With more than half of the world’s poorest people living in countries rich in natural resources, the problems associated with oil, gas and mining booms—increased corruption, conflict and environmental degradation—are pressing concerns for Oxfam and its partners around the world.
"These industries generate billions of dollars per year in poor countries," said Bennett Freeman, Oxfam board member and civil society EITI board member. "The revenues amount to far more than official aid flows and could fund health, education and other essential services, but are often squandered or siphoned off by corrupt elites."
A lack of transparency in the oil, gas and mining sectors—including secret payments and contracts and opaque government budgets—is a major contributor to the problems in these countries. Since 2002, the global Publish What You Pay civil society campaign, including many Oxfam affiliates and local partners, has pressed for greater disclosure of payments from companies to governments, contracts and information on how revenues are spent.
The EITI is a voluntary initiative designed to increase transparency of payments by companies to governments. Since October 2006, a strong governance structure has been put in place for EITI, including a multi-stakeholder board including company, government and civil society representatives; a clear process for implementation and for third party verification of performance ("validation"); and significant international assistance to countries willing to undertake the Initiative.
Unfortunately, the EITI has had limited reach and, while some progress has been made in many countries, the EITI has yet to be truly tested. "We wish more countries were closer to validation. For any voluntary initiative, the proof is in the pudding and the pudding is validation," said Freeman.
"The EITI board's main challenge now is to ensure that the validation process is followed through for signatory countries. This has to be a main goal going forward, and it can only be achieved by guaranteeing the highest level of transparency in the process," said Maria Dolores López Gómez from Oxfam’s campaigns and policy department.
Civil society activists promoting revenue transparency have faced harassment, criminal charges and jail time in countries such as Gabon and Congo-Brazzaville—merely for exercising their rights to freedom of expression as part of their anti-corruption campaigning. "Gabon has served on the EITI board while at the same time imprisoning good governance advocates and independent journalists. Such a failure to respect the active role of civil society and human rights violations at home threaten to greatly weaken the EITI," said Ian Gary, senior policy advisor for extractive industries with Oxfam. "Unfettered civil society participation at every step of the EITI process is non-negotiable."
Twenty-four countries have become EITI "candidate" countries, but more than fifty developing countries are resource-rich. EITI does not require companies to act unless host governments decide to join the Initiative and the countries that need transparency, and EITI, are those least likely to join or to credibly implement the Initiative. Therefore, other mandatory measures need to be taken—and quickly.
The Extractive Industry Transparency Disclosure (EITD) bill was introduced in the US House and Senate in 2008. This legislation, expected for reintroduction in 2009, would require all oil, gas and mining companies disclose their payments to host countries and extend transparency as a truly global standard for company operations. The EITD Act would apply not only to US companies, but to all companies registered with the US Securities Exchange Commission (SEC). This includes European companies, such as Shell and BP, as well as those in emerging markets like China, India and Brazil.
In addition to the US passage of the EITD, other financial jurisdictions in Europe and elsewhere should pass similar legislation. In tight credit markets, extractive industry companies are seeking financing from public sources, including regional development banks and export credit agencies. All international financial institutions—including regional development banks such as the African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank and Inter-American Development—should require the disclosure of payments as a pre-condition for finance.
The next year will be crucial for real progress in the global movement for extractive industries transparency. Faithful implementation of the EITI complemented by new mandatory disclosure requirements will create a new global standard for transparency and help citizens around direct money to poverty reduction efforts that need it the most.
]]>Ghana's recent discovery the major offshore "Jubilee" oil field has generated enormous interest in the country's oil production potential. While this would seem to be good news for Ghana, historically, the exploitation of natural resources in Africa has far too often led to increased poverty and conflict, a phenomenon often referred to as "resource curse."
"In too many countries, oil booms have bred corruption, underdevelopment, social conflict and environmental damage. Ghana's challenge as an 'oil hot spot' will be to ensure the right institutions and transparent policies are in place before production even begins," said Ian Gary, Senior Policy Advisor for Extractive Industries at Oxfam America and author of the report Ghana's Big Test: Oil's Challenge to Democratic Development, which will be introduced today at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London.
The report identifies critical steps for the Ghanaian government, donors, oil companies, civil society and journalists to take in order to move quickly but deliberately in the face of the coming oil boom. These include transparent revenue and payment practices, open and competitive contract bidding, and active monitoring and participation by civil society. The report also recommends that the government enact a moratorium on signing new licenses, so they can organize an open bidding round and allow the country's legal and institutional framework to "catch up" to the pace of oil development.
"While these steps are not, by themselves, a simple recipe for overcoming the threats posed by the coming oil boom, it is difficult to see Ghana succeeding without them," said Gary.
