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Neo-extractivism and repression of social protest in Bolivia

Bolivian Altiplano

We are looking out over a gigantic dry salt pan. Boats are lying upside-down on the cracks in the salty soil. In the surrounding villages, fishermen unable to do their regular jobs are forced to cultivate quinoa or raise animals in an environment that’s far from ideal for these pursuits. The Uru Murato are not used to agriculture, but when Lake Poopó dried up they lost not only their livelihood, but above all a foundation of their identity. A significant part of the population left in search for a new life in the city or even abroad, searching for a new job sometimes hundreds of kilometres away from their original homes.

The Bolivian government identifies “climate change” as the main culprit, blaming CO2-emitting industrial nations and neighbouring countries that waste water. The accusations are not unfounded, but ignore a significant part of reality. Walking upstream along the Desaguadero, the stream that takes (or took) the water from Lake Titicaca to Lakes Uru Uru and Poopó, you inevitably encounter another element that contributed to the drying up of the latter: mining, with some 350 sites of various types and sizes scattered about the area around the river. There are a number of small and larger cooperative mines, as well as some large-scale projects owned by multinationals or the state. All have an irreversible impact on the area and its residents.

A persistent extractivist growth model

Mining is deeply interwoven with Bolivian politics and society, which explains the complexity of current conflicts in the sector. Metals were mined even before the Spanish colonists used them to fill their treasury. The appeal of the rich Bolivian soil to foreign investors has only grown since then. Despite regained control over its own natural resources through independence in 1825, nationalisations in the mining sector in the 1950s and the “proceso de cambio” (process of change) of current president Evo Morales, the Bolivian population experiences little structural difference. National development and sovereignty strategies remain, contradictorily enough, consistently based on the extraction and export of primary raw materials as one of the main pillars. Additionally, the new mining law of 2014, which replaced the one of 1997, appears to have been directed by mining cooperatives and (international) private companies, and continues the privatisation trend of the 1980s and 1990s.

Back to Oruro

With favourable tax regimes and limited restrictions, Bolivia then opened its gates wide to multinational companies that remain present to this day. The Bolivian state’s share in these companies often evolved from small to even smaller. One product of this is Kori Kollo, an open-pit gold mine on the banks of the Desaguadero river that extracts the precious metal using cyanide. The mine is no longer active (the huge crater was filled with water from the river) and the largest shareholder, Newmont, sold its shares back in 2009. However, the mine’s negative consequences for the environment and the population continue to be felt, not least because of its significant contribution to the drying up of Lake Poopó.

State mine Huanuni, located in the river basin of the same Desaguadero river, is not doing much better. Ore waste is being discharged directly into the river, causing acidification and high concentrations of heavy metals in the river and groundwater. Surrounding land is flooded with sediment and marked by sand deposits, making agriculture and animal husbandry virtually impossible.

These are only two (larger ones) of the countless mining sites that populate and pollute the Bolivian Altiplano. Control – by both tax authorities and environmental experts – is minimal, a framework and measures to protect the environment are virtually absent, and people continue to wait (with some disbelief) for the promised prosperity that the revenues from the sector would provide.

Social protest, attempts at cracking it and paper answers

Local residents have been experiencing the impact of mining activities in the area for decades. The population is increasingly aware of this and insists on its right to be heard, and questions central government decisions, in this case on private capital and the use of land and water. The 80 communities from the river basin and around Lakes Uru Uru and Poopó, which in 2006 united in CORIDUP – Coordinadora and Defensa de la Cuenca del Río Desaguadero, los lagos Uru Uru y Poopó, fought the government and multinationals for fair compensation and measures against further pollution, and to prevent further human rights violations.

They are assisted in this by CEPA, an NGO based in the nearby city of Oruro, which provides information flow and technical assistance, and raises visibility and lobbying to the regional, national and even international level.

A confrontation that is inevitably accompanied by intimidation. This conflict, which primarily relates to directly perceptible consequences of human interventions in the natural environment, is more broadly about democracy, about whose rights and voice count most in political-economic decision-making, and about various possible development models and their impact. In this discussion, unanimity within the various parties is a pipe dream, and polarisation is the central government’s preferred strategy to suppress protest. (Sounds familiar?)

The population’s unrelenting struggle has resulted in some responses though, albeit mostly on paper. Since 2002 Lakes Poopó and Uru Uru are Ramsar sites, internationally protected wetlands. From 2009 to 2012 an inadequate audit was carried out to measure the impact of the Kori Kollo mine. The area around the Desaguadero river basin was declared a disaster area in 2009, with a step-by-step plan to build a waste collection basin and a new processing plant to drastically reduce waste discharge from the Huanuni mine. Ten years on, neither basin nor plant are operative yet. Meanwhile, the Desaguadero river remains the ore waste bin.

The struggle of indigenous students against large-scale mining industries in the Philippines – the case of ALCADEV

The struggle of indigenous students against large-scale mining industries in the Philippines - the case of ALCADEV

Nóra Katona, 18 February 2019

On Mindanao, the biggest southern island of the Philippines, there is a school that fills an important void in the region. ALCADEV (Alternative Learning Center for Agricultural and Livelihood Development) provides secondary education to the indigenous people in the region – the Lumads – relevant to their culture and needs. The school offers education mostly in the field of sustainable agriculture, integrated in an alternative learning system. They focus on interactive ways of education. A way of learning that provides the students not only with theoretical but also with practical knowledge about subjects like Maths, History, English and scientific and sustainable agriculture. A way of learning which aims to prepare the students for their future position as leaders of their community. One of the most important skills the students acquire during the learning process is, therefore, the responsibility for the livelihood of their community.

