Latin American and Caribbean Studies at the School of Advanced Study

Institute for the Study of the Americas

Mining and Development in the Andes: Alternative strategies for mining-based economies

Concluding remarks: Prof. Tony Bebbington

Mining activity has the potential to bring significant developmental benefits to countries in the Andes. However, as resources are exhausted, governments are turning to exploration in less desirable areas and proposing projects which may cause serious environmental damage. This has increasingly resulted in conflict with local communities and raises questions about how to manage and regulate the extractive industries. There are also broader debates about the risks and dangers associated with depending on a handful of commodities to sustain national economies, particularly when these are non-renewable.

Even while governments pursue "extractivist" policies, innovative alternative development proposals are emerging from civil society and from governments themselves. Both the Bolivian and Ecuadorian governments have included the language and principles of vivir bien in development plans and laws. Others prioritise in-country processing of raw materials or a move away from export-based, growth-centred strategies. Another approach is simply to better regulate large-scale mining investment so as to maximise its spread effects and contribution to local development.

Institute for the Study of the Americas

Mining and Development in the Andes: Alternative strategies for mining-based economies

Concluding remarks: Prof. Tony Bebbington

Mining activity has the potential to bring significant developmental benefits to countries in the Andes. However, as resources are exhausted, governments are turning to exploration in less desirable areas and proposing projects which may cause serious environmental damage. This has increasingly resulted in conflict with local communities and raises questions about how to manage and regulate the extractive industries. There are also broader debates about the risks and dangers associated with depending on a handful of commodities to sustain national economies, particularly when these are non-renewable.

Even while governments pursue "extractivist" policies, innovative alternative development proposals are emerging from civil society and from governments themselves. Both the Bolivian and Ecuadorian governments have included the language and principles of vivir bien in development plans and laws. Others prioritise in-country processing of raw materials or a move away from export-based, growth-centred strategies. Another approach is simply to better regulate large-scale mining investment so as to maximise its spread effects and contribution to local development.

Institute for the Study of the Americas

Mining and Development in the Andes: Alternative strategies for mining-based economies

Alternative policy approaches to the extractive industries in Peru

Dr. José de Echave, Cooperacción (by video link)

Mining activity has the potential to bring significant developmental benefits to countries in the Andes. However, as resources are exhausted, governments are turning to exploration in less desirable areas and proposing projects which may cause serious environmental damage. This has increasingly resulted in conflict with local communities and raises questions about how to manage and regulate the extractive industries. There are also broader debates about the risks and dangers associated with depending on a handful of commodities to sustain national economies, particularly when these are non-renewable.

Even while governments pursue "extractivist" policies, innovative alternative development proposals are emerging from civil society and from governments themselves. Both the Bolivian and Ecuadorian governments have included the language and principles of vivir bien in development plans and laws. Others prioritise in-country processing of raw materials or a move away from export-based, growth-centred strategies. Another approach is simply to better regulate large-scale mining investment so as to maximise its spread effects and contribution to local development.

Institute for the Study of the Americas

Mining and Development in the Andes: Alternative strategies for mining-based economies

Alternative policy approaches to the extractive industries in Peru

Dr. José de Echave, Cooperacción (by video link)

Mining activity has the potential to bring significant developmental benefits to countries in the Andes. However, as resources are exhausted, governments are turning to exploration in less desirable areas and proposing projects which may cause serious environmental damage. This has increasingly resulted in conflict with local communities and raises questions about how to manage and regulate the extractive industries. There are also broader debates about the risks and dangers associated with depending on a handful of commodities to sustain national economies, particularly when these are non-renewable.

Even while governments pursue "extractivist" policies, innovative alternative development proposals are emerging from civil society and from governments themselves. Both the Bolivian and Ecuadorian governments have included the language and principles of vivir bien in development plans and laws. Others prioritise in-country processing of raw materials or a move away from export-based, growth-centred strategies. Another approach is simply to better regulate large-scale mining investment so as to maximise its spread effects and contribution to local development.

Human Rights Consortium

Mining in Colombia and Latin America: will the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights improve accountability?

Keynote Speech - Lindsay Appleby, Her Majesty’s Ambassador - Designate to Colombia

The UK will launch its initial strategy on implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights in September 2012 and this conference will provide an opportunity to discuss and debate this strategy, to engage with the UK government on how it can best fulfil its commitment to ‘Protect, Respect and Remedy’, and with corporations on their ideas for the implementation of responsible mining practices and due diligence requirements.

