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Date: April 29, 2024 Mon
Time: 10:44 pm
Time: 10:44 pm
Results for national resources
2 results foundAuthor: Mansfield, David Title: Moving with the Times: How Opium Poppy Cultivation has Adapted to the Changing Environment in Afghanistan Summary: This "watching brief" has described a number of trends with respect to agriculture, land settlement, and opium poppy in several areas of Afghanistan. It highlights two separate but highly related issues. First, what will be farmers' response to changes in technology and agro-economic conditions? While cost-reducing technology such as solar-powered tubewells may allow the cultivation of crops with lower returns than that of opium poppy, will farmers choose to grow these crops or will they stay with poppy? Will they even look to cultivate a second crop of opium poppy in May as some reports from the field suggest? Second, while the new technology has allowed the expansion of agricultural production to former desert areas and supported livelihoods for marginalised households, given Afghanistan's tenuous water resources (leaving aside climate change) and population growth rate, how sustainable is an agriculture that continues to deplete groundwater resources by allowing their use on an essentially "free" basis? Details: Kabul: Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit, 2016. 24p. Source: Internet Resource: Watching Brief: Accessed June 7, 2016 at: http://www.areu.org.af/Uploads/EditionPdfs/1611E%20Moving%20With%20the%20Times.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Afghanistan URL: http://www.areu.org.af/Uploads/EditionPdfs/1611E%20Moving%20With%20the%20Times.pdf Shelf Number: 139288 Keywords: NarcoticsNational ResourcesOpiumOpium Poppy Cultivation |
Author: Matthysen, Ken Title: Review of the Burundian Artisanal Gold Mining Sector Summary: BGR commissioned PAC in partnership with IPIS to implement the assignment 'Outreach & Research on Responsible Engagement in the Burundian Gold Sector'. The assignment's overarching objective was to constructively engage relevant stakeholders associated with the Burundian mining sector including, in particular, the gold sector, as well as the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) on the subject of due diligence and responsible mining and sourcing practices in support of the implementation of the Regional Initiative against the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources (RINR) and the recommendations of the OECD Due Diligence Guidance. To meet the overall project objectives, three sets of services were rendered from July 2014 to April 2015: The facilitation and organization of training and discussion workshops on supply chain due diligence as applicable in the Burundian context and including a national stakeholder analysis1; research and analysis of the Burundian gold sector; and, research on contraband gold (in-region cross-border and out-region); this report has been developed as the second deliverable listed above. It aims to review the context of the gold sector (mines and supply chains) in Burundi with a special focus on the artisanal nature of the sector. While it is known to host significant undeveloped Nickel resources possibly amenable to industrial mining, Burundi does not hold a deeply rooted tradition of mining, as opposed to its neighbours. Nevertheless, already during colonial times artisanal mining was practised in the country, supported by small Belgian mining enterprises. Gold, cassiterite, coltan and rare earths were the main products of these mining activities. The magnitude of Burundi's mining sector is minor compared to that of neighbouring countries. Just a simple comparison of the estimated number of artisanal miners illustrates the difference: While Burundi holds an estimated 10,000 artisanal miners working in gold and the 3T sector, there are an estimated 35,000 Rwandan 3T miners, and in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Tanzania hundreds of thousands of people are digging for various minerals, in particular gold, 3Ts and diamonds. Nevertheless, Burundi's geographical position does allocate it an important role with regards to regional gold trade and smuggling, and it is located in a geologically favourable metallogenic zone. In 2013, the country officially exported 2.8 tons of gold, which are believed to originate to a large extent from eastern DRC, but include a subordinate national production component of ca. 0.5 tons. Corresponding gold export values at USD 106 million in 2012 and USD 120 million in 2013 make gold the most significant Burundian export for these years. However, the relevance of the mining sector to the national economy is still rather limited. Mining accounted for less than 1% of Burundi’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2012, while subsistence agriculture accounts for more than 40% of the country's GDP and employs more than 90% of its population. On top of that, despite the considerable export values, fiscal revenues from the mining sector represent a mere 0.3% of the country's fiscal revenues. Nevertheless, over the last decade, Burundi's government has recognised that the artisanal mining sector is an important employer to many people and offers alternative livelihood options. It therefore considers the sector as a potentially important instrument for economic growth, poverty reduction and local development. As such, Burundi's artisanal mining and trading sector, dominated by gold, represents both a national development opportunity as well as a regionally relevant area to employ adequate supply chain due diligence in order to mitigate conflict risks through artisanal gold supply chains originating in the eastern DRC. This report represents a baseline review of the sector and its governance, largely based on literature research, including reports from international organisations, Burundian government sources, national and international civil society actors, and academics. A detailed list of all the sources used for the development of this report can be found in the bibliography at the end of this paper. Furthermore, a range of interviews were carried out in September 2014 in Bujumbura. To contextualize this review, the report draws on the experience of IPIS in neighbouring countries of the region, notably its multi-year efforts in mapping the eastern DRC's artisanal mining sector. Following on the introduction, Chapter 2 analyses the regulatory framework that is currently in place to manage Burundi' (gold) mining sector. Next, Chapter 3 analyses artisanal mining governance in the country. Several aspects will be discussed, including the institutional framework, the issue of decentralisation, formalisation efforts, taxation and mineral traceability efforts, and these are put into the regional perspective as well. Chapter 4 discusses the private actors that are involved in Burundi's gold mining sector. Subsequently, Chapter 5 deals with Burundi's artisanal gold supply chain in more detail. It will discuss, in turn, artisanal gold exploitation, selected environmental and socio-economic issues, and the gold trade. Finally, Chapter 6 provides concluding remarks based on the findings of the previous four chapters. Details: Antwerpen: International Peace Information Services (IPIS), 2015. 61p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 14, 2016 at: http://ipisresearch.be/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/2015_04_Review-of-the-Burundian-Artisanal-Gold-Mining-Sector.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Burundi URL: http://ipisresearch.be/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/2015_04_Review-of-the-Burundian-Artisanal-Gold-Mining-Sector.pdf Shelf Number: 144804 Keywords: Gold MiningIllegal MiningMiningNational Resources |