ALCADEV is not the only school in Mindanao which fights with its alternative learning methods against illiteracy and innumeracy of the indigenous youth. There are more than 146 similar alternative schools and programmes across the different regions in Mindanao. The operation of these schools is essential for students coming from the poverty-stricken mountain communities of the Caraga region who cannot afford going to other schools because of transport and living expenses.

There is, however, a serious threat for Lumad schools. The Caraga region is situated in the northeast, a largely mountainous section of Mindanao highly abundant in minerals, which makes it an attractive area for exploitation by foreign mining industries. The region has the 4th largest copper, 3rd gold and the 5th largest nickel deposits in the world. Besides, Caraga also has one of the largest coal reserves in the country, which is targeted by foreign extractivist companies. As a result of the privatized electricity in the country, foreign businesses have been encouraged to invest in the energy industry. They became even more active in the field of coal extraction and have started up hydropower projects at the rivers and lakes of Caraga.

Although the region’s mining resources had already been exploited in the pre-Hispanic period, the scale of resource extraction has never been as large and destructive as it is today. During the boom of neoliberal politics in the 1990’s, the Philippine government accepted the Mining Act in 1995. By this law the government clearly attempted to boost the economy by direct investments from foreign companies. Under the Mining Act, twenty-five percent of the country’s land area became potential mining territory, which mainly overlapped with the area where indigenous people live.

By the end of 2017, 23 of the country’s 48 large operating metallic mines were in Caraga. Despite the promises of economic development, Caraga remained one of the poorest regions of the Philippines. Mining activity could clearly not provide long-term jobs for the locals. Most workers in the mining industry are employed by contractual basis, usually for a maximum of 7 months.

Apart from the unsustainable employment factor, mining entails other serious environmental and social consequences. This situation in Caraga is very similar to the one other mining regions in different continents face. Landslides and flash floods are becoming a daily occurrence in many parts of the region as more and more of its lands are destroyed. Furthermore, the contamination of potable water sources, poisoning of the air, water and soil, siltation of the coastline and natural waterways, the degradation of nearby fishing grounds, the destruction of habitats and the decrease in biodiversity all belong to the unavoidable environmental impact of extractivism.

Moreover, the intense extractivist activities and its governmental support are responsible for a high level of human rights violations in Caraga. Since 2005, the Lumad people and schools are targeted not only by mining but at the same time by massive militarization. The government continuously deploys military and paramilitary forces in the area and works together with private forces in order to ease the entry of foreign businesses. On top of that, current president Rodrigo Duterte tries to eliminate opposition to these government programs through the National Internal Security Plan (the Oplan Kapayapaan). It targets Lumad leaders, members of progressive organisations and environmental advocates who are fighting against large-scale mining. According to the counter-insurgency campaign of the government, these progressive organisations and alternative schools, such as ALCADEV, are part of the New People’s Army – the armed wing of the Philippine communist party – and are indoctrinating the children in socialism. Therefore, they are seen as enemies of the nation.

Furthermore, Mindanao is under Martial Law (direct military control of civilian functions of government) since 2017. This situation gives the government the opportunity to use instruments like trumped-up charges and extrajudicial killings in their campaign against indigenous leaders. Only since Duterte came to power in 2016, there have been 30 extrajudicial killings related to mining. Also schools find themselves under permanent threat of bombing attacks and every year entire communities and schools have to be evacuated. This December and January there were also two bombings and food blockades in the region resulting in the evacuation of 300 individuals. Apart from the obvious inconvenience of the recurring evacuations, the students and teachers of the schools need to face the difficulty to rebuild the whole infrastructure (including crops and livestock) everytime they go back to their settlements.

Because the Lumads keep going back to their ancestral land, they keep resisting the large-scale mining industry. Schools like ALCADEV and non-profit organizations like the TRIFPSS Inc. (Tribal Filipino Program of Surigao del Sur) are essential in this struggle: they empower and support the indigenous communities. Enhancing the self-determination of indigenous communities could be, namely, an alternative for development in Caraga. Starting up different food security programmes by local communities shows also that there is another way for development, apart from large-scale mining. The question remains, however, whether the government will be willing to change its politics and protect the ancestral lands of the Lumads from foreign investors and from the increasing environmental disasters.

During the Open Min(e)d Academic Speakers Tour in March, CATAPA welcomes two speakers from the Philippines who can tell more about the perspective of the Lumads in this mining case. Maricres, who has been working for years at ALCADEV, and Norma, who represents the TRIFPSS as the Executive Directress of the organization.

Project NEMO

NEMO

Near-zero-waste recycling of low-grade sulphidic mining waste for critical-metal, mineral and construction raw-material production in a circular economy.

The issue of mining waste in the EU

Source: Historic mining site of Rio Tinto (Huelva, Spain) by Alberto Vázquez Ruiz

The mining of non-ferrous metals such as copper, lead, zinc, nickel, antimony and cbalt and precious metals such as gold, silver and platinum produces the largest volume of metal-containing extractive waste in Europe with approx. 900 million tonnes/year of presently unusable material, and about 29% of all the waste produced in the EU-28. Today, most mines only extract a little fraction of metals from the ore, discarding the rest as enormous volumes of mining tailings left in waste-storage facilities. These installations have a limited safe lifespan and pose a serious threat to the environment and local people due to their risks (e.g. dam break, landslide, geomembrane break), compromising the present and future generations that must inherit the cost of management and permanent monitoring. This is particularly the case for sulphidic tailings, which often cause acid-mine drainage.

