We won’t give up our fight to access the hidden permit to mine our lands

Sometimes it’s called a tin mine, other times, a diamond mine. When I was a girl, people said there was gold here. But now a mining company has arrived, and we don’t even know what they’re going to extract from our land. We don’t know any of their plans. The company and the authorities are keeping us in the dark. 

Yet, we have the right to know about decisions that affect us. Mining in our area might devastate our lives as we currently know them. That’s why our community has spent years trying to access the contract and plans.      

We live in Dairi, North Sumatra Province, Indonesia, a highly fertile area with a water catchment, where farming provides a secure life. Suddenly, in 2017, our peace was replaced by fear and uncertainty. We learned from the media that a mining company had received a permit extension from our government, allowing them to mine for 30 years in a protected local area, affecting 11 villages – many thousands of people. Yet no one had told us anything.

When we tried to find out what was going on, the company, Dairi Prima Mineral (DPM), just held a small public awareness-raising session with a hand-picked audience that excluded our community. We later learned they’d promised prosperity and jobs at the mine, but gave no details about how this was going to happen.      

Then they started building infrastructure on our lands. Alarmed, we asked the authorities for      access to the permit, but local officials said they knew nothing and that the contract was arranged by the central government. So we wrote repeatedly to the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources asking for the documents. The ministry’s response was frustratingly slow. Eventually, the information officer wrote to us that the permit details were on their website, but though we searched thoroughly, we found only the permit number, nothing else. 

Yet it’s our legal right to access the permit. 

Indonesia’s laws on mining and access to public information both support contract transparency. Public access to documents is also a core principle of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, which Indonesia joined in 2010. When the ministry continued to ignore our requests, we filed a lawsuit with the Central Information Commission in 2019, with support from several local and national civil society organisations, such as Bakumsu, JATAM, YLBHI and Publish What You Pay Indonesia, claiming our right to full information about the mining plans. 

To our dismay, we heard nothing for three years, until our case came to the administrative court in 2022. Justices from the Information Commission ruled in January 2022 that we should be given access to the contract and latest operational plans. We were so grateful – but another three years later, we still know nothing. The ministry refused to release any documents, challenging the ruling. Although the State Administrative Court upheld the commission’s ruling in July 2022, the Supreme Court subsequently accepted the ministry’s appeal. But what are they trying to hide? 

Our community will keep fighting. Yet for all these years, we’ve been excluded and living with uncertainty. We fear for our futures and those of our children and grandchildren. Will our farmland and water be spoiled or lost to the mining operations? I want to encourage the people of Dairi and Indonesia to assert their rights. Having transparency and full information are so important. We need to know what’s proposed, so we can participate in decisions that will affect us. It’s a long waiting game, but we won’t give up. Our future is at stake. 

The East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) will have huge consequences for Uganda, as well as the planet. Disclosing the contracts behind it will help us properly scrutinise its risks and claimed benefits, writes Robert Tumwesigye Baganda.

Its supporters claim that the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) will bring Uganda huge benefits. 

The champions of the world’s longest heated crude oil pipeline, which will run for 1,443 kilometres from oil fields near Lake Albert in Uganda to Tanga Port in Tanzania and is expected to be completed in 2025, say it will transform East Africa’s energy landscape: propelling Uganda into middle-income status, turning the country into an energy producer for the first time, boosting government revenues by up to $1.2 bn US, increasing foreign direct investment by 60% during its construction, and providing jobs to an economy still suffering from the pandemic. 

But to its critics, EACOP is a colossal error. In a world where the impacts of the climate crisis are being increasingly felt, stopping  EACOP has become a rallying cause for campaigners around the world. 

More than one million people signed a petition for the project to be axed. They say that such a large-scale oil development – between French oil company TotalEnergies, the Chinese state oil developer CNOOC,  the Uganda National Oil Company and the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation – is incompatible with a world striving towards net zero emissions, pointing out that it will pump an estimated 34 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually. 

Consequently, a growing number of major banks and insurers have ruled out financing the project, citing the pipeline’s environmental threats. Others have documented its risks to the human rights to  the communities it will displace, including to their land and their livelihoods, as well as to biodiversity. 

