Everything Science Forum

I heard an interesting discussion regarding the consumption of gold, which supports very unhealthy mining practices.  Not only that, local people often loose their land to large global mining concerns, which pay off corrupt politicians.

According to Earthworks, "The production of one gold ring results in about 20 tons of mine waste".  In various mines cyanide is used to extract the gold and in Brazil, workers use mercury to collect the gold flecks.  The mercury is burned off - and contaminates the workers, the land and the water.

To learn more -

http://www.nodirtygold.org/home.cfm

http://www.mineralpolicy.org/ewa/intl_program.cfm

http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/nodirtygold

http://www.equator-principles.com/

The "Equator Principles"

An industry approach for financial institutions in determining, assessing and managing environmental & social risk in project financing

PREAMBLE

Project financing plays an important role in financing development throughout the world. In providing financing, particularly in emerging markets, project financiers often encounter environmental and social policy issues. We recognize that our role as financiers affords us significant opportunities to promote responsible environmental stewardship and socially responsible development.

In adopting these principles, we seek to ensure that the projects we finance are developed in a manner that is socially responsible and reflect sound environmental management practices.

We believe that adoption of and adherence to these principles offers significant benefits to ourselves, our customers and other stakeholders. These principles will foster our ability to document and manage our risk exposures to environmental and social matters associated with the projects we finance, thereby allowing us to engage proactively with our stakeholders on environmental and social policy issues. Adherence to these principles will allow us to work with our customers in their management of environmental and social policy issues relating to their investments in the emerging markets.

These principles are intended to serve as a common baseline and framework for the implementation of our individual, internal environmental and social procedures and standards for our project financing activities across all industry sectors globally.

In adopting these principles, we undertake to review carefully all proposals for which our customers request project financing. We will not provide loans directly to projects where the borrower will not or is unable to comply with our environmental and social policies and processes.

STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES

We will only provide loans directly to projects in the following circumstances:

1. We have categorised the risk of a project in accordance with internal guidelines based upon the environmental and social screening criteria of the IFC as described in the attachment to these Principles (Exhibit I).

2. For all Category A and Category B projects, the borrower has completed an Environmental Assessment (EA), the preparation of which is consistent with the outcome of our categorisation process and addresses to our satisfaction key environmental and social issues identified during the categorisation process.

3. In the context of the business of the project, as applicable, the EA report has addressed:
a) assessment of the baseline environmental and social conditions
b) requirements under host country laws and regulations, applicable international treaties and agreements
c) sustainable development and use of renewable natural resources
d) protection of human health, cultural properties, and biodiversity, including endangered species and sensitive ecosystems
e) use of dangerous substances
f) major hazards
g) occupational health and safety
h) fire prevention and life safety
i) socioeconomic impacts
j) land acquisition and land use
k) involuntary resettlement
l) impacts on indigenous peoples and communities
m) cumulative impacts of existing projects, the proposed project, and anticipated future projects
n) participation of affected parties in the design, review and implementation of the project
o) consideration of feasible environmentally and socially preferable alternatives
p) efficient production, delivery and use of energy
q) pollution prevention and waste minimization, pollution controls (liquid effluents and air emissions) and solid and chemical waste management

Note: In each case, the EA will have addressed compliance with applicable host country laws, regulations and permits required by the project. Also, reference will have been made to the minimum standards applicable under the World Bank and IFC Pollution Prevention and Abatement Guidelines (Exhibit III) and, for projects located in low and middle income countries as defined by the World Bank Development Indicators Database, the EA will have further taken into account the then applicable IFC Safeguard Policies (Exhibit II). In each case, the EA will have addressed, to our satisfaction, the project's overall compliance with (or justified deviations from) the respective above-referenced Guidelines and Safeguard Policies.

4. For all Category A projects, and as considered appropriate for Category B projects, the borrower or third party expert has prepared an Environmental Management Plan (EMP) which draws on the conclusions of the EA. The EMP has addressed mitigation, action plans, monitoring, management of risk and schedules.

5. For all Category A projects and, as considered appropriate for Category B projects, we are satisfied that the borrower or third party expert has consulted, in a structured and culturally appropriate way, with project affected groups, including indigenous peoples and local NGOs. The EA, or a summary thereof, has been made available to the public for a reasonable minimum period in local language and in a culturally appropriate manner. The EA and the EMP will take account of such consultations, and for Category A Projects, will be subject to independent expert review.