Last year, Africa produced 12.5 percent of the world’s oil with great investment and exploration throughout the continent, but this has yet to translate into tangible benefits for Africa's poor. In fact, resource-rich countries in Africa have actually experienced lower growth rates than countries with scarce resources.
Ghana is one of the most peaceful and relatively prosperous countries in West Africa but remains poor with almost 80 percent of Ghanaians living on less than $2 a day. After democratic elections and a successful transition of power last month, Ghana’s new National Democratic Congress government hopes that oil revenues will help accelerate the country’s effort to meet UN Development Goals by 2015.
By 2011, estimates are that Ghana will be producing approximately 120,000 barrels of oil per day, along with significant quantities of gas. (The Jubilee field has 600 million barrels of proven reserves and 1.2 billion barrels of probable reserves.) The International Monetary Fund has predicted that government revenues from oil and gas could reach a cumulative $20 billion over a production period of 2012-2030 in Jubilee field alone. On Feb. 19, The World Bank board will consider $215 million in financing to Kosmos Energy and Tullow Oil in support of the development of the Jubilee field.
"Ghana's enviable record of good governance and stability makes this test even more urgent. Oil wealth threatens the growing democratic accountability that has been built in our country's recent history," said Steve Manteaw, media and campaigns coordinator for ISODEC. "The history of natural resource exploitation in West Africa has shown us just how vulnerable the people of Ghana will be without sufficient systems to properly manage oil wealth."
Ghana is no stranger to the natural resource industry. During the British colonial era, Ghana was known as the "Gold Coast" for its prolific gold deposits. With mining law reforms and changes to investment rules in the last 20 years, Ghana has recently experienced a boom in mining investment. But gold mining has led to small government revenues, increased conflict between companies and local communities, the removal of families from their lands, and increased environmental degradation. Coastal communities have seen how this industry has left mining communities, and they fear the same fate.
The problems of resource-rich countries combating the "resource curse" have recently risen to the top of the international development agenda with efforts to increase revenue transparency across the oil, gas, and mining industries. The report is being released on the eve of the fourth global conference of the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) taking place in Doha from February 16-18. EITI is a voluntary initiative designed to increase transparency of payments by companies to governments. While some progress has been made, the EITI has had limited reach. Ghana has published reports under this initiative, but has not been fully committed to extend this work to the petroleum sector. In the United States, the Extractive Industry Transparency Disclosure (EITD) bill was introduced in the House and Senate in 2008. This legislation, expected for reintroduction in 2009, would require all oil, gas, and mining companies registered with the SEC to disclose their payments to host countries and extend transparency as a truly global standard for company operations.
"While some progress has been made to increase transparency in resource-rich states, secrecy around revenues is just one part of the resource curse, and much more work remains to be done to prepare Ghana for the coming oil boom," said Gary.
]]>The Yanacocha gold mine is currently operating on 26,000 hectares (about 63,700 acres), high above the city of Cajamarca in the Andes mountains of Peru. But that is just a small area: The government conceded a total of 282,000 hectares (690,000 acres, slightly , larger than the state of Rhode Island) to Minera Yanacocha, a company comprised of majority owners Newmont Mining of the United States and Minera Buenaventura of Peru. Yanacocha continues to be a significant part of Newmont Mining's global production, contributing about a quarter of the 5.3 million ounces of gold Newmont sold in 2007.
Minera Yanacocha is working aggressively to expand the mine. In 2004, the mine began exploring for gold on Cerro Quilish, a small mountain that comprises the top of the watershed supplying the city of Cajamarca and the rest of the valley. Dairy and potato farmers in the area and many others opposed to mining Quilish blocked the road to the mountain in 2004. There were weeks of violent confrontation between police and protesters. In the end, Minera Yanacocha stated publicly that it had underestimated the concerns of local people and asked the Ministry of Energy and Mines to revoke its permit to explore for minerals on Cerro Quilish.
The mountain remains in the mine's concession area. Many of the Quechua-speaking indigenous people in the area consider Quilish their apu, a mountain spirit, and a sacred place. "When the clouds gather above Quilish, we know it will rain," says Nelida Chilon, a 24-year old from Bajo Porcón, midway between the city and the mountain. "We want to protect Quilish, our source of water. The [mining] engineers tell us there is water, and no pollution, but we know the land does not produce as it used to, and there is less water than ever."
Local governments representing communities opposed to mining on Quilish also adopted laws to designate it a protected natural area. Other communities where the mine intends to expand have taken similar measures. Oxfam America's partner GRUFIDES is supporting efforts by local communities to protect their land, and provides training and other support to local people eager to learn about and defend their human rights and protect their water sources. With help from Oxfam America, GRUFIDES is also working with the regional government's environmental management agency to create a land use plan that would clearly designate areas for agriculture, human settlement, mining, and other activities.