‘Recycling’ of mining waste as a better practise

Source: NEMO project

In its 2016 Raw Materials Scoreboard report, the European Innovation Partnership (EIP) on Raw Materials launched a “call to arms” to transform the “extractive-waste problem” into a “resource-recovery opportunity”. In response to this call, the NEMO project takes up the challenge of developing new ways to valorise sulphidic tailings, through the recovery of valuable metals and critical raw materials (Co, REEs/Sc, Mg). NEMO takes the lead in respecting the zero-waste principles of the EC’s Circular Economy Action Plan (2015) in the mining sector. The project will also learn new techniques to concentrate the hazardous elements (As, Cd) and remove the sulphur in the form of sulphate salts (e.g. Na, K, Mg), leaving the residual, clean mineral fraction to be used as a raw material for the mass production of cement, concrete and construction products. The result would be a drastic reduction in waste to just 5% (still to be stored) of its original (fresh tailings) volume, leading to far fewer risks for storage, and with the additional benefit of no acid-mine drainage possibility. An improvement that every mine site should implement!

CATAPA in an EU ‘Horizon 2020’ Innovation Action

CATAPA is a small partner in the NEMO interdisciplinary consortium, including 6 industrial partners (4 engineering, 1 machine manufacturing & 1 construction materials company), 4 research institutes, 2 universities and 2 mining companies (the implementation cases: Sotkamo mine in Finland, and Las Cruces mine in Spain). NEMO has four categories of objectives: technological, economic, environmental and social. CATAPA is involved in the achievement of the latter. NEMO states the will to achieve an open dialogue and enhance cooperation between all stakeholders (mining sector, local communities, authorities and NGO’s) to implement co-design and co-monitoring systems, so CATAPA will be working for 4 years (2018-2022) to ensure that the voice of locals will be known and taken into account by the consortium in its implementation of these new technologies on the mine sites.

Note (12/02/2019):

Las Cruces case is no longer part of the project because Cobre Las Cruces S.A.U. (subsidiary of First Quantum Minerals Ltd., based in Canada) withdrew from the NEMO Consortium on January 29th 2019 after a major mining accident occured in its operation in the early morning of the 23rd, when a large amount of its mining waste deposits (dried tailings) suddenly precipitated inside its open-pit through a land slippage. This event demonstrates once again the real need to find a solution to the constant generation of polluting waste by mining activities for the benefit of the whole society and our planet. For more information visit this blog or read the article from Yes To Life No To Mining.

Source: Ecologistas en Acción Sevilla (Spain).

Note (18/10/2022):

A trailer of a video documentary series titled “Responsible Mining in Europe: A new paradigm to counter climate change” was released on LinkedIn on Tuesday, 18 October 2022, carrying a non-authorised disclaimer of CATAPA and the logo of the NEMO project. CATAPA clarifies that it did -and does- not support this video series. Before the trailer was publicly aired, CATAPA had already started the process of requesting the correction of that mistake. Although the promoters of the video trailer amended their error on the same day, it had been online for a few hours. Linking CATAPA and the NEMO project with those videos was done against CATAPA’s will and without its consent.

The NEMO project develops, demonstrates and exploits new ways to valorise and use sulphidic mining waste. Especifically, the project is a response to the 2016 EIP Raw Materials “call to arms” to transform the “extractive-waste problem” into a “resource-recovery opportunity” in the understanding that mining tailings still contain valuable and critical metals, and that mining waste could be a source for these metals and the cleaned inert fraction reused as construction materials. Promoting new mining, regardless of whether it is called “responsible”, “green” or “sustainable”, is out of the NEMO project scope and objectives. CATAPA disagrees with the message of the video documentary series.

Video by SIM2 on Responsible Mining Source: Image from the main documentary video by SIM² (KU Leuven).

Mines & Territory, January 2019

Monthly online review on extractivist issues in Colombia

Collection, summary and edition by Sam Packet and Karlijn Van den Broeck

Download Mines & Territory, January 2019 here.

We present you “Mines & Territory”, our montly online review on extractivist issues in Colombia brought to you by two of our Catapistas. With this review we would like to bring closer to you the latest news concerning extractivist matters in Colombia and the fight of local communities against this industry. We would like to provide you with this information in the most accessible way possible:

Here you can donwload the first issue from the month of January: Mines & Territory, Issue January ’19 Download

For more information, follow Catapa Colombia on Facebook.

Defensoras

Environmental and human rights defenders are tirelessly committed to equality and justice. Unfortunately, they often face discrimination, violence, criminalisation, violations of their civil rights and the impunity of armed public groups (police, army) or hired groups (paramilitaries, death squads). All activists are presented with major challenges. However, female activists are additionally confronted with gender-specific violence and other risks.

With a project called “Strategies of women human rights defenders confronting extractive industries“, CATAPA lead a campaign regarding the situation of female environmental activists who fight against the extractive industries in Latin America. With this campaign we wanted to give a voice to the female activists, to draw attention to their precarious situation and to encourage political institutions and other organisations to create mechanisms that offer better protection to these defensoras. The project was carried out in collaboration with several partner organisations including Ingeniería Sin Fronteras (ISF) and REDD (Red Latinoamericana de Mujeres Defensoras).

There are many dangerous sectors in which it is risky for environmental activists to offer resistance. According to the organisation AWID, the most unsafe context for activists is the mining industry, followed by hydropower projects and dams, agro-industry and logging. Alda Facio, head of the United Nations Working Group on Discrimination Against Women, confirmed in May that even the most vulnerable group of women human rights activists aims to prevent extractive industries from operating (besides fighting for reproductive and sexual rights). Offering resistance to extractive industries also implies challenging (inter)national companies and global elites, which collaborate with governments and sometimes even with religious and ‘traditional’ institutions. Research by Front Line Defenders (FLD) shows that 281 human rights defenders worldwide were murdered in 2016: 49% of the total number were activists defending the environment, territory and indigenous rights. More than half of the murders, 143 according to the findings of FLD, happened in Latin America.

