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Reality Check. The Globalisation of Natural Resources
MiningWatch Canada
MiningWatch Canada
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Abstract
"Since the 1990s, foreign-backed mining activity in the "developing world" has been expanding rapidly. Increased mineral exploration and mining activity displaces local communities, destroys ecosystems, and creates poverty while benefiting investors (mostly foreign) and local elites. Conditions of "development" are imposed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), favouring foreign direct investment and exports over self-sufficiency and sustainable development. Canadians benefit from access to other countries' resources for an improved standard of living, and many Canadians benefit by investing in mining projects directly or indirectly -- and often unknowingly -- through their mutual funds or pension funds. But the cost is borne by others. Small-scale miners are thrown out of work, villages and farms are displaced, rainforests and coral reefs are ravaged and rivers poisoned, because communities are not allowed to control their own development. Canada's participation in the World Bank and IMF help impose these conditions, and free trade agreements will ensure that there is no way out. A closer look at the reality of situations where World Bank/IMF policies have been implemented in Africa (Ghana) and Latin America (Honduras, Mexico, and Peru) will show that rather than be expanded, these programs must be curtailed and urgent measures taken to limit and undo the damage they are causing to communities around the world."
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2001
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With permission of the license/copyright holder