pambazuka-news@pambazuka.org , http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=20239 ; “No Dirty Gold”, http://www.nodirtygold.org/home.cfm ; "Dirty Metals: Mining, Communities and the Environment", http://www.nodirtygold.org/dirty_metals_report.cfm

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- Democratic Republic of Congo: World Bank behind logging interests

On February 12, more than 100 environment, development and human rights groups in the war-ravaged Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have formed a unique alliance to oppose the “development” of the country’s rainforests, which could include a vast increase in industrial logging.

The social network sent a letter to the Minister for the Environment, Waters and Forests, the World Bank Resident Representative, and the FAO Representative, expressing their concern regarding the future of the country’s forests and the people living within these forests. Covering around 1.3 million square kilometres, the rainforests of the Democratic Republic of Congo are the largest in the world after Amazonia, and have so far largely been spared extensive destruction. An estimated 35 million people live in and around these forests, including Bantu farmers, and Twa and Mbuti hunter-gatherer ‘Pygmies’.

The Congo NGOs called on the World Bank to halt or change projects that will lead to the parcelling out of tens of millions of hectares of Congo’s rainforest to logging companies. They express that forest zoning is a critical process that will determine the legal relationship linking the people to the forests, and may thus affect the subsistence resource rights of millions of people living in the DRC’s forests.

The letter exposes the lack of participation of civil society: “Thus far, local consultations on defining a methodology and criteria for dividing up the country have only involved the State departments and the private sector. Civil society has been sidelined in a process which is deciding, at this very moment, and without our contribution, the fate of our country’s ecological heritage and the future of its people. These are people whose subsistence and very existence depend directly on their access to the resources and benefits of a sustainable management of their forests. This lack of consultation and involvement of civil society heralds the establishment of a forestry policy that is devoid of all popular legitimacy. This policy thus risks being rejected by the population and creating innumerable social conflicts.”

The World Bank was closely involved with the development and adoption of the new forestry laws in the DRC (Law No. 011-2002 on the Forestry Code), and along with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), is supporting the development of comprehensive new laws that will implement this Code. Both agencies are also involved in preparing a national forest zoning plan, which will serve to define areas for logging, conservation and community use. However, internal World Bank documents obtained by the international NGO Rainforest Foundation reveal that the Bank is aiming to “create a favourable climate for industrial logging” in the Congo, and envisages a 60-fold increase in the country’s timber production which could affect up to 60 million hectares of the DRC’s rainforest (an area the size of France).

The social groups challenge the Forestry Code for not complying with all the DRC’s obligations deriving from various international treaties, including article 8(j) of the Convention on Biological Diversity; for taking insufficient account of the specific needs of forest-dependent communities and for failing to take account of the lessons learned from application of similar forestry legislation in Cameroon.

In their letter, the NGOs demand that the management of DRC’s forests must under no account be guided by the hypothesis that the development of industrial forest activity necessarily contributes to the development of the people, nor of its most disadvantaged sectors.

They require the implementation of urgent measures, including:

* The immediate adoption of a moratorium on the process for elaborating the Forestry Code’s implementation decrees.
* An increase in the number of civil society representatives on the Steering Committee for FAO Project TCP/DRC/2905 from three (3) to six (6).
* The traditional and customary rights and practices of local communities must be effectively and systematically taken into account in the process of elaborating the implementing measures, as well as in the development of the National Forestry Plan and, in particular, the zoning plan.
* The World Bank and the FAO must ensure that their interventions in the DRC are in accordance with international law, with the obligations resulting from international conventions on the protection of human rights or the environment and with the Constitution of the DRC.

Article based on information from: “Congo’s ‘civil society’ unites to oppose threats to forests and peoples rights”, Rainforest Foundation Press Release, 1st March 2004, Letter by the Congo NGOs sent to the Minister for the Environment, Waters and Forests in Kinshasa – Gombe, the World Bank Resident Representative and the FAO Representative, Kinshasa, 12 February 2004; “World Bank oversees the carve-up of Congo’s rainforests: 60-fold increase in logging planned”, Press Release, e-mail: jbbobia@yahoo.fr ; Simon Counsell, Rainforest Foundation, e-mail: simonc@rainforestuk.com, sent by ECOTERRA International, e-mail: mailhub@ecoterra.net

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- Ghana: The World Bank in the gold scenario

Decades of deforestation and forest degradation have left less than two percent of Ghana's native forest intact. These forests have been the source of livelihood for forest dependent people, providing them with fuel wood, charcoal, building materials, fodder, fruits, nuts, honey, medicines, dyes. They also play an environmental role regarding prevention of soil erosion, watershed protection, soil fertility/shade, shelter from wind, prevention of floods and landslides, water retention and maintenance of water purity. They are also home to 2,100 plant species, over 200 mammal species including buffalo, leopard, golden cat, chimpanzee, forest elephant and pygmy hippopotamus, 200 bird species including the African grey parrot, and butterflies, all internationally recognized as in danger of extinction, thus designating them as Special Biological Protection Areas and Globally Significant Bio-diversity Areas.

