In exploring approaches to engender climate justice for communities in resource rich areas there is a need for a delicate balance between driving profitability at the expense of the livelihoods of vulnerable communities.
Issues related to mining and how it increases the vulnerability of nearby communities to the effects of climate change are important in the matrix of building resilience and adaptation capacities of mining communities.
A food systems expert, Darlington Mafa, states that sustainable mining practices are key to mitigating the compounded effects of mining on climate change vulnerabilities in rural communities reliant on subsistence agriculture.
Mafa is a Coordinator at Rima Africa Trust Zimbabwe and a Global Landscapes Forum Zimbabwe representative. He says the disproportionate effects of Climate change on vulnerable populations should be canceled out and reduced to promote better well-being for affected communities.
He views climate justice as a crucial framework for addressing the global climate crisis, as it highlights the need for a people-centered and equitable approach to climate action that places communities at the center of interventions.
Mafa says the effects of climate change are felt first by the community before any awareness, citing the current El Nino drought predicament which seems ‘to hit the hardest in mineral-rich areas’.
“Mining in Zimbabwe threatens two pillars of livelihoods in rural communities: human well-being and the immediate environment, including fauna, flora, and biodiversity. This applies to both industrial and artisanal mining. Additionally, mining is an exhaustive practice that disrupts the land extensively to reach profitable depths.”
“This – given the subsistence nature of Rural food systems is a direct threat to the “productive plot” system that guarantees food security for most rural households. Industrial mining is firstly culturally invasive and, in its effort, to achieve profits, often disregards the cultural significance of traditional land and its meaning to existing communities.
“One of the biggest assets that rural communities have is productive land – land capable of bearing crops and food. This is the primary source of food security, nutrition, and cultural and traditional belonging,” says Mafa.
“So there is a radical view to mineral activism that will say stop mining totally and a progressive view that suggests responsible mining.”
Climate justice is a concept that emphasizes the need for equitable and fair treatment of all individuals and communities in the face of climate change. It recognizes that climate change disproportionately affects vulnerable populations, including low-income communities, indigenous peoples, and future generations.
It seeks to address the disproportionate burdens and responsibilities associated with climate change and advocates for, equitable access to resources and opportunities, protection of human rights and dignity, inclusive decision-making processes, sustainable and resilient development, and accountability and justice for climate-related harms.
The five pillars of climate change resilience are threshold capacity, coping capacity, recovery capacity, adaptive capacity, and transformative capacity. In developing countries, revenue generated from the sector can be streamlined towards climate action that addresses these key pillars.
For the extractive sector to be climate just, there is a need for a robust regulatory framework that is responsive to the increasing vulnerabilities of the mining industry to climatic shocks and ascertain the adoption of responsible mining practices that respect business and human rights.
Revenue-sharing models should be adopted for sustainable development of communities surrounding and affected by mining through shared ownership and profit sharing. In this regard, mining companies should look beyond voluntary Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and adopt Corporate Social Investment to deploy community benefits investments to improve the quality of life of residents.
Local content development, local employment and skills development, local procurement of goods and services, and enhancing the capacity of local suppliers and contractors. The value brought to the local, regional, or national economy from an extraction project is referred to as the local content.
A push toward local content strives to ensure that a company is hiring local labour and procuring local goods and services from the host country.
The mining sector as an extremely energy-intensive and one of the major emitters of greenhouse gases must play a role in the Just energy transition by using cleaner technologies that reduce emissions.
Inversely, in this transition and extraction of critical minerals for the green energy revolution, there is increasing exploratory activities that demand more land and access to other natural resources like water causing conflict with host communities.
In empirical argument, Mafa states that there is a need to harmonize with traditional and community land ownership standards, reduce gender imbalances, and reduce pollution through operational chemicals like cyanide which often spill into the water table and water sources.
“Mining is one of the largest contributors to Zimbabwe’s GDP, and at the same time, it harms the livelihoods of communities. There is therefore a need to strike a balance between climate Justice and profitable mining. Extracting this large number of raw materials will require the development of new mines with a larger overall environmental footprint, creating potential conflicts with local communities over scarce resources (i.e., land and water),” says Mafa.
To mitigate the impacts of the mining operations there is a need for emphasis to be placed on the mine closure phase, rehabilitation, and reclamation of mining areas.
Mine reclamation plans should accommodate climate change and, rather than simply returning the site to its original state, consider current and anticipated climate conditions when exploring regenerative agricultural practices, revegetation, water availability, and exposure to extreme events.
For developing countries like Zimbabwe, mining plays an indispensable role in the economic development models and plans of many regions and countries’ standards and initiatives to enhance the sustainability of the sector.
The extractives sector can – if responsibly managed – contribute to economic growth and development and provide the necessary revenue to fund climate action. However, often it is accompanied by the risk of the resource curse and conflicts with other sectors and population groups.
Therefore, the role of the extractives sector in a broader development context, including its complex interlinkages with a changing climate must be better understood and incorporated in policy and strategic decision-making.