All activists are presented with major challenges. However, female activists are additionally confronted with gender-specific violence and other risks. While environmental advocates are often labelled “non-patriotic” or “against progress”, female advocates are additionally stigmatised because of their gender and sexuality. “Despite the increasing dangerous context, more and more women play an important role in social movements. However, they run a higher risk of sexual violence, especially when they live in a militarised environment. Moreover, their children are also more likely to be threatened or attacked as a form of intimidation,” said Marusia Lopez of JASS at the same UN event in May. In addition, the rights that these women defend are not always recognised by society and in some countries they are even considered crimes.

Alejandra Burgos of the Mesoamerican Woman Human Rights Defenders Initiative adds: “The lack of access to justice as well as the high level of impunity has an impact on the lives of activists in Central America. Research shows that , between 2012 and 2016, 60% of attacks against activists consisted of harassment, threats, warnings and ultimatums, defamation and stigmatisation campaigns, use of force, illegal and arbitrary arrests, criminalisation and prosecutions. In addition, we live in one of the regions with the most feminicides (female killings) in the world.”

Female activists in Latin America often suffer from a three-dimensional form of discrimination. First of all, they are often treated with contempt because they are indigenous. They often have their own cultural habits, speak another language and believe in the worship of nature. Unfortunately, these characteristics cause them to be considered inferior in many countries. In addition, the specific (violent) context of the socio-ecological conflict in which they live also has a major impact on different aspects of their lives and, therefore, they do not always have the opportunity to move. Lastly, they also experience difficulties because they are one by one women who want to break with traditional role patterns. Because of the discrimination, they find themselves in a precarious situation as they ‘do not respect their obligations’ and become ‘rebellious’. Environmentalists who protest against the economic extractive policy of Latin American governments often become victims of the arbitrary use of the penal system, with the result that they are confronted with false accusations and unfair trials. These strategies of criminalisation are difficult to resist due to lack of money, time and contacts.

An international consensus on the definition of what constitutes an environmental or human rights defender already exists. However, the double vulnerability of female activists is often forgotten. There are hardly any statistics on the total number of activists who are confronted with threats and gender-based violence or who are criminalised. Research agencies and international organisations should approach this issue from a gender perspective, so that specific resolutions and protocols can be drawn up and female environmental and human rights defenders in turn receive specific protection.

As part of our project, international research teams were sent to partner countries in Latin America: Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and El Salvador. These teams, with the help of local experts, investigated the issue of female activists who fight against extractive industries, using quantitative and qualitative research methods. The results were written down in a report that was then sent to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). The IACHR is an autonomous legal body for the protection of human rights in the 35 member states of the Organisation of American States. On October 24th, the IACHR held a public hearing on “The criminalisation of female environmentalists in Latin America“. The session of the IACHR took place in Montevideo, Uruguay, and set an important step forward in raising awareness of the precarious situation of activists in the context of extractive industries in Latin America.

Subsequently, CATAPA worked very hard in Belgium to bring this issue to the attention of the wider public and political institutions. The aim was to encourage political institutions such as the European Union to implement a gender perspective in their legislation and policies, which would lead to a better protection of female human rights defenders.

In January 2018, CATAPA organised two events during which several speakers explained the situation of female human rights defenders in Latin America and the possibilities of protection. Mirtha Vasquez was invited as guest speaker. The Peruvian lawyer and human rights activist represents Maxima Acuña in her fight against the gold mining project Conga.

On January 10th, an event was organised in the European Parliament as part of a new EU Resolution on women, gender equality and climate justice. Mirtha Vasquez and Dr. Clara Burbano Herrera (University of Ghent), one of the project’s researchers, made recommendations for the EU on the protection of human rights defenders. This was followed by presentations by Florent Marcelessi and Jordi Solé (both Greens/EFA), members of the European Parlement, on respectively the existing protection of human rights defenders by the EU and how this was reflected in the EU budget.

The day before, an event was organised in the Pianofabriek in Brussels on the same subject, where Mirtha Vasquez was invited to present to a full house. In addition to Mirtha Vasquez, Amelia Alva Arevalo (Ugent), one of the project’s researchers, and Nicky Broekhoven (Ugent), who conducts research on gender and climate, gave a presentation as well.

During Open Min(e)d, formerly Academic Week, no less than three female human rights defenders were invited to give lectures at universities and colleges, and during events: Gloria Chicaiza from Ecuador, Margarita Aquino from Bolivia, Mariana Gomez from Colombia.

Sources:

Front Line Defenders. (2017). Annual Report on Human Rights Defenders at Risk in 2016. Front Line Defenders.Consulted on: https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/resource-publication/annual-report-human-rights-defenders-risk-2016

IACHR. (2015). Criminalization of Human Rights Defenders. Consulted on: http://www.oas.org/en/iachr/reports/pdfs/criminalization2016.pdf

Inmaculada, Barcia. (2017). Weaving resistance through action: strategies of women human rights defenders confronting extractive industries. Consulted on: https://www.awid.org/sites/default/files/atoms/files/eng_weaving_resistance_through_action-web.pdf

Living under risk – Copper, ICT and Human Rights in Chile

Living under risk

Copper, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and Human Rights in Chile

Catapa published this report together with War on Want. You can read it here.

CHILE, COPPER & ICT

Chile is currently the largest copper producer in the world, holding 29% of the world reserves of the red metal. Copper represents a crucial portion of the Chilean economy and the copper industry -as will be shown in this report- is highly influential in national politics.

But the extent and intensity of copper extraction across Chile’s territory has precipitated negative impacts in the environment and on communities that resist extractivism.

Through the analysis of a case study, this report unveils the adverse socio-environmental impacts of copper extraction and discusses the role of the company, the national government and international actors in addressing the consequences brought by the copper mining industry.