Minera Yanacocha is disputing 12 local ordinances that prohibit mining, and plans to expand mining exploitation to these and other areas, including La Zanja, where one person was killed by police during a demonstration in 2004. The environmentally fragile high altitude wetlands of El Solitario, where there are 240 ponds and lakes, is another area of proposed expansion.
Minera Yanacocha is claiming jurisdiction in Lima where the company is officially located and where judges are not familiar with these local areas. Communities are hard pressed to be properly represented in the proceedings due to costs and distance (375 miles). "With that kind of trial you know who is going to win," says Marco Arana, one of the founders of GRUFIDES, Oxfam America's partner in Cajamarca. He added that when legal and institutional roads are closed to citizens, it leads to confrontation, and "adds to the social exclusion and asymmetry of power in Peru."
Oxfam America is supporting the work of GRUFIDES to help local communities defend their rights and create an appropriate land use plan for the region. Oxfam is calling on Minera Yanacocha to:
Photographer Ed Kashi captured images like this as part of his new book, "Curse of the Black Gold: 50 Years of Oil in the Niger Delta." His photos were on display last week at John Hopkins University as part of a panel discussion of a new report assessing US and international efforts to overcome the "resource curse." The report, which is based on months of research in the field by the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations committee staff, explores the paradox where countries rich is natural resources become poorer once they are extracted.
Oxfam's Ian Gary, Senior Policy Advisor for Extractive Industries, spoke as part of the panel, describing how African countries like Chad have been unable to translate their oil reserves into revenue that reduces poverty by building health clinics, schools, roads, and other infrastructure.
"Despite the promises, little money has trickled down to villagers near the oil field in southern Chad and fighting in February between rebels and the government decimated the capital, forcing tens of thousands to flee, including many civil society activists who had sought to hold the government accountable in the spending of oil wealth," Gary said.
So, what's the solution? Panelist Michael V. Phelan, a professional staff member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, said that he believes it is important for citizens to know their rights and responsibilities and to exercise those to hold their government's accountable. During the course of their research, the Senate staff members found problems in many countries where Oxfam America is working, including Peru, Ghana and Cambodia, and consulted Oxfam field staff and partners in these and other countries.
Oxfam is working to require oil, gas, and mining companies to consult with local communities, and share information with them about their revenues and operations. One vehicle for this is the Extractive Industries Transparency Disclosure Act, legislation that is expected to be introduced in the next session of Congress that requires oil, gas, and mining companies to publicly disclose how much they pay governments to use their natural resources.
Full disclosure is important because companies and governments often keep their revenues a secret, which leads to financial mismanagement and corruption. When local people know more about the oil, gas and mining projects taking place in their backyards, they can claim their fair share for community needs—like education, health care, and jobs.
]]>"I feel privileged to be here," he said. "To bring together 50 smart, energetic young people to talk about injustice: where I come from, that doesn't happen. It could never happen."
Alicante had come to Eastern Nazarene College, just outside Boston, to speak to the newest participants in Oxfam America's CHANGE Initiative. This national program transforms US college students into social justice activists by providing them with the tools to implement Oxfam advocacy campaigns on campus. At the start of each year's program, a week-long training helps the students (known as CHANGE Leaders) hone their leadership skills, advocacy skills, and knowledge of Oxfam's work. During sessions like Alicante's, they have a chance to meet the real people behind the issues.
Alicante began by describing his home country Equatorial Guinea: a small nation in west central Africa, rich in oil but suffering some of the world's most intense poverty. He contrasted photos of the degraded living conditions in the capital, Malabo, with the president's fleet of private planes and multi-million dollar California estate.
In Equatorial Guinea, he said, the vast majority of the country's oil wealth flows into its leaders' pockets, while its people lack adequate schools, sanitation, or healthcare. Kept in the dark about oil profits, the people have no way to claim their fair share.
"My country defines the term 'resource curse,'" Alicante said. "We're rich in resources, but we see few of the benefits."
Growing up, Alicante saw the government use intimidation, kidnapping, and even murder to keep people in line. When his family's home was destroyed, his father told him that there was nothing they could do about it—they just had to go on.
"That's when I realized I didn't want to live in a country where there's nothing you can do to change the situation," Alicante said. "I came to the US to mobilize. Things have got to change."
For two years, Alicante said, his organization has worked with Oxfam and like-minded groups on the Extractive Industries Transparency Disclosure Act. Now introduced in the House of Representatives (H.R. 6066) and Senate (S. 3389), this piece of legislation would require oil, gas, and mining companies registered in the US (including the oil companies operating in Equatorial Guinea) to disclose the amount and type of the payments they make in the countries where they operate.
"People need information about what oil, gas, and mining companies are doing in their communities," Alicante said. "If I know how much money is coming in, I can go to the local chief and ask, where is the money going? How does it meet our needs?"
