Group items tagged

As the prospect of huge new investments in their rural corner of the world beckoned, villagers anticipated a whole new life: jobs, houses, education, and even free food.

Some resource-rich countries in Africa have managed to turn mineral wealth into broad-based development. Ghana, which recently discovered oil, has won praise for its careful planning for poverty alleviation. Botswana’s diamonds have turned what was one of the world’s most impoverished nations into a middle-income country.

The government has signed up to be part of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, a program set up by Britain and supported by the World Bank to ensure that governments and companies are honest about revenues. The government also says it plans to invest the proceeds of mining into antipoverty programs and to help rural farmers.

Earlier this year, the people of Cateme sent a letter to local government officials and Vale demanding that their complaints about the resettlement process be addressed, threatening to block the railway line that passes through their village carrying coal to the port. When they received no reply, they occupied the rail line. The police descended upon them, chasing them away and roughing up those who resisted removal.

“There were some problems after the relocation,” said Vale’s country manager, Ricardo Saad, adding that the company was trying to fix them. Local people, he said, should not think that mining would bring instant prosperity. “One of the things that we have to manage very carefully are the expectations,” Mr. Saad said.

During the lengthy period of deliberation, activist and watchdog groups suggest, the SEC was ferociously lobbied by industry groups, resulting in certain elements of the two provisions being watered down. In the final ruling, for instance, manufacturers using scrap or recycled materials will not be required to do due diligence on their supply chains.

“We are particularly disappointed that companies will be able to describe the country of origin for their minerals as ‘undeterminable’ for several years.

“The [SEC] was clearly thoughtful and deliberative and made some constructive changes to the final rule,” Lisa K. Burgess, with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, an industry lobbying group that had threatened to file a lawsuit to stop the SEC’s implementation of these provisions, told IPS. “However, clearly, challenges remain, and we will need to analyse the text of the rule to determine our next steps.” Indeed, in the immediate aftermath of Wednesday’s vote, both industry and watchdog groups hastened to note that the full strength, or weakness, of the new Dodd-Frank provisions will be understood only after a careful examination of the final details.