Within this last group, this report highlights the role that ICTs –which represent 24% of the usage of copper (Comisión Chilena del Cobre, 2016a) – could play in the improvement of social, environmental and labour conditions at the local level.

The case study

Caimanes is a small agrarian town situated in northern Chile that has been at the centre of opposition to the Los Pelambres (hereinafter MLP or the Company) mining project, the fifth largest copper mine in the world. The community does not have political relations with national or local elites, and therefore, as will be seen, its opportunities for mobilisation have been mostly limited.

Yet, the local community reacted against the construction of El Mauro tailings dam –the largest in Latin America- identifying various negative socio-environmental impacts on issues of water, health and security. As will be detailed in this report, the capacity of the community to mobilise resources has varied across the 20 years of struggle. Through its history of resistance, the community has gone through different phases of mobilisation: from a period of direct action to a process of formalising its demands in a judicial lawsuit, which has marked the last 10 years of mobilisation.

This case also reveals a process of countermobilisation to the protest. Given the significant scale of the project, and its high
levels of associated investment, the mining project has been assiduously defended by the state and the Company, restricting the possibilities for social contention. As will be seen throughout the report, both the Company and the state have deployed direct techniques of repression such as forced displacement, the criminalisation of local leaders, and use of police forces to suppress protests. Additionally, the corporate-state nexus, has also used more sophisticated forms of counter-mobilisation such as using company-community interactions to divide the inhabitants of Caimanes, and diminishing their capacity to decide in formal spaces of community engagement.

By analysing the mechanisms that explain the rise of the Caimanes mobilisation and its main shifts, this report explores the
emergence of micro-dynamics of contention in territories that lack political opportunities and resources. Its insights allow us to understand episodes of protest in an unfavourable context for social contention; and how, despite this restrictive context, the community has been able to create opportunities, resources and solidarities at different stages of the conflict.

The report begins with a contextualisation of the political economy of copper in Chile, highlighting how it relates to consumption at a global scale, with a specific emphasis placed on the consumption of ICTs. It then generates a process-tracing analysis of the episodes of contention marked by two significant stages of protest: (i) a period during which the community aimed to, and were successful in receiving compensation from the company and (ii) a period during which the community sought to legally demonstrate the negative impacts of the project. This part of the report includes a discussion about the interlinked relationship of the community with a growing labour movement that has not yet been able to coordinate their demands with the socioenvironmental movement. The concluding section summarises these two periods of
protest highlighting the most important elements that have generated conflict in the last 20 years. It also shows how the global consumption of copper (especially from ICTs), the closed political opportunities at the national level, the process of countermobilisation by the Company and lack of networks have ended up dividing and isolating the community, diminishing its capacity to self-organise.

Mining in Paradise?

With the campaign Mining in Paradise, CATAPA supported the agricultural and environmental organisations in four provinces in the North of Peru that didn’t want to allow mining in their region. This organisations saw a need in mobilising because of the fact that mining companies harm human rights, cross local development plans and threaten the most bio-diverse area in the world, the tropical Andes, which may cause irreparable damage. Below you will find an extensive list of achievements of our campaign.

CATAPA and her partner organisations wanted with this campaign:

To meet the question of information about mining in local farmer communities and support them in the launching of joint actions.
To get the subject of no-go-zones on the agenda of regional and national Peruvian politics.
Sensitize citizens in Belgium and other European countries about mining issues in North-Peru.
Stimulate international solidarity within the farmer’s population of North Peru.

Partly thanks to the help of many volunteers and signers of the petition, our campaign was largely successful.

THE CAMPAIGN IN PERU

On regional level, North-Peru

– The Frente, with the support of Red Muqui and CATAPA, has given about ten informative and participative workshops in different villages about mining, globalization and human rights. A total of more than 500 farmers took part in these workshops – large part of which were young people. About 70% of the population in the predominantly rural area is poor and has little or no access to education, nor information about the mining industry.

– Farmer organisations out of four provinces have stated a joint statement ‘Zonas libres de minería’ (or ‘No-go zones for mining’) in which they comment on why they don’t want any mining activities in their area. Their principal requirements are: a spatial planning process with participation of the local population and respect for the environment, investments in the local development alternatives (agriculture and ecotourism) and the approval of a legal mechanism for consultation of indigenous people.

– On the 16th of September, which is the third anniversary of a referendum out of which appeared that 97% of the local people preferred not to have any mining activities in their area, public events were organized in the provinces of Ayabaca and Huancabamba. During these events, the declaration and the campaign video were shown. Hundreds of people were present.

– Thanks to a press conference, the campaign got the attention of different local newspapers and radios. Also the statement was published in El Tiempo de Piura, which is one of the best-read newspapers in the area.

– The people who are candidate at the election of mayor in the local elections on 3th of October, in four North-Peruvian provinces, have spoken out against a statement, during public debates prior to the elections. Many of them signed an ‘ethical pact’, in which they promised to respect the requirements of the declaration. The social organisations will see to it that they keep their promise.

– Also the two new regional governors in the area promised openly in the media that they will be working on no-go zones for the mining industry. Moreover, the new regional governor of Piura has signed a personal agreement with the farmer organisations, in which he promises not to permit any mining activities in the páramos and cloud forests of the Andes, and to recognize the farmer organisations as ‘protectors of the páramos‘.

– On 2nd December 2010, one year after the death of two farmer leaders who died because of the mining industry conflict, the local campaign was finished with an event in the farmer community of Segunda y Cajas. During this event, the death of the two leaders was remembered and the information about the campaign was spread in Lima and Europe. Also during this event hundreds of people were present.

On national level, in Lima

– A lot of networking was done between NGOs and social communities to enlarge the support of the national and international society. Several international NGOs, such as Oxfam America and Friends of the Earth US, supported this action.

