25.07.2022

By Lauren Barredo

On July 25th, 2022, SDSN, SDSN Amazonia, and the Geopark Quadrilatero Foundation organized a webinar on regulations and strategic guidelines that can be implemented to improve territorial governance frameworks and the mining chain. It emphasized proper dialogue and communication between local communities, external stakeholders, mining representatives, and authorities. The group also discussed the definition of a “sustainable” mining territory or community.

Speakers:

• Renato Ciminelli, President, Geopark Quadrilatero

Renato Ciminelli gave an overview [download slides] of the day's agenda and the topics under consideration. He also reminded participants that they are welcome to join the Vision to SDGs in Mining group on Mobilize, a collaborative platform where members can share publications, events, and resources, and have discussions about achieving the SDGs in mining territories [Join here!]. Renato also highlighted a number of key challenges that make it difficult to achieve the SDGs in miming areas, including lack of infrastructure and skilled labor, the consequences of mine closure for the environment and economic development, and the need for greater community involvement and effective engagement. Another obstacle was ensuring companies see the SDGs, and ESG as well, as priorities. 

• Kieren Moffat, CEO and Co-founder, Voconiq

Kieren Moffat shared findings from a survey of 38 large-scale mining companies [download slides], and found that while many were doing excellent work to integrate the SDGs into their core business, the majority were undertaking superficial work. He emphasized that to achieve the SDGs, meet ESG goals, and maintain a social license to operate, companies, markets, governments, and communities need to collaborate effectively, which has historically been deprioritized and perceived as difficult. He also emphasized the need to incentivize and reward good behavior and progress.  

• Rolf Georg Fuchs, Chairman & President, Integratio Mediação Social e Sustentabilidade

Rolf Georg Fuchs presented Interatio's work on the social license to operate [download slides]. He shared statistics on the real costs this has for companies and governments, presenting many examples of places where governments or communities have proactively banned mining. He recommended that companies do more to understand the territory, environment, history, culture, people, and needs of local communities, so that they can work with them more closely and build a social license to operate. 

• Giorgio de Tomi, Director, Centre for Responsible Mining, University of Sao Paulo

Giorgio de Tomi focused on small-scale mining [download slides], emphasizing it's contributions to a number of SDGs, including targets on poverty, hunger, labor, economic growth, gender equality, and pollution. He also warned that most initiatives looking at ESG and small-scale mining focus on the social aspects, while very few look at governance, despite its equal importance. He made a number of key recommendations, including to include stakeholders in processes to set ESG targets and indicators, and to be sure you are tracking progress towards those goals in a methodical way and reporting back to stakeholders.