This month, conflicting views over the pipeline came to a head. 

On September 14, the European Parliament passed a resolution condemning the project. This was swiftly criticised by Ugandan lawmakers. The Ugandan Ambassador to the EU said the resolution was “not informed by facts and fueled by self-seeking groups”. 

Hidden details

Given these controversies, and EACOP’s profound economic, social and environmental repercussions, the public should be able to scrutinise the details of an oil deal that will shape their futures, and those of future generations. 

Yet the key documents that would reveal answers to critical questions about EACOP remain hidden from the Ugandan public. Fundamental unknowns about the deal include the agreement signed between Uganda and Tanzania, and the one signed between Uganda and the EACOP Company Ltd.

Oil deals rarely benefit the local people who live in areas surrounding the projects. Will this one be any different? Does the deal contain specific anti-corruption measures? What are the findings of the project’s environmental and social impact assessments? What measures are in place to counter any negative economic, social and environmental effects?

There are also questions around the wisdom of building a major new oil pipeline, just as the world moves away from fossil fuels. 

Researchers recently estimated that existing oil and gas projects worth $1.4tn US would lose their value if the world moves resolutely to cut carbon emissions in line with the Paris Agreement’s target of limiting global heating to 2°C. Could EACOP become a ‘stranded asset’?

 #DiscloseTheDeal

The public needs answers to these and other critical questions about EACOP.

This is why PWYP Uganda – a coalition of more than 45 civil society organisations, and part of the global movement for transparency in oil, gas and mining – are campaigning for the deal’s contracts and agreements to be disclosed.  

Our call is in line with the global trend towards transparency in the extractive sector: something which Uganda itself took a significant step towards in August 2020, when it joined the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), the global standard for good governance of oil, gas and mineral resources. The EITI’s  requirements include full disclosure of government revenues and all material payments made to governments by companies operating in the oil, gas and mining sectors.  

From August 2020,  Uganda and the other 55 EITI member countries are required to make their new contracts with oil, gas and mining companies public.

On 14th May this year, in its first EITI report, Uganda acknowledged that the contracts are not published yet.

Information is power, and access to it is a fundamental human right. 

Keeping the details of EACOP’s agreements and contracts concealed, means stripping agency from those affected by it, and denying the public the chance to fully understand the risks and rewards of a deal with vast ramifications for Uganda, the rest of Africa and the world. 

Data should be disclosed at source through government and corporate databases, online registries, websites and portals to provide citizens and stakeholders with accessible and up to date information on the sector.

The benefits of mandatory disclosure stretch beyond citizens and communities.

For investors, it helps to assess country and project specific governance, reputational and tax risks. For companies, enhanced transparency is good for business, helping to promote a more stable investment climate and secure a social licence to operate. Greater revenue transparency can also improve profitability in foreign investments. 

Furthermore, transparency benefits resource governance by providing a tool to the government to build capacity for collecting taxes. Mandatory payments disclosure helps companies credibly communicate their financial contribution to local and national economies.

Transparency also drives out corruption, which Uganda has many laws to combat corruption. These laws  cannot be implemented when the contracts are still kept secret.

Therefore, we are calling upon the government to disclose the EACOP contracts signed between the Republic of Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania and representatives of oil companies CNOOC and Total.

Everyone has the right to participate in decisions that affect them.

Robert Tumwesigye Baganda is the Coordinator of Publish What You Pay (PWYP) Uganda, a coalition of Ugandan civil society groups working to promote good governance and transparency in the country’s extractive sector. 

This op-ed has first been published in Mongabay under the title: ‘Disclose the deal,’ East Africa pipeline opponents say (commentary), and a shorter version has been published in the Ugandan media Daily Monitor under the title: We need information on EACOP.

A decade of campaigning has led to a new, groundbreaking transparency law in Ukraine. Olena Pavlenko outlines the lessons learned along the way.

On December 16, 2021, Ukraine’s parliament passed one of the  most progressive oil, gas and mining transparency laws in the world.

This means that from now on, all extractive contracts between authorities and companies must be disclosed.

