Skip to main content
International Finance Corporation World Bank

Seventy-five percent of the world’s poor live in rural areas in developing countries. Management and preservation of natural environments, ecological systems, and biodiversity are essential for sustainable economic, social, cultural and business development. Environmental concerns linked to extractive industry include water quality, use of mercury, waste disposal, land grading, deforestation, gas flaring, oil spills, disruption to ecosystems, and climate change.

Some groups bare the burden of these challenges more heavily than others--indigenous peoples face significant risks given their dependence on renewable natural resources. Environmentally-affected stakeholders often lack the power, connections and information to demand positive ecological stewardship from companies, government and community members themselves. The lack of sectoral cooperation in governments can further stress attempts to coordinate sound national and regional environmental management.

A key to successfully coordinating efforts and reducing environmental threats is to incorporate multiple stakeholders into the project design, implementation and monitoring. Recently a confluence of politics, economics, and technology presents new possibilities for how extractive projects are managed.

Featured Objects

InfoMine

InfoMine does not mine minerals - it makes mining minerals more efficient. It is a mine of information about the global mining industry, with a rack of tools to help you extract precisely the information you require. The website provides focused, in-depth information and functionality encompassing most aspects of mining and mineral exploration activities worldwide.

Business & Human Rights Resource Center
The Business & Human Rights Resource Centre has become the world’s leading independent resource on the subject. The site covers over 4000 companies, over 180 countries. Topics include discrimination, environment, poverty & development, labour, access to medicines, health & safety, security, trade.
Environmental Defense
Environmental Defense is a leading national nonprofit organization representing more than 500,000 members committed to partnering with businesses, governments and communities to find practical environmental solutions.
Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS)
The Voluntary Carbon Standard provides a robust, new global standard for voluntary offset projects. It ensures that carbon offsets that businesses and consumers buy can be trusted and have real environmental benefits.

DRC Mining? Between a hard place and China
18 May 2008

Western mining companies fear that ethical standards will count for little as they renegotiate contracts in the Democratic Republic of Congo.


Science Can Show the Way to Cleaner Mining
25 Jan 2008

In 2010 the Mexican mining company Peñoles could be using a unique, more environmentally-friendly method for extracting gold and silver from ore -- but convincing the company to consider the new approach was not easy.


A Community Guide to Environmental Health
July 2008, Shirl Kennedy | Hesperian Foundation

Drawing the connections between people’s health and the environments in which we live, this groundbreaking book empowers health promoters, development workers, educators, activists, community leaders and ordinary people to take charge of their communities’ health.

 

 


Building Consensus: History and Lessons from the Mesa de Diálogo y Consenso CAO-Cajamarca, Peru: Monograph 3 - Independent Water Monitoring and the Transition of the MESA (2004-2006)
2007, Office of the Compliance Advisor/Ombudsman (CAO) | The World Bank Group
Although the concerns, dilemmas, and demands brought forth in the Mesa were numerous, by all accounts, the mine’s impact on water was a central source of conflict. The Mesa’s participatory water monitoring program aimed to address this common concern by monitoring water quality in the mine’s area of influence, providing quality assurance for the water monitoring programs conducted by other institutions, communicating the results directly to communities, and arriving at practical solutions to water quality concerns in a participatory manner.

Building Consensus: History and Lessons from the Mesa de Diálogo y Consenso CAO-Cajamarca, Peru: Monograph 2 - The Independent Water Study (2002-2004)
2007, Office of the Compliance Advisor/Ombudsman (CAO) | The World Bank Group
This monograph is divided into two main chapters. The first provides the context and background information on the mine and community concerns about water issues. The second analyzes the major challenges that the Mesa, the water study team, and the CAO confronted during the water study process, the actions taken to overcome these challenges, and lessons learned during the process.

Mining and Critical Ecosystems: Mapping the Risks
November 2007, Marta Miranda, Philip Burris, Jessie Froy Bincang, Phil Shearman, Jose Oliver Briones, Antonio La Viña, Stephen Menard | World Resources Institute

The report aims to provide a methodology that companies, governments, and civil society groups can use to develop a set of standards for environmentally responsible mining, or the identification of areas that should be placed off limits from mineral development -- so-called "no go" zones.

 

 

 


Stakeholder Inclusion in Caspian Basin Natural Resource Management
May 2004, Mary M. Matthews | The Kennan Institute (The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars)
The failure to systematically include multiple stakeholder groups in the natural resource management of the Caspian basin will seriously exacerbate tensions throughout the Caspian region.

Developing Actionable Indicators for Monitoring Governance and the Environment/Natural Resources
2007, Allan Rotman, Rajesh Vasudevan / The World Bank

The purpose of this work is to help track progress, generate greater accountability and build demand for closing the gaps between local government decision-making and environmental improvements. The environmental governance readiness assessment diagnostic, which is a primary output of this work, will enable a quick quantification of the performance and capabilities of local policymakers, local service providers and local communities towards improving environmental management of green (i.e. ecosystem and natural resource issues) and brown (i.e. urban environment issues).


Guide to Participatory Tools for Forest Communities

The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) has developed various participatory tools specifically for use with forest communities and other natural resource dependent groups. Some of these tools are adaptations of existing methods; others were created specifically for work with forest dependent communities. The tools have diverse applications: stakeholder identification, decision making, planning, conflict management, information collection, and other uses.


International Finance Corporation's Policy on Social & Environmental Sustainability

In the extractive industries and infrastructure sectors in particular, where a project can have potentially broader implications for the public at large, IFC recognizes the importance of assessment of governance risks and disclosure of information as a means to manage governance risks. Accordingly, subject to applicable legal restrictions, IFC has the following sector-specific initiatives on disclosure of project-related information, in addition to the disclosure requirements specified in Performance Standard 1.