Now, Alicante said, the CHANGE Leaders would help make this legislation a reality by writing letters to their legislators urging them to support the bill. "We're asking US students to express this injustice," he said, "and show the connection between my country and yours."
"Your representatives will decide the fate of this bill, and we know that they read handwritten letters," added his co-presenter, Oxfam organizer Paul Bugala. "Nothing replaces the power of the pen."
The students bent forward and began to write?hesitantly at first, then with growing confidence.
As they wrote, students received encouragement from 2006 CHANGE Leader Lisa East, a recent graduate of Tennessee Tech and a facilitator at this year's training. East urged the students to host their own letter-writing parties on campus.
"It's important for us students to be political," she said in a strong, clear voice. "Don't be afraid to talk to your representatives; make them accessible. If you're disillusioned about the political process, then take it back."
Afterward, East emphasized the importance of the CHANGE Leaders in showing other students how to make a difference.
"Students always sit up in their dorm rooms late at night, talking about issues, about injustice—but there has to be a next step," she said. "If you're willing to talk about it, but you're not ready to go out there and take action, you're still within those four walls."
Alicante, who has accompanied Oxfam on several campus speaking tours, agreed with East's assessment. "Students sometimes come up afterward and ask: 'I live in Texas; what can I do there to help?' I know the message has reached them when they realize that their actions matter—even to communities on the other side of the world."
]]>"While Peru's macroeconomic indicators are improving, individuals feel frustrated because they do not perceive their income to be increasing as a result of the country's economic growth," Baca said. "Grupo Propuesta Ciudadana recommends that the government implement policies that increase the benefits of economic growth to excluded populations, improve the efficiency of social programs, and improve the quality of education and health services."
Baca spoke at a panel discussion at Oxfam America's headquarters in Washington titled "Peru's Windfall—The Challenge of Harnessing Extractive Industries Revenues for Poverty Reduction." He said that while the extractive industries such as gold and silver mines and natural gas pipelines are leading Peru's booming economy and contributing more than $2 billion per year to government accounts, half the country still lives in poverty, and Peru is not converting its resource wealth into benefits for its poorest citizens.
One example is the municipality of Echarate, in the Urubamba River valley in the department of Cusco. This area has recently seen rapid development of the Camisea gas pipeline, which is expected to bring Peru $10.8 billion over the 30-year life of the project. The pipeline is being run by an international consortium, and partly funded by $135 million from the Inter-American Development Bank.
Research by Baca and Grupo Propuesta Ciudadana shows that while Echarate's budget for infrastructure projects was less than $700,000 in 2003, by 2007 it was more than $65 million as a result of Camisea royalties. Although the municipality has constructed a new office building, indigenous people in outlying villages report limited presence of government representatives in their communities.
"While indigenous communities have suffered from the negative effects of the gas project—including pipeline spills, decline in fish populations and environmental degradation—they have not significantly benefited from this municipal government windfall nor do they have adequate influence in determining how this money should be spent," says Emily Greenspan, policy advisor for Oxfam America in Washington, who recently returned from a visit to the Camisea project zone in the Peruvian Amazon.
Citizens of Peru already have the right to ask for information about revenues and spending, and companies are required to publish this information. But there is no government office overseeing the information requests, and companies do not always divulge the information requested, says Javier Aroca, an attorney who is Oxfam America's advisor on extractive industries in South America.
Aroca says lack of transparency makes it impossible to determine what companies are contributing to local and national governments. "All transactions related to extractive industries must be clearly defined and described, so that all the information is included in the national budget," he says. "National and international companies must meet international standards of accounting, audit, and publication of accounts. The management and final use of the funds must be published, especially at the regional and local levels. This would help increase trust in public institutions and ensure there is no corruption."
Baca made a number of recommendations about reformulating the laws governing distribution of mining and hydrocarbon revenues. He also recommended systems for fair allocation of the revenues to both producing and non-producing areas, and creating a system that is more transparent, predictable, and equitable.
One way to increase the transparency of extractive industry revenues would be to implement the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI), an international agreement that requires companies to disclose payments to governments so that citizens are aware of what their country's natural resources are worth and where the money is being used. In Peru, the national association for the oil, gas, and mining industry (Sociedad Nacional de Mineria Petroleo y Energia, or SNMPE) has succeeded in having all royalty and gas payments to be published as a lump sum (including all companies together), instead of by each individual company. That makes it hard for people to know how much a specific company is contributing to the government and what portion of that should be coming to the communities that are producing minerals and hydrocarbons.
Complying with the highest standard under EITI would require each company to disclose its tax and royalty payments. Oxfam America is calling on the SNMPE to encourage its member companies and the Ministry of Energy and Mines to support a company-by-company, rather than aggregate, reporting standard for royalty and tax payments as a means to increase transparency of Peru's revenues.
