Our colleagues at the Global Development and Environment Institute (GDAE) at Tufts University just released a study that examines a controversial gold mining project in San Marcos, Guatemala. It looks at the costs and the benefits, from both an economic and an environmental standpoint, of the mining project and its impact in the community. The issues raised in the study have implications for mining and extractive industry projects throughout Latin America, and for human rights and social justice activists who follow these projects. We recommend you take a look at the report and its recommendations.
Mining projects and other extractive industry projects have generated conflicts and controversies throughout the hemisphere. WOLA has followed the human rights issues involved in several countries, including El Salvador, Guatemala and Peru. Many colleagues, including the Center for Environmental Law, Oxfam and the Institute for Policy Studies, have followed the development and environmental issues closely and reported on them.
WOLA’s Rights and Development program has worked with the GDAE in the past, co-authoring a report on the effects of trade liberalization on rural poverty. GDAE’s new report on the San Marcos mine makes useful and concrete recommendations to ensure that mining projects benefit communities, minimize harmful environmental impacts, and direct resources to be used for sustainable development.
Photo by Ines Saraiva.