– The production house Guarango, which had made documentaries about the mining industry problems in Peru before, made, in cooperation with CATAPA, two sensitizing campaign videos. These were shown during ten informative sessions in the capital, as well as in North-Peru and Europe.

– With the support of CATAPA and a member of parliament from North-Peru, our partner organisations Fedepaz and Cooperacción organized a national forum in the Peruvian Parliament which threats the campaign theme no-go zones for mining. On this forum many experts gave lectures, representatives of local farmer organisations gave a speech and debates were held. The forum was commented in various national newspapers.

– Four (digital) informative bulletins were published, in which each time a certain campaign theme was spotlighted. These bulletins were spread by the campaign partners to the general public. On the final event of the campaign in North-Peru, the people present got a summarizing bulletin of the campaign, with pictures of the different activities.

– In cooperation with our national partners and Friends of the Earth US we sent a critical letter to the stakeholders of Zijin, the Chinese mining company which is the principal stakeholder of the Río Blanco-mining project in North-Peru. This letter was published in The South China Morning Post, an important Chinese business paper.

THE CAMPAIGN IN EUROPE

– On the 16th of September, the website mininginparadise.org was launched in six languages, with the different campaign videos and an online petition to support the declaration ‘Zonas libres de Minería’.

– On invitation of CATAPA, a European lecture series with Peruvian guests was organized. Some of the Peruvian guests were José De Echave, who is an economist and co-founder of CooperAcción, and the North-Peruvian biologist Fidel Torres. Furthermore, there were some witnesses of communities that had been harmed directly by the mining industry, such as Josefina Aponte, leader of agriculturers of Huancabamba, and Magdiel Carrión, president of the farmer movement FEPROCCA from Ayabaca. There were lectures with Peruvian lecturers in Great-Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Spain and Italy, to argument the need of No-go zones for mining. Numerous lectures and conferences were held in Flemish and Walloon colleges and universities, with all together hundreds of people present.

– The most important activity of this tour was the international conference in Brussels, where hundred people were present. An extensive article in the newspaper De Morgen about the conference was written.

– A brief investigation paper was written which covered the scientific and juridical foundation of the campaign. In cooperation with photographer Danny Veys, the Photo-exposition Mining in Paradise? was developed, which portrayed the reality of North-Peru and the impact of the large mining industry elsewhere in the country. This was exhibited during some months in Brussels.

– The e-petition was signed by about 3000 people of 75 different countries and 140 different large and small organisations.

– We sold (and keep on selling) the delicious CATAPA-coffee Café por el Paraíso, in cooperation with Oxfam Wereldwinkels and Cepicafé- a coffee-cooperation in Northern-Peru.

Make ICT Fair

The Make ICT Fair project began in November of 2017, when a consortium of 11 European organizations joined forces with the ultimate goal of improving the lives and livelihoods of people affected by ICT supply chains. Make ICT Fair was an European funded project (subsidized by the DEAR-programme) that ended in January 2021.

Why do we need to Make ICT Fair?

Because most ICT isn’t fair. ICT refers to electronic products that we use on a daily basis, such as laptops and smartphones. The production process of these devices is marked by human right violations and ecological disasters.

First of all, electronics contain a high amount of metals. Smartphones for example contain more than 40 different metals. These metals need to be extracted from the earth. This mainly occurs through large-scale mining projects, creating enormous ecological impacts such as; the dehydration of lakes, rivers and the earth, the contamination of soil and water with heavy metals and toxic substances, deforestation and biodiversity loss. Again, this creates several social impacts such as (forced) migration, loss of income due to degradation of agricultural land, diseases due to contamination of drinking water, criminalization of protest and human rights defenders, conflicts and corruption. Next to this, the ICT production phase also has a dark side. In many ICT factories, which are located mainly in Asia and Eastern Europe, labour conditions are far from ideal. ICT factory workers are required to work excessive hours for low wages in unsafe and unhealthy conditions. And, if that isn’t enough, the amount of e-waste discarded by the global population is only increasing annually, with severe social and ecological consequences. This is the result of the linear production model: our electronics are not designed to be easily repairable or recyclable.

There are many reasons why working towards a fairer ICT production and consumption model is not simple. Firstly, the ICT supply chain is not transparent and is very fragmented. Firstly, the ICT supply chain is not transparent and is very fragmented. It is easy for companies to avoid taking responsibility for other stages of the supply chain. The entire production and consumption model needs to be scrutinized and redesigned.

In this way it’s quite easy for companies to not take their responsibility for what happens in a previous stage of the supply chain. The whole production and consumption model is in need of scrutinization and redesigning.

The whole supply chain is in desperate need of a change. We need to Make ICT Fair.

Here you can read more about the issues within the ICT supply chain.

How did we Make ICT Fairer?

The Make ICT Fair consortium utilised four different strategies to make ICT Fair:

Raising awareness in Europe on the issues within the ICT Supply chain

First of all, with the Make ICT Fair project we wanted to meet the urgent need to increase awareness of European citizens as to how our electronics are produced, drawing attention to the labour conditions and environmental impacts.

This is a very important first step, because often people aren’t aware of the story of their phones before they purchase them in the store. Within the Make ICT Fair project, the consortium increased awareness of European citizens on the impact of our ICT by; creatingsocial media campaigns and sharing articles, creating educational material, training activists and organizing public actions, conferences, workshops, Speaker Tours, guest lectures, documentary screenings and several other educational events.

