Sustainable_Development

Introduction The concept of sustainable development is to raise global awareness on the need to protect the environment, her resources and how the socio-economic problems which include poverty and inequality, fail to promote a futile future for coming generations ( Hopwood et al., 2003). This concept is embedded and expressed in the Brundtland Report released by the United Nations which defines sustainable development as “development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (WCED, 1987). Brundtland’s definition is seen as a solid foundation to sustainable development but fails to examine how to implement it (Cowell et al., 1999) thus leaving a certain ambiguity (Wackernagel and Rees, 1996) and conflicting understanding of sustainable development (any reference'). This is why sustainable development would require policies that would be coherent and interdependent in development processes and consider the three pillars of sustainable development which are the social, economic and environmental constituents and the main ideas of these will be to eradicate poverty, promote fairness and social justice and the ability to meet up human demands and needs ( Hopwood et al., 2003). Sustainable development has become an important factor of planning, environmental protection, and remediation efforts worldwide, and the ways in which countries will achieve this will vary among the different economic and political systems around the world ( NRC, 1995). The unavailability of a blue print has leadto development of several viewpoints by academics, industrialists and government employees on the applicability of sustaintable development to the minerals and mining sector. (is there a reference')  Sustainability key to mining and minerals Minerals are essential to everyday life (for what' Or do you mean mining products' Eg'), and are also vital raw materials in a large number of industries. Extraction and processing of these minerals are, pose a number of sustainable development challenges, ranging from economic, environmental to social issues (Azapagic, 2003). The Mineral and Mining sector contribute to wealth creation of a nation but still degrade the environment thereby affecting the health and safety of local communities as described in table 1 (reference'). Table 1: Summary of the key sustainability issues for the minerals and mining sector (reference') Economic Issues | Environmental Issues | Social Issues | - Contribution to GDP and Wealth Creation | - Biodiversity loss | - Bribery and corruption | - Cost, sales and profits | -Emissions to air | -Creation of employment | - Distribution of revenues and wealth | - Energy use | - Employee education and skills development | - Investments ( capital, employees, communities, pollution prevention and mine closure) | - Global warming and other environmental impacts | -Equal opportunities and non-discrimination | - Shareholder value | - Land use, management and rehabilitation | - Health and safety | - Value added | - Nuisance- Product toxicity- Resource use and availability- Solid waste- Water use, effluents and leachates (including acid mine drainage) | - Human rights and business ethics- Labour/management relationship- Relationship with local communities- Stakeholder involvement- Wealth distribution | These issues affecting sustainable development in the mining industry (what issues' Or do we say that sustainable development tends to balance the three pillars), has led to several debates to devise strategies in order to counter these challenges. As a result of this, the Global Mining Initiative brought about a concept promoting corporate sustainability with the aim of examining the challenges and giving the strategies to secure a more sustainable future for the industry (GMI, 2003). Other examples of similar activities in the sector at the national and international levels, include the US-based SustainableMinerals Roundtable (SMR, 2002), the Canadian Minerals and Metals initiative (NRCan, 2002) and the work of the European Industrial Minerals Association (IMA-EUROPE, 2002). In a way to address sustainable development, the mineral industry is faced by a challenge on how to clearly demonstrate Brundtland’s definition of sustainable development with regards to the welfare and well-being of the current present generation, without infringing upon the rights of having quality life of the future generations (IIED and WBCSD, 2002). To achieve this, it has become imperative to balance sustainable development with the environment and socio-economic issues (Hopwood et al, 2003). In Canada for example, years of smelting activity without safeguarding the environment almost destroyed the ecosystem in which quite a number of water bodies were acidified, soils contaminated and also aquatic species were eliminated (reference'). It therefore became imperative for the Canadian government and the mining companies to have a clear understanding of the industry’s priorities in both socio-economic and environmental arenas, to become more vigilant in sustainable development goal and thus strive towards a greener mining industry (Hilson, 2001). The outcome of the goals set between the Canadian government and the mining industry is to achieve a more desire socio-economic balance, hence promoting a sustainable industry. MAPPING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT Mining and minerals can be viewed from O’Riordan’s (1989) categorisation in which he combined environmental and socio-economic viewpoints from strong eco-centric to strong techno-centric. Understandably, this is not the pattern towards driving sustainability in the industry, because sustainable development within the mining and industry cannot be achieved while masking social injustice and environmental degradation (Dobson, 2000). As