In 1994, some efforts to protect the remaining savanna and moist tropical forests gave way to a Forest and Wildlife Policy Draft. However, the prevailing economic theory that binds Southern countries to the depletion of their natural resources in order to develop --a path which has brought about pollution, displacement of communities, misery and hunger for the majority, while huge profits just for a few companies and local elites-- presses hard through the multilateral instruments of power (World Bank, International Monetary Fund).

For Ghana, they have set its gold mining fate (see WRM Bulletin Nº 68). The country stands as Africa's second largest gold producer, at the expense of nature and human rights (see WRM Bulletin Nº 41 and 54). Mining operations in Ghana have displaced more than 50,000 indigenous people without just compensation, employed less than 20,000 Ghanaians (due to over-reliance on expatriate workers), burned villages, illegally detained activists, raped women and continually denied the local culture. But this a well established pattern common to almost all mining communities.

At a time when international gold prices were at a six-year high due to investor caution surrounding the impending war with Iraq, the government indicated that it was ready to open the protected forest to mining, thus handing over the country's biological wealth. Newmont --a gold producing firm and a leader in processing technology and exploration headquartered in Denver, Colorado in the United States-- and other mining companies had issued veiled threats of lawsuits, or complete closedowns and relocations to Tanzania in order to “convince” the government to follow through on the permits after exploration had started.

Mining operations within pristine forest ecosystems will speed mass deforestation and environmental degradation in the country and pollute the fragile freshwater systems and topsoil with cyanide and arsenic. “Just look at this country’s forest estate. We had about 8.3 million hectares; now we are left with only 1.2 million hectares and we still want to give out some more for mining when we know very well that after the mining there will be no forests," said Friends of the Earth's Abraham Baffoe. "Our villages have already been so rapaciously deforested by mining and the health and the quality of remaining forests continue to decline and now they are asking for the forest reserves; do they think Ghanaians wash their faces from their chin upwards? Please write all that I have said and tell the authorities that I said so," said Akosua Birago a sixty-two year old farmer at Abekoase in Ghana’s Western Region.

Though the Minister of Mines Cecilia Bannerman had denied having given out mining permits to any mining company to mine in any portion of the forest reserves, the President has assured Newmont that his government is willing to support the company to enable it to smoothly operate in the country.

On January 14, 2004, the Ghana National Coalition of Civil Society and Community Groups against mining in forest reserves, which includes more than 17 NGOs and community groups, sent a second letter to the President of the World Bank Group, James Wolfensohn. In the letter, they reminded him of the sign-on letter they had sent to him last year, demanding that the Government of Ghana rescind any permission already granted to mine in the country’s forest reserves and calling upon the World Bank Group to clearly state that it does not and will not support the authorization of mining in Ghana’s forest reserves and also requesting a formal response from the Bank to the Coalition’s appeal (see WRM Bulletin Nº 71). Up to date, no response has still been received from the World Bank.

Instead, the gold mining companies have gone ahead with processes leading to mining in some of the forest reserves. The Government of Ghana and Newmont Mining signed an investment agreement last December 2003. In January 2004, Ghana's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) advertised the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of Chirano Gold Mines project in the Tano-Sraw forest reserve, in the Western Region of Ghana. Canadian diamond explorer PMI Ventures announced this year that the next phase of diamond drilling has started on the nine exploration concessions and applications, which comprise its Ashanti II Gold Plate located in southwestern Ghana.

The social organizations feel the World Bank Group (WBG) is aware and fully behind the government and the companies, which explains the long silence and apparent neglect of their letter. The WBG has a long history of involvement in Ghana’s mining and forestry sectors, providing technical assistance on policy and institutional reform, as well as investments in and support for private sector mining operations.

This happens at a time when the WBG is considering its response to the Extractive Industries Review (EIR) report which recommended the vigorous pursuit of good governance, respect for community rights in mining projects and full implementation of the Natural Habitat Policy as a basis for clear No-Go-Zones.

The World Bank's silence is thus a clear answer that it is willing to support mining companies in the destruction of the country's remaining forests; that it will continue assisting in the destruction of local peoples' livelihoods and that it does not care about the fate of any endangered species.

