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CAMPAIGN TO RETRIEVE ABANDONED
MINES |
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The western half of the United States of America and Canada is an area that has seen a lot of mining activity in the past, but today most of the mines are abandoned and not controlled in any way. In these open-cast mines there are still large amounts of minerals without any kind of environmental protection measures, and with the help of the rain they still contaminate rivers and soil years after they have ceased production. Even so, no-one has done anything about recovering these areas to stop the situation.
For this reason a coalition of North-American and Canadian organisations has begun a campaign to demand that the authorities see to the restoration of the damaged areas and, especially, stop the soil contamination. It is calculated that there could be more than half a million abandoned mines in this area, so these organisations have years of work before them. The campaign is based on a large network of organisations that work locally, which allows them to gather data from different areas and put combined pressure on the relevant authorities.
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LOCAL ORGANISATION AGAINST MINES |
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The valley of San Lorenzo, in Peru, was just another Andean desert until an irrigation project financed by the World Bank and the organisation USAID made the whole valley suitable for farming. Today, 20,000 people live in the area and a large variety of agricultural products are grown there. During the nineteen-eighties, a Canadian firm found gold in this same valley, under the town of Tambogrande, and now wants to dig an open-cast mine to extract it. The firm and the Peruvian authorities insist that the mine and the farming villages can coexist. The inhabitants, on the other hand, say that the mine will contaminate the rivers, produce dust and emissions of metals, and that the torrential rains caused by El Niño will mean that the toxic products from the mine will eventually contaminate the whole valley. The population has formed a pressure group and have mobilised to stop the project. In June 2002 a referendum was held in the valley in which the locals chose between the farms and the mine and the result was 98.5% in favour of the first option. The mining company, in spite of saying it would persuade the inhabitants of the benefits of the mine, is now saying that the referendum has no validity.
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RECYCLING AND CREATING JOBS |
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Promoting the selection and recycling of waste is a job that ought to mobilise all sectors of society. Even so, we must ensure that it is a self-sustaining economic activity without the need for constant assistance in the form of subventions, tax relief or other support. However important it is to promote campaigns in favour of selective disposal, it is therefore even more interesting to take a look at the work of a firm like Alupro. Alupro is a non-profit firm devoted to selective waste collection and aluminium recycling. The difference is that it is not the firm itself that does the collection, but local self-organised groups. This means that parish groups, handicapped people's groups and community groups can find alternative employment for people who have difficulty entering the job market.
The result is a very varied network of small groups working locally and making it possible to collect in a way that would be very difficult for a large firm to organise. Job-creation is thus self-managed, leading to much greater involvement by people.
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TAKING ON THE MULTINATIONALS |
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When a multinational company wants to start on a new mining project, it always aims at the highest possible financial returns. Nevertheless, in some cases a line of approach is gradually being applied that is more respectful of people and communities living in the area of mining interest and of the environment. In spite of these developments, local populations affected by mining projects are overwhelmed when it comes to taking on any of these large companies because they do not have the knowledge to be able to respond to mining projects. To deal with this situation, a working group of Canadian organisations and organisations from several Andean countries was set up to provide support for all communities faced with this problem. This partnership has produced guides that provide a basic knowledge which help to understand the technical reports submitted by the companies. At the same time, the group has been monitoring many of the mines in the Andes to get up-to-date information and make reports. This information serves to compare the activities in different countries and make recommendations on the most suitable measures to be taken in each case. The information is also available in digital form at the address http://andes.miningwatch.org
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