Issues of natural resource governance are invariably at the centre of development and human rights debates as the extractive sector represents a growing part of Latin American economies. In Colombia, the government has identified the mining and energy sector as a key component of its current National Development Plan and one of the ‘backbones of the Colombian economy’.

What changes can be made to take into account the voices of local indigenous, afro-Colombian and campesino communities?

What are the challenges for companies investing in countries with poor human rights records and how are they meeting them?

How is human rights due diligence seen from a Southern perspective?

What difference could the UN Guiding Principles make and what concrete actions should governments be taking to improve the mining industry’s environmental and social performance?

Tackling these questions will be experts from a range of disciplines and key public bodies, including scholars, practitioners, and policy-makers, as well as representatives from the legal sector and mining industry. We are pleased to welcome indigenous and campesino community leaders from Colombia, including Embera and Awá indigenous peoples, to share the impact mining is having on their communities.

Human Rights Consortium

Mining in Colombia and Latin America: will the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights improve accountability?

Keynote Speech - Lindsay Appleby, Her Majesty’s Ambassador - Designate to Colombia

The UK will launch its initial strategy on implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights in September 2012 and this conference will provide an opportunity to discuss and debate this strategy, to engage with the UK government on how it can best fulfil its commitment to ‘Protect, Respect and Remedy’, and with corporations on their ideas for the implementation of responsible mining practices and due diligence requirements.

Issues of natural resource governance are invariably at the centre of development and human rights debates as the extractive sector represents a growing part of Latin American economies. In Colombia, the government has identified the mining and energy sector as a key component of its current National Development Plan and one of the ‘backbones of the Colombian economy’.

What changes can be made to take into account the voices of local indigenous, afro-Colombian and campesino communities?

What are the challenges for companies investing in countries with poor human rights records and how are they meeting them?

How is human rights due diligence seen from a Southern perspective?

What difference could the UN Guiding Principles make and what concrete actions should governments be taking to improve the mining industry’s environmental and social performance?

Tackling these questions will be experts from a range of disciplines and key public bodies, including scholars, practitioners, and policy-makers, as well as representatives from the legal sector and mining industry. We are pleased to welcome indigenous and campesino community leaders from Colombia, including Embera and Awá indigenous peoples, to share the impact mining is having on their communities.

Human Rights Consortium

Mining in Colombia and Latin America: will the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights improve accountability?

Keynote Speech - Danilo Rueda, Colombian Human Rights Lawyer from the Inter-Church Commission for Justice and Peace (CIJP) will present a southern perspective on the UN Guiding Principles

The UK will launch its initial strategy on implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights in September 2012 and this conference will provide an opportunity to discuss and debate this strategy, to engage with the UK government on how it can best fulfil its commitment to ‘Protect, Respect and Remedy’, and with corporations on their ideas for the implementation of responsible mining practices and due diligence requirements.

Issues of natural resource governance are invariably at the centre of development and human rights debates as the extractive sector represents a growing part of Latin American economies. In Colombia, the government has identified the mining and energy sector as a key component of its current National Development Plan and one of the ‘backbones of the Colombian economy’.

What changes can be made to take into account the voices of local indigenous, afro-Colombian and campesino communities?

What are the challenges for companies investing in countries with poor human rights records and how are they meeting them?

How is human rights due diligence seen from a Southern perspective?

What difference could the UN Guiding Principles make and what concrete actions should governments be taking to improve the mining industry’s environmental and social performance?

Tackling these questions will be experts from a range of disciplines and key public bodies, including scholars, practitioners, and policy-makers, as well as representatives from the legal sector and mining industry. We are pleased to welcome indigenous and campesino community leaders from Colombia, including Embera and Awá indigenous peoples, to share the impact mining is having on their communities.

Human Rights Consortium

Mining in Colombia and Latin America: will the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights improve accountability?

Keynote Speech - Danilo Rueda, Colombian Human Rights Lawyer from the Inter-Church Commission for Justice and Peace (CIJP) will present a southern perspective on the UN Guiding Principles

The UK will launch its initial strategy on implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights in September 2012 and this conference will provide an opportunity to discuss and debate this strategy, to engage with the UK government on how it can best fulfil its commitment to ‘Protect, Respect and Remedy’, and with corporations on their ideas for the implementation of responsible mining practices and due diligence requirements.

