This guidebook outlines the outcomes of the 'Building Sustainable Relationships: Aboriginal Engagement and Sustainability' conference. It looks at aboriginal engagement in the context of sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Canada’s natural resources sectors, particularly the mining, oil and gas, forestry, and energy industries.

This report is primarily based on a review of research into the role of voluntary activities in the mining sector.

This report explores how the illicit trade in cobalt and copper in Katanga (south-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo) is contributing to the destruction of the country’s economy, the environment as well as the livelihoods of thousands of Congolese people.As the report demonstrates, the volume of the illegal mineral trade is immense. In March 2004 the Central Bank of Congo reported the DRC produced 783 tonnes of cobalt metal.

The World Bank Group (WBG) has the potential to improve the contribution of extractive industries (EI) to sustainable development and poverty reduction. However, this report by the WBG’s operations evaluation departments finds that although its EI projects have produced positive economic and financial results, it has not been successful in ensuring compliance to environmental and social safeguards.

This report exposes how these last precious forests in the Indonesian archipelago, particularly in the province of Papua are being felled illegally and sold off wholesale to China, which is now the largest consumer of stolen timber in the world.It highlights the following points:there is a complex web of middlemen and financiers from across the region responsible for masterminding the theft of Indonesia’s forests, including timber barons in Jakarta, officials on their payrolls, multinational companies in Malaysia, brokers in Singapore and log dealers in Hong Kong in just a few short years,

Natural sand from estuary and coastal land is one of South Africa’s most valuable resources. However, there has recently been a drastic increase in uncontrolled and unauthorised sand mining activities in rivers, valleys and estuaries throughout the country. The frameworks governing small-scale sand mining in South Africa lack the necessary financial and human resource capacities to support better environmental compliance, and the enforcement mechanisms to successfully deter illegal activities are weak.

South Africa is endowed with substantial subsoil mineral wealth, yet the development promise typically associated with this wealth has not been realised. Between 2001 and 2008 the South African mining industry contracted at a rate of 1% a year, while comparable mining jurisdictions grew at an average of 5% a year.1 This period marked the longest commodity price boom in recent history.

The objective of this research report was to establish whether, and to what extent, post-conflict efforts at national, regional and international levels are improving the situation of artisanal gold-mining communities in the provinces of Orientale, North and South Kivu, and Maniema in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The research proceeded from the assumption that legal and regulatory instruments and institutions created after the 2006 elections to regularise and support the DRC’s informal mining sector should now be starting to show positive effects.

The development of mining value chains is conflictual but deeply intertwined with the goal of sustainable development.  The response of mining value chains to the shift to a green economy cannot be business-as-usual and requires a proactive answer by business, Government, labour, non-governmental organisations and the research community in support of sustainable development. The transition to a green economy will not fundamentally challenge the central position of mining value chains in South Africa’s development path.

The first regional conference for southern and East Africa on the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) was held in Cape Town on 21st May 2012. The overall aim was to evaluate the EITI’s impact on the promotion of transparency and accountability in southern and East Africa. Its specific objectives included:

This report investigates how Dutch public money is being used to support oil production in developing countries through Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) such as the World Bank and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), and other International Financial Institutions (IFIs). It notes that the Dutch government contributes to MDBs in two ways: through financial contributions using public money and by voting on the boards of the banks.Three case studies demonstrate that recent oil projects financed by the Dutch government and MDBs are failing the poor.

This report explores how, across the world, the revenues from oil, gas and mining that should be funding sustainable economic development have often been misappropriated and mismanaged. Specifically, it analyses five major examples of this problem: Kazakhstan, Congo Brazzaville, Angola, Equatorial Guinea and Nauru.The report argues that in these countries, governments do not provide even basic information about their revenues from natural resources. Nor do oil, mining and gas companies publish any information about payments made to governments.