Authors:
- Samuel Nguiffo, Director of the Center for Environment and Development Cameroon and Goldman Environmental Award Winner 1999
- Axel Müller, Misereor / Justice and Peace Committee Cameroon
- Valéry Nodem, Director of RELUFA, a network of NGOS with 25 members, Cameroon
- Jaff Napoleon and Brendam Schwartz, RELUFA, Cameroon
Some positive steps
We welcome the German government initiative of adopting and publicizing its Raw Material Strategy, explaining the vision of its intervention in the mineral sector. Many governments whose companies are leaders in this sector don’t have a clear and public vision. This gives the citizens of Germany a tool to follow up German activities in the sector, and to citizens of the countries hosting mineral operations the tools necessary to pressure the government on its companies’ operations abroad.
The strategy also points out that German companies operating abroad should respect international standards and instruments regulating their operations in the mineral sector. This is a major step in recognizing the importance of transparency efforts worldwide and the necessity of investing in open and transparent environments.
The strategy of the German Federal government on non energy mineral raw materials recognizes and highlights most of the problems associated with the extractive sector. It clearly recognizes that commodity wealth does not contribute to sustainable development in developing countries. It goes further to note that extraction projects damage the environment and are characterized by poor working conditions, disregard for human rights and corruption while wealth generated from it go to finance armed conflicts or trigger new ones.
In its quest for securing supply of non energy mineral raw materials, the Government of Germany recognizes the need to focus on efficient use of raw material, and on recycling, as ways to improve sustainable use of mineral resources.
Some points of concern for NGOs:
How to achieve the very positive goal stated?
The Strategy described its goals and some of the instruments to secure supply of non-energy raw materials, but does not provide information about how the goals of sustainability will be achieved, especially given the competitive nature of the extractive sector (both the production side and the market). It seems to finally rely on the good will of companies, or on voluntary instruments such as the OECD guidelines.
Need to improve the operations standards in the producer countries
The resources-rich countries often have in common weak administrative and technical capacities, low social and environmental standards when they exist, poor governance and laws and regulations characterized by their inability to provide for sustainability. The strategy does not intend to address these weaknesses in the production side, by improving the conditions and creating a level-playing field with higher standards of operations legally binding to all the companies. The sustainability goal of the German Government will be better achieved by drastically improving the conditions in the producer countries. It will avoid the cohabitation, within the same country, of operations with different standards, depending on the origin of the company or of its funding.
Conflict
A lot of minerals, also non-energy mineral raw materials, are also located in conflict regions and countries, like DRC, the Niger Delta region, South of Sudan, etc. The Raw materials strategy of the German Federal Government does not mention if their investments, financial support, exploration/exploitation efforts will take place in such regions. Besides conflict zones, mineral extraction projects themselves can also cause violent conflict. The strategy paper neither describes how these emerging conflicts will be resolved or pacified nor the role the Government and the implementation actors will play.
Consistency of the Strategy with existing policies and commitments
One of the main elements of the German Government’s new materials strategy is support for mineral exploration. This support will likely principally take place in the developing world where many governments have yet to realize a complete natural resource inventory. Many of these resource rich countries also host the forests which have been identified as key conservation zones in the fight against climate change (Brazil, Peru, Cameroon, DR Congo, etc.). The mineral strategy states that, “With all of these [mining] projects, it is also important to consider protection of the climate, soil, water, air and biological diversity.”
This position is quite vague and fails to explicitly address what position the German Government will take when mineral development and related infrastructure (ports, railways, roads, transformation factories, etc) directly impact conservation efforts. Given the German Government’s strong support for the ‘green’ economy in its overseas development cooperation and its international climate commitments, it would be quite contradictory to facilitate investment in mining projects that work directly against these goals.
Recommendation
The European Union has been a leader in fighting against illegal logging in the developing world and has implemented numerous initiatives at the international level such as the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT). One of FLEGT’s strengths is the recognition that laws/regulation in developing countries often don’t reflect international best practice and forces developing countries to upgrade national standards. FLEGT also requires wide consultation amongst all stakeholders (civil society, local communities, companies, etc). We recommend the German Government, via its influence in the EU, develop a similar framework to improve governance and performance in the mineral sector, in a system that will finally be binding to all the actors, including non EU companies willing to sell end products in Europe.