Raising awareness in numbers:

We reached over 150 million European citizens through press and media work and social media campaigns, linking their own consumption to the challenges and negative impacts associated with global ICT supply chains (mining and manufacturing) and the interdependencies of the EU and the Global South.
Project partners actively engaged 350,000 citizens with training sessions, street actions, congresses, speaker tours and seminars. These activities were successful in building awareness, skills, and knowledge among trained activists and the general public, supporting them in active citizenship from a local to a national level to create change in ICT supply chains.
Large-scale events designed to reach a broader audience were organising in collaboration with multiple partners, including;
- SETEM organized three sessions of the Mobile Social Congress, with input and speakers from other Make ICT Fair partners. The main goals of the congress were to reflect on the current production and consumption ICT model that generates serious human rights violations and environmental consequences, and the potential of existing ethical consumption alternatives – issues that were not discussed at the annual Mobile World Congress that took place simultaneously in Barcelona.
- Three Academic Speaker Tours were set up by CATAPA. Three speakers from the Global South travelled to Europe to give guest lectures in universities and ran several other events about mining issues in their countries. They traveled through Belgium, but also told their story during activities organised by Bankwatch in Bulgaria, by Le Monde Diplomatique in Poland and by TSA in Hungary.

People & Planet coordinated Power Shift three years in a row – a multiple day training series for young people focused on strengthening their activist and campaigning skills. Activists from SETEM, TSA, CATAPA, Bankwatch and Le Monde Diplomatique participated in these training sessions.

Promoting fair public procurement as a tool for positive change

Government, regional authorities and universities are large-scale consumers of electronics products such as computers, laptops and tablets. Within the EU, one out of five laptops is bought by the public sector. Consequently, as a major consumer, the public sector as a whole has considerable leverage. If the entirety of the public sector were to join forces, it could utilise this leverage to force the industry to implement structural improvements and higher standards.

Therefore, Make ICT Fair targeted public sector buyers, encouraging them to integrate sustainability criteria within their ICT product procurement tenders. At the same time, monitoring systems were strengthened across the supply chain.

Promoting fair public procurement in numbers:

During the project 331 institutions were encouraged by project partners to affiliate themselves with Electronics Watch and make work of fairer public procurement policies.
Expert roundtables, conferences, seminars, and webinars reached 1,700 public procurers.
Training sessions were conducted to strengthen monitoring partners in manufacturing and mining regions. These trainings were organised by Electronics Watch and CATAPA and focused on the worker-driven monitoring methodology for monitoring partners in the mining and the manufacturing sector.
ICLEI and Electronics Watch developed tender models, provided advice, guidance and expert briefing to public procurers. Six pilot tenders and five published case studies inspired local administrations and Procura+ Interest Group participants to make work of their own procurement.
A database was set up to make the connection between 60 brands, 176 factories and 56 procurers.

Performing research to detect issues within the ICT supply chain and increase transparency

The ICT supply chain is very complex and untransparent. That’s why we performed research on the ICT supply chain to detect certain issues such as human rights violations and to gain more insight into the complex metal and component tiers.

This is a selection of the research produced within the framework of the Make ICT Fair project:

Copper with a cost – A report produced by Swedwatch on the human rights and environmental risks in the mineral supply chains of ICT, focusing on a case study from Zambia
Forced labour behind your screen – Research performed by Danwatch on behalf of SETEM on the bad working situations of migrant ICT factories in Malaysia.
Linking the Bolivian minerals to the European Industry – research carried out by CATAPA that tracks the supply chain of the metal Indium (important for touchscreens in smartphones), from Bolivian cooperative mines to the European Industry.

You can find an overview of all the research carried out within the Make ICT Fair project on this page of the University of Edinburgh. There you can also find a collection of articles produced by the Make ICT Far project titled ‘Human rights risks in the ICT supply chain’.

Advocating for the integration of fairness and sustainability aspects in legislation related to ICT

Legislation concerning the ICT supply chain is developed at both the European and national level. Make ICT Fair partners analyzed and closely monitored such legislation to push for the integration of sustainability aspects. The EU’s multilateral development banks’ investments were closely monitored and lobbied to adhere to best practices.

More specifically, the Make ICT Fair consortium made policy recommendations regarding these subjects;

Adopting rules on Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence
Ensure Multilateral Development Banks implement Human Rights and Environment Due Diligence
Push for the EU to upgrade its public procurement policies
Ensure that EU policies regarding circular electronics and ICT lead to fairer value chains
Inclusion of social aspects in the Sustainable Products Initiative

To work on the implementation of these recommendations, Make ICT Fair partners held frequent meetings with EU decision makers, organizing lobby events in the European Parliament (such as the European Parliament ‘Make ICT Fair’ Breakfast with the goal of raising awareness of human rights violations within ICT supply chains) and formed the Make ICT Fair Friends group out of existing decision makers.

For this, the consortium was supported by consultant Fair Trade Advocacy Office (FTAO).

Here you can read more about EU policy recommendations Make ICT Fair partners were and are continuing to work on.

Some Make ICT Fair partners also pressured their national governments to raise ICT supply chain issues and improve legislation. For example, TSA launched a campaign and a petition to push for legislation in Hungary that would extend the obligatory guarantee period for ICT products.

To be continued…

During the three years of the Make ICT Fair project, eleven partners took steps towards a fairer ICT supply chain. However, lots of work must still be done. From 2021 onwards the consortium will continue to work together on different levels to Make ICT Fair;

Dialogue and collaboration between partners will continue . Supported by a contracted consultant, the consortium will continue to meet regularly and will keep on advocating for fairer policies by targeting EU level policy makers.
Make ICT Fair partners will continue to focus on the topic of ICT individually within their organizations. For some partners, the impact of ICT will continue to play a significant role in their educational and awareness-raising offer. Others will continue to perform lobby activities or carry out research regarding the subject. Several organizations also joined forces for smaller projects and will continue to focus on their specific accomplishments.
The Make ICT Fair consortium will be on the lookout for a follow-up project to continue the work outlined above.