]]>Amankwaa, 48, is a serious, no-nonsense business woman who rarely cracks a smile, but is patiently answering questions about her farm. She is gracious to visitors because she wants them to know she will not willingly sell her six small farms to an American mining company intent on exploiting the gold under the land in her Ghanaian village, Mehame, which means "don't bother me" in the local Twi dialect.
Amankwaa looks around the cocoa pods and all the trees. "This land was given to me by my grandmother; it had old cocoa trees on it and I cut them down and planted new ones," she says. "Now they are growing very well. This is what I depend on for everything, to keep my children in school and all the money we use for food we eat, the house we built, everything is from the cocoa farms."
"This farm is my life," she says finally, "My life is this farm."
The farmers here are industrious. One stood up in an informal meeting back in town to say "If you grow cocoa and don't make money, then you are not working hard." And the farmers in Mehame do make money: Amankwaa earns about $3,200 per year, which is roughly six times the national average income in Ghana. She and her husband have three children. The oldest is finished with school and growing cocoa himself, and the other two are in high school, a boy and a girl. They have a large concrete house with a proper roof, electricity, and clean water from a well.
Given everything they have achieved in Mehame, some of the farmers are skeptical about the proposal to expand the nearby Ahafo mine into their village, swallowing up their cocoa farms and homes. In exchange they would get compensation for their land and be given new homes somewhere else, but this is not an attractive option to Amankwaa and some others. "We don't want to be resettled somewhere, to be sent to another place, to another person's land," Amankwaa says. "We just want to be at peace with our farms and our children."
The American company looking to expand its mine into the area near Mehame seems to have the support of the government, and there is little opportunity for the local farmers to express their opposition to the mine expansion.
At first there were just rumors, then the villagers heard chainsaws in the forest, and found crews exploring for minerals without their permission. The company, Newmont Mining of Denver, arrived for formal visits with the chief, along with representatives from the Brong-Ahafo regional government, and a member of parliament. "Later on we heard the company found people and pushed them to say they wanted mining here, and used them to prove the community approved," Amankwaa says. She says this compelled opponents of mining to call on Oxfam America's partner WACAM to teach them how to defend their rights.
Working with WACAM, the farmers attended workshops in communities already affected by mining to learn about the potential social and environmental costs like pollution to the many streams that feed their farms. And they are learning to organize themselves, Amankwaa says. "With their advice, we have been able to unite and advocate for our position."
When a group of farmers convene to discuss their concerns about mining, the talk inevitably turns to ways they can defend their farms. Hannah Owusu-Koranteng of WACAM cautions the group against violence: "Protect your property, but don't sacrifice your life," she tells them. "Not all struggles should be violent. You can struggle by jaw-jaw, [talking], use your wisdom and language to win your struggle."
Abdullah Selifa, a 28-year-old employee of WACAM in Brong-Ahafo, says their first task it to ensure farmers like the ones in Mehame understand their rights in Ghana's constitution.
"We are fortunate to live in a democratic country," he says, and goes on to describe the articles in Ghana's constitution that protect the right to private property.
Nevertheless, the farmers are sure to have concerns about confronting powerful forces. "The people here have courage, but they are concerned about intimidation," Selifa says. "So we try to show them that they do not have to be afraid of struggling for their rights in the constitution—and that the government is there to protect their rights."
The community's latest move is to write their political representatives to ask for help. If they get a negative response, Selifa says they will take legal action to protect their farms.
]]>"That is it," he says finally, "that is it."
The nearby Ajenua Bepo Forest reserve near Akyem supports a rich ecosystem. The tall trees are impressive as they reach up to the sky. Around them is a warm climate, with ample rain, and rich soils. The farmers near the forest take advantage of it to grow plantains, cocoa, kola nuts, and vegetables. It is not an easy life. Everyone works hard. The more successful farmers may not be wealthy in western terms, but they do not see themselves as poor. They are proud of what they do.
The farmers in Akyem say it is not as tranquil as it used to be. The American company Newmont Mining has bought a concession to explore for gold in this area, and is negotiating with the villagers to get the land they farm, compensate them for their crops, and relocate them to another place to make way for a mining pit 1.5 miles long and half a mile wide.
The company even wants to mine in the forest reserve, and the government seems willing to allow it. In April 2008, 215 members of the Concerned Farmers Association in Akyem Adausina signed a petition against mining in the forest.
In 2005 there was a demonstration against the mining proposal, and one person was shot and killed. Oxfam America's partner WACAM came to investigate the killing, and called for an investigation into the death.
Samuel Fosuhene, 65, a village councilor at that time, became wary of the prospect of mining in the town. He resigned from the council and started supporting WACAM's efforts to organize people in the village to learn about and represent their rights in negotiations with Newmont.