Participatory Evaluation: Tools for Managing Change in Water and Sanitation
1993, Deepa Narayan / The World Bank

This document provides policymakers, managers, and planning and evaluation staff with ideas about participatory processes and indicators that can be used to involve community members and others in program evaluation. Drawing upon experience gained during the past fifteen years in more than twenty countries, the volume is structured around a framework of key indicators that can be measured to determine progress toward the objectives of sustainability, effective use, and replicability in water and sanitation programs. The methodology is relevant to other sectors, as well.


Biodiversity Indicators for Monitoring Impacts and Conservation Actions

Indicators are a way of presenting and managing complex information in a simple and clear manner. Using an approach based on risk assessment, this document outlines a methodology for developing site-level indicators to monitor significant positive and negative biodiversity impacts and company-level indicators to inform and report on the approach taken to biodiversity conservation at a strategic level.


Framework for Integrating Biodiversity into the Site Selection Process

The Framework for Integrating Biodiversity into the Site Selection Process (the Framework) is designed to support companies in identifying and developing appropriate responses to managing new business ventures in areas of high biodiversity value.


Integrating Biodiversity into Environmental Management Systems

This document takes as its starting point the assumption that biodiversity conservation is an integral part of sustainable development, and that oil and gas companies should integrate biodiversity considerations into their Environmental Management Systems (EMS) or integrated Health, Safety and Environmental Management Systems (HSEMS) at a corporate and/or project level.


Mine Planning for Environmental Protection

This module examines one crucial part of the mineral extraction process – how mine planning for environment protection can help in developing projects that meet community expectations for minimal environmental impacts.


Biodiversity Management Handbook

This handbook addresses the theme of biodiversity management, which is one theme in the Leading Practice Sustainable Development Program. The aims of the Program are to identify the key issues affecting sustainable development in the mining industry and provide information and case studies that illustrate a more sustainable basis for the mining industry.


Environmental Guidelines for Mining Operations

These guidelines present recent examples of sound environmental management practices and regulations from various mining countries worldwide and are designed to assist government and industry, from both developing and developed countries, encourage sustainable mining practices. They encompass a variety of tools and systems, including environmental impact assessment (EIAs), environmental management systems and programmes, environmental monitoring programmes, environmental auditing and enforcement.


Integrating Mining and Biodiversity Conservation: Case Studies from around the World

This document presents case studies on mining and biodiversity conservation by companies such as Alcoa, Anglo American, BHP Billiton, Freeport McMoran, the Mining Association of Canada, Noranda, Rio Tinto, and WMC Resources Ltd. Each of the 17 case studies provides a brief background on the issue, followed by a description either the steps taken to resolve any differences or the program introduced to address the problem.


A Guide to Developing Biodiversity Action Plans for the Oil and Gas Sector

This IPIECA guide is designed to help HSE professionals and other relevant staff, e.g. those involved with project planning, in the oil and gas industry to develop Biodiversity Action Plans (BAPs) for their sites and projects. BAPs are a systematic approach to biodiversity conservation that can build on, and be integrated with, existing company activities and processes throughout the oil and gas project life cycle.


Key Biodiversity Questions in the Oil and Gas Lifecycle

There are two requirements for the consistently effective management of biodiversity risks in oil and gas development. The first is an awareness of the scope of appropriate biodiversity conservation actions for industry. The second is the timely identification and assessment of biodiversity risks and opportunities related to a specific project, in order to allow full consideration of these risks and opportunities during project development and implementation planning and at decision points.


Oil and Natural Gas Industry Guidelines for Greenhouse Gas Reduction Projects

The purpose of this document is to develop a voluntary framework for assessing GHG emission reductions associated with specific types of oil and natural gas projects, including references to relevant methodologies or guidance. It also aims to assist the industry by providing guidelines on identifying, assessing, and developing candidate projects that would lead to credible emission reductions.


Pollution Prevention and Abatement Handbook

A handbook developed jointly by the World Bank and IFC which currently includes revised environmental guidelines for 41 sectors and industries. In addition to these guidelines, IFC is also using a series of environmental, health and safety guidelines for which there are no parallel guidelines in the PPAH.


Water Resource Management in the Petroleum Industry

This publication outlines the IPIECA water management good practice guidelines, ‘Operating responsibly and Building Capacity', illustrated by a number of company case studies.


ISO 9000 / ISO 14000

The ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 families are among ISO's most widely known standards ever. ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 standards are implemented by some 887 770 organizations in 161 countries. ISO 9000 has become an international reference for quality management requirements in business-to-business dealings, and ISO 14000 is well on the way to achieving as much, if not more, in enabling organizations to meet their environmental challenges.


A Guide to the Management of Tailings Facilities

The Guide is an extension of both the Environmental Policy and the Environmental Management Framework developed by the Mining Association of Canada (MAC). The Guide, specifically applied to tailings management, is designed to help MAC member companies perform due diligence in order to ensure that they are managing their tailings facilities responsibly and safely, which in turn can be demonstrated to regulators and the public.

The Green Supply Chain Summit 2008
June 24 - 25, 2008
London, UK

The Bottom Line: Greening your chain is not an act of sentimentality. It is pure good business. This conference promises to go beyond carbon footprint, covering other issues including water and energy efficiency, and management of toxic chemicals. This is a one stop shop event for supply chain and procurement professionals concerned about finding a holistic approach to supply chain management and getting the right balance between your social and environmental agenda.