The project partners

This project was organised with the financial assistance of the European Union. The contents of this publication is the sole responsibility of CATAPA and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union.

Mirtha Vasquez visits CATAPA

Mirtha Vasquez visits CATAPA to discuss the issues that 'defensoras' face

17 January 2018

This week Mirtha Vasquez visited CATAPA. She is the director of GRUFIDES and the lawyer for famous environmentalist Maxima Acuña and is based in Peru. The purpose of her visit was to lobby and raise awareness for the Defensoras in Peru and Latin America through public events and a meeting at the EU. The visit laid the groundwork for a very exciting week here at CATAPA.

On Tuesday there was an event at the Pianofabriek in Brussels called Women, gender equality, climate justice: a case for Defensoras. Besides Mirtha Vasquez, Amelia Alva Arevalo who is a researcher at University of Ghent spoke of her current research that focuses on the implementation and exercise of the prior consultation of indigenous peoples in the Andean Countries. In June-July 2017, she was on an observation mission to El Salvador on human rights violations towards Defensoras. Furthermore, Nicky Broekhoven spoke about her research that is coming from a legal perspective and focuses on gender equality, women’s rights, and environment. She is also a volunteer at the Gender and Human Rights division of Amnesty International, and advocates for a mainstreaming of gender in questions regarding human rights. The event attracted a diverse and large audience and the Pianofabriek was filled to the brim. After the presentations there was also a Q & A session with all the speakers, leading to dynamic discussions about the issues that WHRDs face.

The lawyer and director of Grufides, Mirtha Vásquez, gives a lecture during a public event organized by CATAPA in Brussels. Photography by Alienor de Sas (All rights reserved)

On Wednesday there was an event at the European Parliament aimed at raising awareness on the precarious situation of women environmental activists in Latin-America. Mirtha Vasquez did a presentation together with Dr. Clara Burbano-Herrera (University of Ghent). The presentations contained recommendations for the EU concerning the protection of HRDs and WHRDs in Latin America. Much interest was garnered from MEPs and NGOs with regards to how WHRDs can be protected, both within a legal framework and through attention garnered in various press publications. MEPs also asked questions about how they could include issues discussed in the presentation within free trade agreements (FTAs) and how they should be framed in an inclusive manner.

Following the presentations of Mirtha Vasquez and Dr. Clara Burbano-Herrera there was presentations from both Florent Marcellesi (MEP Greens/EFA), Rapporteur for Opinion, and Jordi Solé (MEP Greens/EFA), member of AFET and BUDG. The presentations were concerning the protection that the EU give HRDs and how their new strategies are supported by the budget. At the request of the various civil society organisations present they elaborated further on the real life impact of the EUs commitments. It was indeed very interesting to hear about similar issues coming from both the EU and individuals affected by their policies.

Charlotte Christiaens, activities coordinator of CATAPA and Mirtha Vásquez, during her intervention in the European Parliament. Photography by Alienor de Sas (All rights reserved)

Of course there was also time for an internal meeting with Mirtha Vasquez and the catapistas to discuss the current situation in Peru and future collaborations.

It was a great pleasure to have her as a guest here at CATAPA and we are very glad that so many people showed interest in listening to her description about the current problems with the mining industry and WHRDs in Peru.

Mirtha Vásquez and Laura Lucio rapport of EU resolution

The European Parliament approves resolution on “Women, Gender Equality and Climate Justice”

Mirtha Vásquez (GRUFIDES), Laura Lucio (ESF)

25 January 2018

The European Union (EU) has been concerned with the issues regarding the safety of human rights defenders (HRDs) for some time. In recent years HRDs has been victims of serious attacks by individuals or companies when trying to defend their territories against large projects with massive investments. There has been incidents where people have been attacked, assassinated in conjunction with various other human rights violations. Recently new light has been shed on the particular risk that women human rights defenders (WHRDs) are exposed to.

Due to such observations the EU has implemented new measures to not only protect HRDs, but also to minimize the impacts of the large projects has on the population and their territories. The EU recognized that the protection of various ecosystems and the environment is a fundamental aspect when facing increasing risks of global climate change.

Hence, parliamentary members from the green european parties presented a draft resolution on “Women, Gender Equality and Climate Change”. In order to highlight the importance of the initiative they invited Latin-American environmental defenders such as Mirtha Vásquez to speak. Mirtha Vásquez is mainly concerned with defending community rights in Peru and is a member of the Latin-American network of women earth and human rights defenders. She spoke about the importance of women in the struggle of environmental defence, and about the asymmetrical impact felt by women. This situation has been drastically intensified in light of recent years climate change context.

On January the 16th 2018 the European Parliament approved of this resolution. It establishes different principles that could strengthen the resilience of women and the protection of their human rights. The resolution has many objectives regarding the improvement of women’s role in decision-making processes. This mainly concerns processes regarding climate and environmental issues. Such advances could be an important catalyst for the inclusion of human and eco-territorial rights in the process of decision-making at the local level. It particularly affects the management of natural resources, the environment and the prioritization of rural sustainable development policies at the national level in order to tackle the extractivist model.

Furthermore, the resolution emphasizes the necessity of strengthening the right of access to land and ownership by women as an important measure to guarantee gender empowerment. It can be an important mechanism that enables communities to preserve their traditional territories that are currently endangered by extractive industries. Extractive industries are generally regarded as one of the central causes of climate change and environmental degradation.

Given the relation between extractive industries and climate change we believe that the intervention and protection of WHRDs is fundamental. We would like to thank and celebrate this progress that, above all, recognizes women as active agents in the defense of their territory, with regards to the mitigation and adaptation necessary in order to face new climate risks.

The contents of this article are the sole responsibility of CATAPA and can under no circumstance be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union