Fosuhene and Kwabena say there are three main issues in Akyem:
Fosuhene's main concern is responsible stewardship of the land. "Land is bequeathed from generation to generation," he says. "So if by allowing surface mining we will deprive...the generation yet unborn, then you have to be very careful."
But land management is difficult. "In our part of the world, no individual owns land," says Hannah Owusu-Koranteng of WACAM. "Even the chiefs, they do not own the land, they keep it in trust for the future of the community and its needs."
This system is at odds with the government's right to all mineral rights. It can lease the land to anyone for mining in the name of development, Owusu-Koranteng says.
The 2006 Minerals and Mining Act requires people be compensated for loss of land allocated to them by the chief, and sharecroppers need to be compensated for the crops they are growing on the land. At this point, WACAM says the company is offering eight US dollars for a cocoa tree, even though the trees produce $20 of cocoa a year for 40 years at least.
Kwabena and his siblings are concerned about losing their family home, a sprawling, 12-room concrete house that was the center of the community when his father was the chief.
In front lies the pacification stone, where errant community members confessing disrespect to authority would show remorse by slaughtering livestock. Inside the bright red walls are a series of rooms, the drums the chief would use to summon the community for meetings, the ceremonial stool and dais on which the chief sat to hold court, and the palanquin used to transport him on special occasions. Kwabena shows visitors the home, his arms outstretched as he moves through the rooms and courtyards, describing the activities of the royal household.
"This is a palace," he says next to the dais where his father dispensed wisdom to the village. "Even though it is such an old building, we are comfortable in it."
With such a nice house, with such a rich history, Kwabena and his 21 brothers and sisters, and all their children are concerned about being relocated to smaller quarters. "My father used to occupy a 16-foot by 14-foot room," Kwabena says, gesturing off to the other end of the courtyard. "You can't remove us and put us in a 9-foot by 9-foot room. That is uncomfortable and I seriously object to it."
Standing behind their house, Kwabena raises an even greater concern: "All the great chiefs who have reigned in this village are buried here," Kwabena says quietly standing under the tree planted for his father. "We can't look on and allow them to dump [mine] waste on them. It is a sacred place."
"That is it," Kwabena says, this time with conviction. "That is it."
]]>La Paz is a small collection of rustic shelters, on the side of the road 20 minutes from Lake Izabal in eastern Guatemala. It blends into the intense green hills, dotted with small corn fields and criss-crossed by footpaths. It is the scene of a struggle between indigenous farmers and an international corporation intent on exploring for minerals on the land the Q'eq'chi use for growing corn and beans.
Freddie Mo Qub, a young leader of the community, explains the situation: A mining company called Skye Resources has a license from the government of Guatemala to explore for minerals in the area. Property rights are not clear, and the company insists it has the right to charge them rent to farm on the 3,300 acres where they have lived and worked for many of years. Eventually, they are told, they will have to leave.
The people of La Paz have designated Mo Qub, 30, to learn about the plans for the mine, determine what dangers they face, and help them develop a strategy for the way forward. He has been participating in workshops run by the Association of Friends of Lake Izabal, or ASALI as it is known in Spanish. ASALI has also taken him to visit mine sites in the western highlands of Guatemala, as well as in Honduras.
ASALI's director Eloyda Mejía is at the meeting. She says the workshops, which are done with help from Oxfam America, are designed to help the indigenous people in the area learn about their rights, and the ways that modern mines operate. When Mejía addresses the meeting, she says, "we want you to learn, see for yourselves, and make your own decisions about mining."
Mo Qub says the ASALI workshops are an invaluable source of information. La Paz is now connected to different areas of the country where indigenous people are experiencing similar problems. "If it weren't for these workshops, we would not have any clear information about the effects of mining in our communities," he says.
He has seen that mining communities in Guatemala do not benefit much from the revenues from the minerals taken from their lands. While they may be relocated and lose their fields and water sources, they may or may not get a decent job at a mine site, which usually hires skilled workers.
Mo Qub says after seeing the effects of mining on other indigenous people in Guatemala, Las Paz is not in favor of the Skye Resources project. "Everyone wants the mine to leave," he says about La Paz. "The same way it came is the way it can go. Mines use a lot of water, they pollute the water, and will damage the agricultural potential here."
For the Q'eq'chi people, the situation is curious, and a bit infuriating. They pay to work land that has been theirs for many generations, and are being pushed to leave it altogether. "We are 100 percent Guatemalans," Mo Qub says. "How is it possible that a foreign company can accuse us of illegally occupying this land? The words they say to us are offensive, and deeply anger us."
The meeting ends with a prayer, just as it started. The farmers may pray individually, but afterwards a woman says they are working together to defend their small part of the world, where they have lived for centuries. "We are united," she says. "We know our children will have no place to go if we don't fight for our land now." Like many others, she is not eager to share her name with strangers.