In a country with vast hydrocarbon and mineral reserves and where extractives help drive the economy, the impact of this legislation, if implemented, could be immense.

In Ukraine – as elsewhere – the more data that the extractive sector discloses, the harder it is for the government or companies to hide unfair deals. Disclosure prevents corruption, and makes it easier to detect them. It also means people can assess how their natural resources are being governed – who is benefitting from them, and by how much.

Around the world, PWYP members are pushing for similar transparency laws, campaigning under the banner of #DiscloseTheDeal. So what potential lessons does our journey –  and the tactics we used and the challenges we faced along the way – hold? 

Building momentum

For those in the early stages of campaigning for an open and accountable extractive sector, it’s important to note that progressive laws do not appear overnight. Rather, they come incrementally, step by step and through the effort and goodwill of different actors –  from companies to civil society organisations (CSOs) to governments – until the momentum for change is irresistible. 

In Ukraine, we formed important alliances with other CSOs who shared our goals, for example the Reanimation Package of Reform and Energo Transparency Association (our national PWYP coalition), and together we organised events, prepared data and infographics, and sent statements to members of Parliament and others.  

Along the way, we learned that the reform process can be complex, but that the people supporting it can be found at all levels. 

For instance, support for an idea may come from one level of a company’s management, or one high-ranking public official or government minister, but not another. As such, taking a combative or antagonistic stance towards a whole ministry would be counter-productive. We were supported by many officials from various ministries, who in the end, formed the backbone of the team which helped the new law become reality.

One of our biggest challenges however, was the rapid turnover of government officials: in five years we had seven different ministers, and with each new appointment we had to raise their awareness of the issues, of how the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) works, and why it is so important.

Building on successive victories 

The path to the new transparency law had notable victories along the way.

In 2013, for instance, Ukraine joined the EITI. This was followed in 2015 by the passing of a minor – but significant – law which obliged companies in the oil and gas production sector to report under the EITI Standard.

Following this, we obtained a more comprehensive second law in 2018, which supported opening data throughout the extractive sector, and outlined the procedure for cooperation between companies, the government and the public. Then, following other important legislative staging posts, a third law was adopted, which not only took account of problems with the EITI Standard implementation, but introduced stronger requirements: the full opening of contracts, taking account of gender in reporting, paying greater attention to environmental degradation from extractive activities. 

Finally, Ukraine has legislation which is on a par with the most open transparency laws in the world, such as those in Mexico, the Netherlands, the UK, Germany and Mongolia.

Accountability and transparency can seem like abstract concepts, but applying them through this new law will make them real, and bring concrete, far-reaching impacts. 

Recently, for example, potential investors have sought to sign a Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) on a lithium field in the centre of Ukraine. Local communities need to understand the impact that this project could have on their revenues, on their land and on their rights. And to do so, they need to assess key data in the contract. Its publication will give us the opportunity to see how the new law works in practice and whether the local populations will really be able to access all the information they are now entitled to have. 

At times in the last decade, the prospect that Ukraine would pass groundbreaking transparency laws for its extractive sector, seemed remote. But we never lost faith that it could happen. If we have one message for PWYP members around the world striving towards the same goal, it is that they should never stop believing in the possibility of change, or working towards it. 

Yet for us, getting the new law in place marks the end of one journey and the beginning of another. Now our coalition will monitor how the law is applied, and if it isn’t done so fully and robustly, hold those responsible to account.  

Mali is Africa’s third biggest gold producer but one of the world’s poorest countries.

Addressing the paradox of the gap between the wealth generated by the growing production of gold and other minerals such as bauxite, and the extreme poverty in which almost half of our population lives, is a major challenge.

At the end of 2021, a major breakthrough came in this struggle.

Transparency, citizen participation and rooting out corruption are key to reducing the extreme poverty in Mali. They will also allow the benefits of Mali’s abundant mineral wealth to be shared among the population.

On 23 December 2021, the publication of mining contracts was made mandatory by the Malian steering committee of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), the global standard for good governance in oil, gas and mineral resources. 

The committee validated a publication plan that will allow the disclosure of several hundred ongoing exploration and exploitation contracts directly on the EITI-Mali website. 

