Pact at UNCSD Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Sustainable Development (IGF)

On 5 May 2010, Assheton Carter, Pact’s Senior Vice President of Global Engagement, spoke at the 18th meeting of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD-18). Mining was an important theme at the meeting, and Carter spoke at a Learning Centre convened by the Intergovernmental Forum on Mining (IGF), an initiative developed out of the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development to maximize the contribution of the mining, minerals and metals sector to sustainable development. Carter offered high-level analysis of global, ASM-related activities over the last decade.

An estimated 20 million people worldwide now earn their livelihoods through artisanal and small-scale mining, marking a rapid 50% increase over the last decade. ASM is not merely a mining issue, but one of resource rights, equity, nationality, security, economics, development and the environment. In the future, emphasis must be placed on replication of successful efforts, cohesive messages and collective action, holist projects with more aggressive plans to engage donors and actors in other sectors, and collection of accurate baseline data among other needs. However, though there is still progress to be made, there have also been many successes in these issues.

Increasingly ASM is understood as an opportunity instead of a problem, providing a much-needed livelihood for millions. Steps have been taken towards better protection of the environment, in the form of efforts to reduce ASM reliance on mercury, and to protect children who often labor in the mines. Other initiatives have helped mining cooperatives organize and gain legal rights and land ownership, and tied the well-being of miners into the design of Fair Trade standards for ASM gold..

In the future, Carter sees artisanal mining as having a legitimate role to play in the mining sector, as well as security and wellbeing of mining communities and the environment in which they live.

For more information, view the slides from the Progress Report on ASM presentation to the IFM.