As if to show they will remain here, several of the men sharpen their machetes, and start clearing the grass and weeds away from the entrance of the meeting place. They slice the grass with long graceful slashes. The machetes make a metallic ringing sound as the grass jumps away from the blades, which blur as they arc off to the side and back again.
]]>It is hard to reconcile the beauty of the lake with the violence along its shores. Mejía's work to defend the environment, and propose sustainable ways of living and working, has angered some who would prefer to rely on industrial mining for economic development in the region. A local citizen's organization has written a threatening letter to the Interior Ministry in Guatemala City, saying her work to educate community leaders about the risks of mining is unacceptable. She continues working, with international observers with her at all times to protect her.
Mejía first came here 10 years ago. She and her three children settled in the lakeside town of El Estor, promoting ecotourism and waging a series of campaigns to protect Lake Izabal from oil and mining projects that she says threaten the natural resources of the region—and won—t do much to benefit the local farming and fishing communities.
In 2002, Mejía and a handful of teachers, fisherman, environmentalists, a local physician and other citizens took on Shell Oil, which had a concession to drill right through the bottom of the lake. The small band of opponents founded the Association of Friends of Lake Izabal (ASALI) and succeeded in blocking the licenses for this project. ASALI then turned its attention to nickel mines along the sides of the lake.
There has been industrial mining in Izabal since the 1950s, but it has been in fits and starts as the prices of commodities have spiked and crashed over the years. But mining is now booming everywhere, so the Canadian company Skye Resources, which bought the mine in 2004, is now preparing to work a 100-square-mile concession it acquired in 2005. The area is home to 30 indigenous Q'eq'chi communities. None were properly consulted about the concession. This constitutes a violation of Guatemala's 1996 Peace Accords and international laws that protect indigenous people. The company is now engaged in talks with communities to convince them to go along with the plan to mine.
Skye Resources is now operating at a loss as it seeks financing so it can start mining in 2009. The company estimates it could get as much as 673,000 tons of nickel out of the mine. As part of its effort to clear people out of the concession area, the company and police forcefully evicted a number of Q'eq'chi communities in January of 2007, burning their humble shelters to the ground.
"We need a strong defense of the environment here," Mejía says at her home in El Estor. She has just finished a meal of traditionally prepared fish from Lake Izabal, and dines with visitors and two members of Peace Brigades International, who accompany her to ensure her safety.
ASALI is working in 29 communities to teach their leaders about mining: how much water is used, the chemicals, the transportation, and the rights of indigenous communities to be consulted. "We want every community leader to attend one of these workshops, and share their ideas and problems and work on them together," Mejía says. With help from Oxfam America, ASALI also arranges for these leaders to visit other mining areas in Honduras and in Guatemala's western highlands to see the effects of mining on indigenous people. "This is so they can see the consequences and talk to affected people," she says.
With the laws around land rights so unclear in Guatemala, indigenous people lack the required title and other official documents they need to defend their territory. Mejía says this needs to be addressed. "Through our contacts we have put the issue of land on the national agenda; it's been discussed in congress, so people are aware of the problems of land in mining concession areas."
Much of Mejía's motivation comes from her commitment to the people, all those who fish and grow corn on the fields near the lake. "When you come here and see the needs of the poor communities, you can see that people are not asking for much in life. But when you see the injustices and the way things are taken from them, it is so unfair that they are so poor and have so few opportunities despite the richness and national treasure here," she says. "This leads you to fall in love with this place. It makes you want to do something to contribute to changes here—and to denounce the injustice."
It is just this commitment that puts her at risk. Her Peace Brigade guardians are with her and several of her colleagues from ASALI, all of whom are working under threat. Mejía says they are not radicals."We want people to understand that there is another healthy and just way to develop this area, through rational use of the national treasures we have here."
"If at some time we no longer exist, we hope that we have sowed some seeds of awareness, solidarity, and respect to the environment. In this threatening climate for our work, our vulnerability makes us do what little we can—with all our hearts."
]]>Serwaah, 65, and her husband, Kofi Agyei, 77, own two cocoa farms and three homes. Each farm produces enough food to sell at markets in Kumasi and Accra.
And the profits are enough to feed the entire family. So, when Newmont Mining Corporation talks about expanding the Ahafo Gold Mine in nearby Kenyase into Mehame—claiming that the one-time fee for their land will improve their quality of life and bring development to their community—Serwaah reacts with suspicion.
Having visited nearby Kenyase, where her sister-in-law once lived, she says she's witnessed firsthand what "development" can mean to a mining company.
"I get sick when I hear about the project. My heart races," she says. "I was so sad to see places that had been cocoa farms turned into rocks and pits. The farmers have no food because their land has been taken over. They use money for everything and can't live off the land anymore."
