Oil, Gas and Mining Background

Why care about oil, gas, and mining?

More than 60 percent of the world’s poorest people live in countries rich in natural resources—but they rarely share in the wealth. Too often, poor communities have no say in the extraction of resources from their land and receive little information about these projects. But oil, gas, and mining projects don’t have to add to poverty and powerlessness; in fact, they can help communities overcome these challenges.

What we’re doing

Oxfam’s Right to Know Right to Decide campaign challenges international oil, gas, and mining companies to respect a community’s right to decide if or how they want oil, gas, and mining development to take place in their community, and their right to know about the impacts and benefits of these projects.

Join Oxfam. As a consumer, your voice matters to companies. As a global citizen, you can speak out in solidarity with people whose lives are affected.

• A community’s right to know: Companies must provide complete and timely information about how their work affects communities—environmentally, socially, and economically. They must also disclose how much they are paying governments for natural resources so that poor communities get a fair share of the profits.
• A community’s right to decide: Companies must obtain the free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) of communities affected by oil, gas, and mining operations. For indigenous people in particular, respect for FPIC is a critical means of protecting sacred lands and cultural identity.

• By supporting activists in developing countries trying to get more information about how their governments are using natural resource revenues.
• By challenging leading oil, gas, and mining companies to respect communities’ right to know and right to decide.