This decision is a giant step forward and a victory for Malian civil society, and in particular the Publish What You Pay Coalition of Mali (PWYP-Mali), which has always fought for the publication of extractive contracts.

In 2019, after pressure from PWYP-Mali and its partners, the country enacted a new Mining Code, which guarantees the mandatory publication of contracts.

However, the effect was very limited: only 12 mining contracts were accessible on the Ministry of Mines’ website, often without their annexes and amendments.

On January 1 2021, extractive contract disclosure became mandatory for the 55 EITI member countries, including Mali. Civil society took the opportunity to increase pressure on the country to comply with this new standard. PWYP-Mali published a report proving that there were no legal obstacles to implementing contract disclosure, thereby removing any possibility of opposition. 

Obtaining an EITI scheme for the disclosure of mining contracts was the last step to achieve this, and it is now done since 23 December.

Transparency as a source of social healing in Mali

In Mali the situation surrounding natural resource exploitation is tense.

In this gold monoculture country, twelve companies are active alongside a multitude of artisanal mining sites. The mining sector is a key pillar of the Malian economy, and accounts for a quarter of the annual state budget. 

Given the financial windfall from mining and the high risk of corruption, transparency, access to information and unhindered citizen participation are essential.   

In recent months, tensions have been focused on the state takeover and potential reopening of the Yatela mine in the Kayes region, which was closed by its former operators in 2013 for technical reasons. 

Civil society is concerned about the potential negative impacts of this reopening, both on the environment and on surrounding communities. Mandatory contract disclosure could allow us to have access to the mine’s transfer contract, in order to understand the issues, projections and potential risks. 

Contract disclosure is essential to ensure true citizen oversight, so that populations can understand the value of resources and advocate for revenues to be used for the benefit of communities, such as funding for basic social services including health care, education and infrastructure.

It is also essential for people to be able to say an informed ‘no’ to projects that could destroy their environments, ecosystems, livelihoods and social balance. 

Malians want only one thing at the moment: change. Transparent contracts should help to calm the social climate around mining.

Towards a global standard

Where do we stand globally, one year after the EITI contract disclosure standard came into force?  

In the absence of published data from the Initiative, it is difficult to know how many countries are already implementing it. We know that only about 30 countries have legislation in place that makes disclosing extractive contracts mandatory. While many countries have officially disclosed at least one contract, the number of countries that have published them all is still low.

This is despite pressure for them to do so coming from different directions.  

The United Nations, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Council on Mining and Metal all support the practice, as do more than 40 oil, gas and mining companies.

Meanwhile dozens of civil society organisations in PWYP coalitions around the world, have united in the global campaign, #DiscloseTheDeal. 

In Mali, the mandatory publication of mining contracts would not have been possible without the concerted action of the national coalition members who, since 2015, have been analysing the extractive contracts they manage to access, denouncing their irregularities, and campaigning relentlessly to raise awareness among the authorities of the need to institutionalise contract publication. 

Contract disclosure builds trust between individuals, governments and companies. It can reassure people that governments are entering into agreements that will benefit them, based on realistic projections, without threatening their rights and the environment. It can also boost investor confidence, reassuring them that contracts and licences are awarded fairly, and increasing the attractiveness of investing in a country.

It is time for the publication of contracts to become a real standard, adopted by all states, EITI members or not. The case of Mali should serve as an example to governments that are reluctant to make contracts public. 

This article has first been published in Droit dans ses bottes.

As part of its #DiscloseTheDeal Campaign on extractive contract disclosure, and in partnership with Natural Resources Government Institute (NRGI) and Oxfam America, Publish What You Pay hosted a virtual session at the OGP Global Summit in December 2021. We discussed with civil society, government and private sector representatives the global and local progress made on contract disclosure and what still needs to be done. 

Contract disclosure is key to ensure transparency and good governance in the extractive industries: It helps people understand the risks and rewards of extraction, prevents corruption, supports the transition to a low carbon world and builds trust.

