The discovery of mineral deposits in developing countries is usually more a curse than a blessing for the local population.

Environmental devastation, health hazards, human rights abuses and violent conflicts characterise the life of many people living in the mining regions. Despite their wealth of natural resources, many of the African nations are among the world's weakest in social, political and economic terms.
What is the price of natural resource mining: who pays and who benefits?

• What steps are needed to ensure that the extraction of natural resources does not lead to human rights violations, environmental devastation and an impoverished local population?
• What steps are needed to ensure that the revenues from natural resource extraction
  are transparently and equitably distributed and are used for sustainable development, to the benefit of all the population?
• Under what circumstances does natural resource extraction lead to conflict,
  aggravation of conflict and to economies of violence? How can this be avoided?
• What steps are needed to guarantee the appropriate participation of all levels of civil society?

The example of Peru

Feature: Our natural environment is our greatest treasure
Village communities in northern Peru unanimously reject mining

Early in the morning of 16 September 2007 the campesinos of the Carmen de la Frontera district stand patiently in front of the stadium in the district capital and wait to be allowed in. Some have walked for 8 hours to get here, others have hitched a ride on the flat deck of a truck or have ridden on the back of a donkey.
The question being asked in the referendum is: do you agree with having mining activity in your district? The unanimous response of the farming village communities is: No!
 

Video documentary: The case of Majaz

In the Piura region to the far north of Peru, British mining company Monterrico Metals is currently prospecting for one of the world's largest copper mining projects. The Rio Blanco project provides for the mining of copper in open-cast mines. The ecology of the region in which the mine is to be established is extremely vulnerable. If the project goes ahead, massive environmental damage can be expected, threatening agricultural production in the region, and therefore the livelihoods of the several thousand people who live here.


Video documentary: Wealth goes - poverty stays

Insights into the Peruvian mining sector
Despite the country's enormous mineral wealth, 54% of Peru's 26 million citizens currently live below the poverty line. At present about 250 mines operate here. For the people in the affected sites and regions this means the pollution of crucial resources such as fresh water and soil by mine effluent and the toxic substances used to extract the ore, social problems as a result of contentious land and resource utilisation, and deprivation of fundamental rights by the state and mining companies. Furthermore, mining projects threaten functioning economic structures such as agriculture, without offering any long-term alternative.