a result, O’Riordan (1989) was able to create a categorization from his views as shown in figure 1, based on the inclination of prioritization either to socio-economic importance or environmental concerns. Figure 1: Mapping views of sustainable development (or is it Riordan in ...'Hopwood et al, 2003) Three broad classification of the society was developed and they are; Status Quo, the Reform and the Transformation. STATUS QUO The Status Quo group are techno-centred with a strong believe that cleaner technology will assist in achieving a highly effective pollution control technology or introducing new environmental equipments and strategies (Hilson et al, 2000). They are also convinced that environmental problems in the mining industry simply need implement cleaner strategies to achieve what I will call, the weak sustainability (Daly and Cobb, 1989). This is because, they believe in the abilities of humans to examine and control the environmental issues with technological and a free mechanism system (Shields and Solar, 2000). At the extreme, this weak sustainability allows mining to take place where and in whatever manner that can bring about economical profit generated by extraction and re-invested in some alternative form of capital (Shields and Solar, 2000). THE REFORM This reform group is of the opinion that the key approach is to persuade the government and other international agencies on the need to introduce reforms by focusing on (new) technology, science as well as modifications to the market (Hopwood et al, 2003) in a bid to drive towards sustainable mining. Just like this, the Canadian Government have designed and shaped on environmental policies and management practices in the mining industry (reference'). They started addressing sustainable development as far back in the early 1990s, and have since encompassed sustainable development in a number of mining policies and programs, such as the Minerals and Metals Policy of the Government of Canada (Hilson, 2001). Interestingly, the Canadian Government’s policy emphasizes the balance between the three pillars of sustainability (Social, Economy and Environment), the industry has considered this and in addition, emphasized also on the need to upgrade environmentally. This coming from the research undertaken by organizations supported by the government such as Mining Association of Canada (MAC) and the International Council on Metals and the Environment (ICME) (Hilson, 2001), all in a bid to drive towards a sustainable Mining Industry by ensuring a long term economic and social system for human as well as a protected environment (Hopwood et al, 2003). However, some of the reformer centred, believe that the society should be run as ‘human centred’ that is in a way people mattered the most. Hence, they have drifted towards the transformation group. (rephrase and reference) TRANSFORMATION According to Hopwood et al, (2003), transformationists believe that the mounting problems in the environment such as mining are the fundamental systems of today’s society and also how humans relate within the environment. They do not however believe that reforming will resolve the several problems embedded in the society and in the pillars of sustainable development hence they drive towards a transformative approach that embraces all the different viewpoints, understanding the need for a radical change (George, 1999; Rees, 1995). Minerals have been potentially able to contribute towards a sustainable future, yet, the exploration, extraction, use as well as disposal continue to pose environmental degradation. (consider rephrasing) The wealth coming from minerals and mining industry have often been misused and squandered in developing countries and as such negatively impacted societies. The low environmental standards cum limited implementations had led to a number of preventable accidents, for example, Anzalcollar in Spain and Baia Mare in Romania. So also there are a number of health and safety casualties associated with underground mining accidents (Shields and Solar, 2000) and barely qualitative remuneration resulting from social injustice, bribery and other sustainable challenges within the industry which have accrued due to inevitable transformations of natural to human-made capital (Shields and Solar, 2000). This amongst other reasons have assisted the Canadian Government to come up with a consensus building tool with help from key stakeholders such as the Government departments, Lawmakers, Community leaders, Academicians and Law drafters to help regulate the minerals and mining industry (Hilson, 2001). The policy however, builds upon the existing initiatives available as a form of guidance to transforming minerals and mining industry towards a sustainable development (NRC, 1998). The principles described by Hilson (2001) were as follows; • Finding, extracting, producing, using, recycling, and disposing of minerals and metals in the most efficient and environmentally responsible manner. • Maintaining or enhancing quality of life and the environment for both the generations of the present and future. • Respecting the needs of all resource users, and accounting for these needs in governmental decision making processes. • Securing the involvement and participation of stakeholder groups in decision making This principles outlined, have thus made sustainable development to be achieved highly but not totally because there are still rooms for further development. However, it is now clear that the Canadian Government have not only shown promoted equity in political and decision making by inviting stakeholders but have enacted policies to enable an interaction between the social, economical and environmental concerns and ensure they go hand in hand, so as to foster livelihood, good health as well as social justice.