Issues of natural resource governance are invariably at the centre of development and human rights debates as the extractive sector represents a growing part of Latin American economies. In Colombia, the government has identified the mining and energy sector as a key component of its current National Development Plan and one of the ‘backbones of the Colombian economy’.

What changes can be made to take into account the voices of local indigenous, afro-Colombian and campesino communities?

What are the challenges for companies investing in countries with poor human rights records and how are they meeting them?

How is human rights due diligence seen from a Southern perspective?

What difference could the UN Guiding Principles make and what concrete actions should governments be taking to improve the mining industry’s environmental and social performance?

Tackling these questions will be experts from a range of disciplines and key public bodies, including scholars, practitioners, and policy-makers, as well as representatives from the legal sector and mining industry. We are pleased to welcome indigenous and campesino community leaders from Colombia, including Embera and Awá indigenous peoples, to share the impact mining is having on their communities.

Human Rights Consortium

Mining in Colombia and Latin America: will the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights improve accountability?

Keynote Speeches Q&A

- Lindsay Appleby, Her Majesty’s Ambassador - Designate to Colombia

- Danilo Rueda, Colombian Human Rights Lawyer from the Inter-Church Commission for Justice and Peace (CIJP) will present a southern perspective on the UN Guiding Principles

The UK will launch its initial strategy on implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights in September 2012 and this conference will provide an opportunity to discuss and debate this strategy, to engage with the UK government on how it can best fulfil its commitment to ‘Protect, Respect and Remedy’, and with corporations on their ideas for the implementation of responsible mining practices and due diligence requirements.

Issues of natural resource governance are invariably at the centre of development and human rights debates as the extractive sector represents a growing part of Latin American economies. In Colombia, the government has identified the mining and energy sector as a key component of its current National Development Plan and one of the ‘backbones of the Colombian economy’.

What changes can be made to take into account the voices of local indigenous, afro-Colombian and campesino communities?

What are the challenges for companies investing in countries with poor human rights records and how are they meeting them?

How is human rights due diligence seen from a Southern perspective?

What difference could the UN Guiding Principles make and what concrete actions should governments be taking to improve the mining industry’s environmental and social performance?

Tackling these questions will be experts from a range of disciplines and key public bodies, including scholars, practitioners, and policy-makers, as well as representatives from the legal sector and mining industry. We are pleased to welcome indigenous and campesino community leaders from Colombia, including Embera and Awá indigenous peoples, to share the impact mining is having on their communities.

Human Rights Consortium

Mining in Colombia and Latin America: will the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights improve accountability?

Keynote Speeches Q&A

- Lindsay Appleby, Her Majesty’s Ambassador - Designate to Colombia

- Danilo Rueda, Colombian Human Rights Lawyer from the Inter-Church Commission for Justice and Peace (CIJP) will present a southern perspective on the UN Guiding Principles

The UK will launch its initial strategy on implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights in September 2012 and this conference will provide an opportunity to discuss and debate this strategy, to engage with the UK government on how it can best fulfil its commitment to ‘Protect, Respect and Remedy’, and with corporations on their ideas for the implementation of responsible mining practices and due diligence requirements.

Issues of natural resource governance are invariably at the centre of development and human rights debates as the extractive sector represents a growing part of Latin American economies. In Colombia, the government has identified the mining and energy sector as a key component of its current National Development Plan and one of the ‘backbones of the Colombian economy’.

What changes can be made to take into account the voices of local indigenous, afro-Colombian and campesino communities?

What are the challenges for companies investing in countries with poor human rights records and how are they meeting them?

How is human rights due diligence seen from a Southern perspective?

What difference could the UN Guiding Principles make and what concrete actions should governments be taking to improve the mining industry’s environmental and social performance?

Tackling these questions will be experts from a range of disciplines and key public bodies, including scholars, practitioners, and policy-makers, as well as representatives from the legal sector and mining industry. We are pleased to welcome indigenous and campesino community leaders from Colombia, including Embera and Awá indigenous peoples, to share the impact mining is having on their communities.