Resources

Antonio Pedro is Director of the UN Economic Commission for Africa’s Sub-regional Office for Central Africa, and one of the lead authors of soon to be published report titled “Mineral resource governance in the 21st century…

UN Environment and partners are working with businesses to highlight the benefits of biodiversity-sensitive best practices in the mining sector. Poorly managed mining operations can pollute the environment and damage the…

A battle is raging in the courts, on the ground and in the hearts and minds of many Germans over a remnant of ancient forest which a local mining company wants to clear to extend a lignite mine. Coal is among the worst…

How UN Environment is working with communities in the northern city of Kaduna to reduce environmental risks Kaduna city, in northwestern Nigeria, is a bustling metropolis of about 1.5 million people. Established from quasi-…

For anyone interested in unravelling the intricacies of mankind’s evolution, Kenya’s remote northern Turkana County remains a researcher’s paradise. For several decades, the region has been the scene of significant…

A worker holds gold amalgamated with mercury, which will be burned off at a later stage. (Duncan Moore/UN Environment)Driving through the rolling hills and farming villages of western Kenya’s Kakamega County, it’s apparent…

Recent incidents in Brazil and Australia have once again put the spotlight on the safety of mining operations, and specifically their dams. In February, Brazil’s environment authorities in the eastern Para State asked…

Charito Elcano turned 60 this year, a milestone in a life fraught with ups and downs, challenges and opportunities and – in her case – tragedy. A tragedy that took the life of her brother and son and made her a fierce…

The city of Mariana, Brazil, and the town of Panguna in the autonomous province of Bougainville in Papua New Guinea, occupy two diametrically opposed parts of the world, separated by more than 10,000 miles.   They have…, While few inhabitants of both urban centres may have interacted with each other, they have a common story to tell about the disastrous, and often unintended, consequences of natural resource extraction.  , In Panguna, the discovery of copper deposits in 1969 heralded the establishment of what was then the world’s largest open-pit copper mine, which began production in 1972. However, and unbeknownst to many locals at the time…, “Even now much of the population is exposed to mercury used by artisanal miners, including pregnant women, who access the gold. We have a high rate of birth complications and deformities as result.” , The incident affected communities along the approximately 650 km course of the river, disrupted livelihoods and necessitated a $250 million clean-up operation by BHP Billiton, which jointly run the Samarco mining operation…, “The world’s natural resources are the patrimony of humanity… In the final analysis people must come before profits.” , The event coincided with the release of a report on mine tailings dam failures. The publication, Mine Tailings Storage: Safety is No Accident, was jointly produced by UN Environment and GRID-Arendal. It highlights six case…

Yolanda Kakabadse is the International President WWF International and the former Ecuadorian Minister of Environment. She was recently selected as the chair of an independent scientific panel that's examining the 2015…