Extracting Good Practices
Achieving the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals represents both a tremendous challenge and opportunity. Land degradation has reached critical levels and threatens the livelihoods of over 3 billion people. We are losing species 1000 times faster than at the natural extinction rate. Reversing these and similar trends requires a paradigm shift in the way we prioritize investments and balance short-term economic growth with social development and environmental protection.
Mining can make a significant contribution to economic development. Minerals and metals are needed for advancing durable growth and developing green technologies required for a low-carbon future. If managed well, the sector can contribute to accelerating progress towards achieving multiple SDGs, including in the Least Developed Countries and fragile states.
Large-scale mining, however, can also cause great environmental and social harm. It can damage ecosystem services which provide women and men with water, food, fuel, medicine, and shelter. Land degradation, and water and air pollution caused by mining often affect community health and livelihoods. Mining also has a large carbon emission footprint at odds with climate goals, and the exploitation of metals and minerals often exacerbates and sustains social and violent conflicts around the globe. These negative impacts harm those who are already furthest behind and have the least power to influence decision-making and demand accountability and redress.
As the demand for metals and minerals continues to grow, greater efforts are needed to protect human rights as well as the biodiversity and ecosystems on which local communities and society more broadly depend.
This joint Guide by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and the United Nations Development Programme seeks to support governments and other stakeholders to better manage the environmental and social aspects of mining in a way that rebalances relations in favor of more just and sustainable outcomes for local communities and vulnerable groups, including women and children, now and in the future.
The Guide provides an overview of tools and approaches for governing the human rights and environmental impacts of the sector in a more integrated and holistic manner. We hope that users of this Guide will find it a valuable tool in their efforts to chart a more inclusive and sustainable course for governance of the mining sector.
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