6. The borrower has covenanted to:

a) comply with the EMP in the construction and operation of the project

b) provide regular reports, prepared by in-house staff or third party experts, on compliance with the EMP and

c) where applicable, decommission the facilities in accordance with an agreed Decommissioning Plan.

7. As necessary, lenders have appointed an independent environmental expert to provide additional monitoring and reporting services.

8. In circumstances where a borrower is not in compliance with its environmental and social covenants, such that any debt financing would be in default, we will engage the borrower in its efforts to seek solutions to bring it back into compliance with its covenants.

9. These principles apply to projects with a total capital cost of $50 million or more.

The adopting institutions view these principles as a framework for developing individual, internal practices and policies. As with all internal policies, these principles do not create any rights in, or liability to, any person, public or private. Banks are adopting and implementing these principles voluntarily and independently, without reliance on or recourse to IFC or the World Bank.

The participating banks:

ABN AMRO Bank, N.V.
Bank of America
Barclays plc
Citigroup Inc.
Credit Lyonnais
Credit Suisse Group
Dexia Group
Dresdner Bank
HSBC Group
HVB Group
ING Group
MCC
Mizuho Corporate Bank
Rabobank Group
Royal Bank of Canada
Standard Chartered Bank
The Royal Bank of Scotland
WestLB AG
Westpac Banking Corporation

The more scrutiny and support these banks get, the more seriously they and others will practice the principles.

Projects in the Sahel (desert area south of the Sahara)

In addition to UN, there are numerous other government and private NG organizations from around the world working to combat poverty in the Sahel.

Here are some links for further information.  The first one is quite interesting.

http://www.eden-foundation.org/project/

http://www.fao.org/waicent/faoinfo/economic/giews/english/sahel/index.htm

http://www.isnar.cgiar.org/publications/books/sahel/english/intro.htm

http://www.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/80422e/80422E00.htm

http://www.aec.msu.edu/agecon/fs2/sahel/

For those interested in one of the international programs devoted to feeding those in some of the poorest countries, try:

INTERNATIONAL FOOD POLICY RESEARCH INSTITUTE
Sustainable solutions for fighting hunger and poverty around the world

http://www.ifpri.org/

Archive: http://www.isnar.cgiar.org/

In Niger, Trees and Crops Turn Back the Desert
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/11/world/africa/11niger.html (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/11/world/africa/11niger.html)

GUIDAN BAKOYE, Niger — In this dust-choked region, long seen as an increasingly barren wasteland decaying into desert, millions of trees are flourishing, thanks in part to poor farmers whose simple methods cost little or nothing at all.

Better conservation and improved rainfall have led to at least 7.4 million newly tree-covered acres in Niger, researchers have found, achieved largely without relying on the large-scale planting of trees or other expensive methods often advocated by African politicians and aid groups for halting desertification, the process by which soil loses its fertility.

Recent studies of vegetation patterns, based on detailed satellite images and on-the-ground inventories of trees, have found that Niger, a place of persistent hunger and deprivation, has recently added millions of new trees and is now far greener than it was 30 years ago.

These gains, moreover, have come at a time when the population of Niger has exploded, confounding the conventional wisdom that population growth leads to the loss of trees and accelerates land degradation, scientists studying Niger say.

The vegetation is densest, researchers have found, in some of the most densely populated regions of the country.

“The general picture of the Sahel is much less bleak than we tend to assume,” said Chris P. Reij, a soil conservationist who has been working in the region for more than 30 years and helped lead a study published last summer on Niger’s vegetation patterns. “Niger was for us an enormous surprise.”

It's one small step, but it's in the right direction.

Beachcomber, on the science forums, maintains that trees bring rain (ala rainforests.)

Is the recent forestation in Niger suspected to play any part in the rainfall patterns that they have observed?

Beachcomber, on the science forums, maintains that trees bring rain (ala rainforests.)

That may very well be, but I don't think it is necessarily quite so simple.  It also depends on latitude and proximity to mountains and oceans.  I think there is a critical mass of trees, which are required to have a rainforest, either temperate or tropical.

Is the recent forestation in Niger suspected to play any part in the rainfall patterns that they have observed?

I'll have to look into that.  Certainly, south of the mountains, it rains quite a lot and they have tropical rainforests.  North of mountains, it becomes much drier, especially the further north on travels.  There is a big difference between southern parts of Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso and Nigeria, and the northern parts.  Niger is north of Nigeria, and east of Burkina Faso and Mali.   Majority of Mali and Niger lies in the Sahel or Sahara deserts.

Hopefully similar work is being accomplished in Senegal and Mali.