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 Happy New Year and welcome to the CASM website. Artisanal and small scale mining typically takes place in remote poorest regions of countries. Approximately 13 million people worldwide from about 30 countries engage in this activity with another 80-100 million people depending on this sector for their livelihood. Artisanal and small scale miners have little rights, exposing themselves to harsh working and living conditions in a high risk context, endangering their health and causing grievous damage to the physical location of their activities, which in turn often has significant negative impacts on the surrounding communities. Most previous efforts to address the problems confronting this sector has focused on the technical rather than on the socio-cultural poverty aspects of the situation.
CASM BREAKING NEWS !!!
Name Change - Small Grants Program - Website Phase 2
CASM’s official name has now been formally changed from Collaborative Group on Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining to:
Communities And Small-Scale Mining
The reason for the change is to try to capture the prime focus of CASM in its name.
It has become apparent from on-going work in the field, and from the realities captured by the Mining, Minerals and Sustainable Development project’s country and regional studies on artisanal and small-scale mining, as well as from follow-up discussions which occurred in London in November 2001 that a paradigm shift in our thinking about this activity, its importance and its possibilities, will be required. For more info on the London discussion and outcomes, see: http://www.iied.org/mmsd/Bulletin/bulletin_18.html#18_headline_3
Hitherto, much attention has focused on the technical and legal hurdles to a rationalized and formalized small-scale mining sector, and on trying to reconcile conflicting interests and resolving hurdles. For the majority of miners themselves, as well as for most governments, the issues relating to its sustainability, continue to be legal, financial and technical, for example, access to land and security of use rights, access to credit for development work and equipment acquisition, access to training and technical assistance, access to processing and marketing facilities that are efficient and fair. Some miners recognize that their future will also depend on their ability to take into account environmental concerns and to use more responsible mining, processing and materials handling practices.
Artisanal mining in particular continues to have a critical social welfare function, with its low barriers to entry and ability to absorb large amounts of labor. It continues to serve as an important cash-generating complement to agricultural activity in some countries, and as the ultimate safety net in times of environmental and economic stress.
Do these considerations establish an "intrinsic value” for the preservation of artisanal and small-scale mining as a “way of life”, or do we need to begin to see small-scale mining through a different lens - more as a means rather than an end in and of itself, - supported in terms of its capacity to contribute to the development of more sustainable rural livelihoods, to rural economic growth and development in general and to the improvement of quality of life in rural areas ? Miners, especially those that live with their families in mining communities, are becoming more sensitive to the social dimensions of their activity, and are beginning to understand artisanal and small-scale mining as a transitory activity, at least in the case of precious minerals, that in the short term can support family and community life, but whose long term future as a “sustainable livelihood” is questionable. From this perspective, the challenge then becomes to define
1. how artisanal and small-scale mining can best be practiced such that it will contribute to the development and consolidation of viable communities and sustainable livelihoods in the rural areas where it occurs, and,
2. how and in what ways miners and mining communities can be assisted to better enable them to participate constructively in this process !
Small Grants Program for Local Initiatives
In line with this new thinking, the Secretariat and Sponsor’s Group have proposed the start-up of a small grants program to support local initiatives to help clarify issues, advance new ideas, and promote collaboration and networking. The grants may be as small as $500, and no larger than $5000 US. Micro-projects should focus on “good practice”, defining it or demonstrating it, rather than more investigation or baseline studies. Project ideas may range from training; to networking; to technical assistance of limited scope, but significant focus; to development of new project ideas and field testing of new concepts or techniques. CASM will invite proposals from communities, cooperatives, miners’ associations, professionals, academic institutions, NGOs, government organizations, and consortia of the above. The guidelines and criteria are currently being finalized and will be made available shortly on this website.
Re-design of CASM Web Site
The CASM website will be re-designed as a dynamic site, including a features page, a regional news page, a good practice showcase, and CASM databases. The first three databases to be implemented, will be (1) contact, (2) technical assistance and research projects, and (3) bibliographic, databases. The features, regional news and good practice pages will change every 4-8 weeks; the databases will be continuously expanded. The new website should be up and running in February.
Until such time as the new website is up and running, the current site will be maintained, with occasional updates to the home page as required.
Many thanks for your patience and support !
J. Davidson and G. Walser
3 January 2002
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