Article based on information from: “Newmont Meets Media”, Isaac Essel, Accra Mail, http://allafrica.com/stories/200403030502.html ; “Newmont Moves In to Open Ghana's Closed Forest Reserves”, Charity Bowles, who worked with Friends of the Earth, Ghana, on the National Coalition on Mining, sent by Mike Anane, e-mail: lejcec@ghana.com ; “Newmont Boss Presents Straight-Faced Joke to Ghana’s President”, Allan Lassey, Third World Network, http://twnafrica.org/event_detail.asp?twnID=438 ; “Canadian explorer starts drilling at Ghana gold project”, Creamer Media (Pty) Ltd, http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/eng/utilities/search/?show=46618

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- Swaziland: Timber plantations at the expense of Swazi people

Swaziland, a landlocked country with a population of 1,161,219 inhabitants in 17,363 sq km almost completely surrounded by South Africa, has timber as its second industrial activity after sugar.

During the Conference “Timber Plantations: Impacts, Future Visions and Global Trends” held in Nelspruit, South Africa, in November 2003, hosted by GeaSphere in association with the TimberWatch Coalition, Nhlanhla Msweli, from SCAPEI, gave a vivid testimony of Swaziland’s situation and grief linked to monoculture tree plantations.

Tree plantations were established more than fifty years ago in Swaziland, and with them the country imported the history of labour exploitation of South African capitalists. Three big companies dominate the sector: Sappi-Usutu, Mondi and Shiselweni Forestry (previously owned by Commonwealth Development Corporation /CDC). Together with some smaller ones, they manage a total area of about 135,000 hectares covered by industrial plantations of exotic pine and eucalyptus (gum) and acacia (wattle) species.

Sappi Kraft (Pty) Ltd, operating locally as Sappi Usutu, based at the village of Bhunya, is a subsidiary of South-African based Sappi (South African Paper Products Industry) and is the world’s second largest producer of unbleached Kraft pulp for cement bags, crepe paper and car filter systems.

Mondi Forests (a subsidiary of the giant Anglo-American Corporation), which operates in Swaziland through its associated company Peak Timber Ltd, and its South African owned sister company Mondi Timber, have about 32,000 hectares of land at the village Pigg’s Peak, in northern Swaziland.

Nowadays, about a fifth of land of the country which was used to grow food and graze cattle, and provided grass to build houses, has been converted for the use of a money making industry.

But what have industrial timber plantations meant for the Swazi people? They have meant evictions, exploitation, soil erosion, pollution and poverty. They have meant dispossession.

In Bhunya, where Sappi Usutu operates, people have been expelled from their fertile homeland to rocky marginal areas and were given as little as 1000 Rands (less than 150 USD) as a compensation. Grasslands and surface water disappeared, and the community of Tiyeni failed to raise their stock, which was a source of income and livelihood for them. Recently Sappi Usutu claimed to have invested 238 million Rand in expansion and upgrading programs at the mill. Local people know that this will mean more evictions, more soil erosion, more pollution of the air and the rivers next to the mills (see Bulletin Nº 70) and more suffering to the rural people.

One of the usual claims made to justify the establishment of timber plantations and processing plants is that they will generate employment. Sappi Usutu used to employ about 8,000-10,000 people in the whole process, but it has already retrenched half of those people. Today it commands 3,000 workers of which only 700 (seven hundred) are full-time employees of the company. In a much published scandal in Usutu, they were known to have paid two of their senior executives bonuses equal to the payment to 200 workers that they were retrenching at the same time --and the workers money was to be taxed until they fought and won that case. Sappi is known to be one of the lowest paying companies in Swaziland at shop floor level and with appalling working conditions. Hence, it had the strongest union until undermined by the process of privatization, and the oppressive government.

The real issue is that timber plantation companies in Swaziland do not provide employment security for the people they have displaced. In most cases, just very exploitative casual jobs with contractors. About 60% of the people in Bhunya are not employed at the moment.

Both the Pigg’s Peak (only saw mills) and Bhunya processing plants account for quite a lot of the water and air pollution in Swaziland. The companies are simply not accountable to anyone in terms of their environmental responsibility. For the past two years they have not given out a report on their environmental assessment. The people living nearby have continuously raised problems regarding drinking the water from the river which Sappi uses for dumping its wastes.

The link between timber plantations and poverty does not appear in statistics but is experienced on the ground. Evicting people from their land accounts for almost confronting them to death, paying them peanuts is exploitation. That is what timber plantations and the whole timber process really mean for the people of Swaziland.

Article based on information from: “Impacts of Timber Plantations on Rural People of Swaziland”, paper by Nhlanhla Msweli, Swaziland Campaign Against Poverty and Economic Inequality (SCAPEI), e-mail: scape@swazi.net , Msweli@union.org.za , http://www.sarpn.org.za/documents/d0000323/index.php ; Sappi Limited Website: http://www.sappi.com/home.asp?pid=620&contactid=2436 ; “Swaziland Supply Survey”, International Trade Centre UNCTAD/WTO (ITC), http://www.intracen.org/sstp/Survey/wood/swazi.pdf