That's a stark difference from Serwaah's life right now. While still very poor by Western standards, she says she is wealthy in other ways. "The land is everything to us. It's worth more than gold. Even if a [cocoa] tree falls, we can eat the mushrooms that grow off of it."
Beyond the land itself, the village of Mehame is already lit up by electricity. And Serwaah's family need only walk a short distance to collect free, potable water. Many families, relocated from Kenyase and the surrounding villages, live in structures smaller than their old homes, and many are not connected to electricity lines. In Ntotroso, a resettled community filled with former residents of Kenyase, residents must now pay for their household water, and report taking turns with family members just to bathe.
"Newmont told us a lot of good stories. But we've seen that they've really disappointed us," says Kojo Zica, 28, a resident of the Ntotroso resettlement. "Since we came to this settlement, most of us are not working—even the youth. Even the water we have to pay for. It is difficult to feed our families."
For these reasons, people in Serwaah's community have been attending workshops by WACAM, a local organization supported by Oxfam. WACAM teaches the cocoa farmers to understand their rights under national and international law. In Serwaah's case, these rights include saying "no" to mining if she so chooses.
No amount of compensation from Newmont could replace the lifestyle her family has cultivated over the years, she says. And while right now she can count on her cocoa farms yielding a harvest twice a year, whatever payment she received from Newmont would peter out over time.
"For us, development is not about having big, big things, but having your peace of mind. For us, development is about working for oneself and leaving something for the next generation," she says.
]]>Mining has never been a significant part of El Salvador's economy, but modern techniques make it attractive in some areas. The Canadian mining company Pacific Rim is currently exploring for minerals in three areas, and has requested a concession to restart mining at the El Dorado mine in the department of Cabañas where it says it has invested $28 million and can produce 1.2 million ounces of gold and 7.4 million ounces of silver. Pacific Rim is also in the early stages of exploration on its Zamora project, near Texistepeque, Santa Ana.
Farmers near the town of Texistepeque are skeptical about mining, and some have even visited large-scale mines in Honduras and come back opposed to any mining in El Salvador. Salvador Antonio Seseña Rodruígez, 62, is one of the farmers who made the trip to the San Andres mine in Honduras. "I was really impressed by the destruction," he said about the mine. "We saw the main river there was almost dry, and there was no life in the river."
Rodruígez is a father of 10, and makes a living raising cows and growing corn and beans. So he was particularly concerned about the water problems he saw. "We already have a water crisis here," he says. "We can't drink contaminated water. How will we end up if we allow mining here?"
It was through his church and a meeting with the Centro de Investigación Sobre Inversión y Comercio (know as CEICOM) that he participated in the exchange visit. He came back ready to mobilize others in his community.
Oxfam America is working with CEICOM and a coalition of social, environmental, and other civil society organizations pushing for a voice in a real debate about whether mining is suitable for El Salvador, where some estimates say 90 percent of surface water is already polluted. The country has also been largely deforested, leaving many communities at risk of landslides during heavy rains, so many are already concerned about the environment. The Salvadorian Bishop's Conference released a statement saying mining causes damage to the environment and communities in May of 2007.
Civil society organization in El Salvador have proposed a law that would prohibit all hard-rock mineral mining, arguing the country is too densely populated and water is too scarce to support the industry.
Oxfam America's program in Central America, which is based in El Salvador, is working to enrich the debate on this issue, help civil society project its voice and hold the government accountable to the people, and provide information about mining and its effects on communities and the environment that citizens can use to make informed decisions.
The government of El Salvador has said it will not grant any new licenses to explore or operate mines until it does a strategic environmental study to assess the likely impact of open-pit mining in the country. "We feel this study should be done with the participation of civil society," says David Pereira of CEICOM. He said that in 2006 the minister of natural resources came out publicly against mining, saying the government did not have the capacity to regulate the industry. The minister then challenged civil society to change the laws and cautioned land owners not to sell their land to mining companies.
Some members of the senate have written a public letter to government leaders saying that they believe allowing industrial mining into the northern areas of the country will jeopardize development projects supported by the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), a $460-million, US government-funded foreign aid program, to bring sustained economic development in that region.
Pacific Rim continues to explore at El Dorado, which it says is its flagship property. The company is running an aggressive public relations campaign with radio ads introducing the slogan "minería verde" in an attempt to win hearts and minds of government and citizens. It also sponsors municipal soccer teams, and holds community meetings to sway farmers to accept mining in their community.
In the meantime, the Environmental Committee of Cabañas is reporting that 10 natural springs have dried up in the past month in areas close to Pacific Rim exploratory drilling. These reports have been verified by the Ministry of Natural Resources. In one of the cases, cattle-raising communities lost their natural spring four days after Pacific Rim began drilling. The company is now trucking in daily rations of water.
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