At least 31 countries have a law for open deals,  55 countries implementing the EITI standard now have to disclose new extractive contracts and mandatory publication has been endorsed by the  United Nations (UN),  the  International Monetary Fund (IMF), the International Council on Mining and Metal, more than 40 oil, gas and mining companies support the practice and more than 20 commitments on this topic have been included in Open Government Partnership (OGP) National Action Plans (NAPs). But contracts often remain secret.

In 2022 more than 20 countries will co-create their OGP NAPs, but a question still remains: how can OGP help governments to get more deals disclosed? 

Building on lessons learned from past OGP commitments, the panel provides a global overview of the progress made on contract disclosure and what still needs to be done. It also takes a deep dive into specific countries that will co-create National Action Plans in 2022.

Speakers:

• Robert Pitman, Senior Governance Officer, Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI)
• Meliana Lumbantoruan, Program Manager, Publish What You Pay (PWYP) Indonesia
• Carla Flores Lot, Researcher, CartoCrítica (Mexico)
• Richard Morgan, Head of Government Relations and Political Risk, Anglo American
• Nana Akua Agyei, Manager, Legal, Ghana Petroleum Commission
• Closing remarks: Aubrey Menard, Senior Policy Advisor for Extractive Industries Transparency, Oxfam America

Moderator: Elisa Peter, Executive Director, Publish What You Pay (PWYP)

It is clear that no country or sector is immune to corruption. However, according to the OECD, one in five cases of transnational bribery occur in the extractive sector. This is particularly concerning as we move to a low carbon world, requiring an equitable phase out of fossil fuels and accelerating the rush for minerals that are crucial to the energy transition. Looking closer at 276 allegations of human rights abuses perpetrated by companies extracting transition minerals, Business & Human Rights Resource Centre found that a quarter of the cases related to governance and transparency – corruption being the main issue for half of them.

At first glance, the two-day Summit for Democracy US President Joe Biden is hosting this week, might not appear to bear much relevance to corruption in the extractive industries.

Yet transparency, accountability, citizen participation and access to information in the extractive industries are bedrocks of democracy. How successfully the world can decarbonise will be determined partly by how accountable and open the extractive sector is: by how much it empowers citizens by giving them access to information about the risks and rewards of extracting their countries’ natural resources. Yet, this information is contained in the contracts governments and extractives industries sign, which are often kept secret. In response to this opacity, Publish What You Pay (PWYP) campaigns to ensure that all extractive contracts are being disclosed.  

Rooting out corruption

Acknowledging the threat that corruption poses to democracy, today, the US elevates the fight against this scourge as one of the central pillars of its Summit for Democracy. This is a good thing. But extractive industries must be at the centre of any plan made by a resource-producing country that is serious about fighting corruption. 

Examples of the extractive sector giving rise to some of the world’s biggest corruption schemes can be found across the globe, from Brazil to Iraq to Angola. In the realm of today’s Summit, PWYP, along with several civil society organisations, are calling governments to implement basic elements of extractive sector transparency. Among other things, producing countries must disclose the unredacted versions of all extractive sector contracts and licenses, including annexes and amendments; disclose payments received from the extractive sector; and enshrine the standard of free prior and informed consent (FPIC) for indigenous peoples.

Trust

Opening extractive contracts to public scrutiny builds trust between citizens, governments and companies.

Today, in numerous corners of the globe, people want to know what is happening in their territories, and how it will affect them. If they do not have access to all the relevant information, that task can be monumental. 

When states and companies bury or withhold information on oil, gas and mining projects, ordinary citizens, journalists and civil society members are effectively blindfolded when they try to discover who benefits from them, or if corruption has occurred. Conversely, where disclosure is the norm, citizens are empowered.

This message – especially resonant today, on the United Nations’ International Anti-Corruption Day – is one that the world leaders, civil society and private sector members, should urgently heed.

There are signs that some, at least, are starting to acknowledge that in order to end the devastating impact of corruption on people’s lives, they need to put the spotlight on the extractive sector. This week the US government published its Strategy on Countering Corruption, which contains a specific reference to corrupt elites enriching themselves through the illicit trade of high-value commodities, including petroleum and other natural resources. 

But such expressions of intent must be backed up with strong action, taken in concert with civil society organisations who have been working on these issues for decades, and have the expertise to help tackle them.