Exploitation minière industrielle et artisanale au Sud-Kivu. Possibilités d’une cohabitation pacifique ?
December 29, 2012Le secteur minier en République Démocratique du Congo (RDC) en général et au Sud-Kivu en particulier alimente toujours les débats tant au niveau international qu’au niveau national. Présenté sous plusieurs facettes, ce secteur au Sud-Kivu a été dans le temps industriel, puis artisanal et aujourd’hui il est en même temps artisanal et industriel. Le retour en force, ces dernières années, des société
Mapping Conflict Minerals (2012)
December 28, 2012How GMES supports the International Peace Information Service (IPIS), in: Window on GMES, Special Issue: Discover the “S” in GMES, pp. 82-88 Exploitation of natural resources has, in most cases, a strong impact on the environment, often even spoiling natural habitats and affecting people’s way of life. The exploitation and trade of minerals can also fuel armed conflicts, as it is the case in the E
Upstream Implementation of the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas. Cycle 2 Interim Progress Report on the Supplement on Tin, Tantalum, and Tungsten
June 20, 2012Cycle 2 Interim Progress Report on the Supplement on Tin, Tantalum, and Tungsten. The following report is the second in a cycle of three on upstream companies’ implementation of the Supplement on Tin, Tantalum and Tungsten to the OECD’s Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas. The objective of the following is to report on progres
A Taxonomy of Non-State Armed Actors in the Central African Republic (2012)
January 2, 2012This report hopes to provide an overview of how the Central African Republic got to where it is now, as well as to present the means to further our understanding of the current situation. First a genealogy of the current situation is provided, which is presented in the form of a narrative literature overview encompassing the postcolonial period. This is followed by a brief account on the main conf
Bisie. A one-year snapshot of the DRC’s principal cassiterite mine (2011)
November 28, 2011Much has happened in the mining sector of Eastern DRC over the last year. President Kabila imposed a ban on all mining activities last fall, during which production fell considerably. As soon as the suspension was lifted in the spring of this year, the major global electronic companies stopped buying minerals from the region, provoking a de facto embargo on Congo’s minerals with detrimental effect
Upstream Pilot Implementation of the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas
November 1, 2011Baseline Report on the Supplement on Tin, Tantalum, and Tungsten IPIS executed the research for and the writing of this OECD report. The present baseline report is the first in a cycle of three reports on the implementation by upstream companies of the Supplement on Tin, Tantalum and Tungsten of the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and Hi
Kenya’s role in the trade of gold from eastern DRC
August 5, 2011On 11 September 2010, the Congolese Ministry of Mines put out a statement in which it announced President Kabila’s decision to suspend all exploitation and export of minerals from the provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu and Maniema until further notice. The statement explained that the ban was intended to put a stop to the illegal exploitation of natural resources in eastern DRC. In the decree est
Guide to Current Mining Reform Initiatives in Eastern DRC
April 17, 2011US legislation has brought on a variety of initiatives aiming at mining reform in EDRC. This paper describes the basic elements of these initiatives, their genesis, the current state of affairs, the inkages between the initiatives and the main challenges they face. Further, the paper briefly evaluates the initiatives while focussing on the steps ahead. Download in pdf or open with issuu reader. ht
The complexity of resource governance in a context of state fragility: The case of eastern DRC
April 4, 2011A host of publications over the last decade have highlighted the important role played by artisanal and small-scale mining of coltan, gold and cassiterite in the ongoing conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), yet there is still little awareness of the modus operandi of the various actors involved in the exploitation and trade of these minerals. It is vitally important that initiatives
The complexity of resource governance in a context of state fragility: An analysis of the mining sector in the Kivu hinterlands (2010)
November 30, 2010The report ‘Mining activity and mineral trade in the Kivu hinterland’ was commissioned by the Directorate General for Development (DG DEV) of the European Commission and aims to fill an information gap by identifying the principal mining sites and analysing the trade networks of the ‘eastern hinterland’ of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), located in Maniema, North Katanga and Orientale
Mapping Conflict Motives: ‘Province Orientale’ (DRC) (2010)
March 22, 2010The districts of Ituri, Haut-Uele, Bas-Uele and the territory of Bafwasende continue to suffer from armed groups. Generally speaking, the strength of the armed groups throughout Orientale is limited and their effectives are few. Moreover, there is a considerable presence of the Congolese army. The Uele districts are the two most northern districts of Orientale bordering the Central African Republi
Accompanying note on the interactive map of militarised mining areas in the Kivus (2009)
August 16, 2009The MiMiKi map is a snapshot of the situation as it was in the period May-July 2009. All the armed groups deployed in the region profit directly from the mining activities. Armed groups have positions at more than half of the sites listed on the MiMiKi map where they obtain an (extra) income. The FARDC control some of the most important mining sites and do not restrain themselves from intervening
Le plan STAREC du gouvernement congolais: une analyse préliminaire
August 8, 2009Début juillet le gouvernement congolais a établi un plan de stabilisation pour l’Est de la RDC. L’initiative est restée sans écho dans les médias et le plan même n’a pas été rendu public. Néanmoins, après quelques recherches, IPIS à pu obtenir le document. Nous avons jugé que, dans le cadre des efforts congolais et internationaux pour résoudre la crise dans l’Est, il serait utile de résumer les po
Africa’s natural resources in a global context
August 6, 2009While, on the one hand, it is widely acknowledged that Africa has great natural resource potential, on the other hand, one cannot but regret that the complex interplay between political and economic factors at the national and international level appears to make it impossible to use a more substantial part of the revenues from the exploitation and trade of these resources for the promotion of the
The impact of the global financial crisis on mining in Katanga
July 17, 2009This report examines the impact of the global financial crisis on the mining sector in Katanga, the southeast province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. As far as the industrial mining sector is concerned, it is shown that the crisis exacerbated the uncertainty of mining companies that were waiting for the results of the review of the mining contracts and that were often in the middle of st
Culprits or scapegoats? Revisiting the role of Belgian mineral traders in eastern DRC
May 17, 2009Ever since the eruption of the second Congo war in August 1998, the mining sector in eastern DRC has been under scrutiny of UN Sanctions Committees, academics, NGOs, and local and international media, who have been worried and disturbed by the links between natural resource exploitation and armed conflict in the region. It has been argued that both state and non-state armed actors are deriving ben
Mapping Conflict Motives: Central African Republic (2009)
February 18, 2009Not many areas in the Central African Republic are really secure. Although the country is scarcely populated, it is tormented by a multitude of armed actors. These belligerents use their weapons for a diversity of reasons but they have one thing in common: each of them would be a weak opponent for any well-organised state, but then this is exactly what the country lacks. Firstly, there are three C
Rechercher la problématique des ressources naturelles dans la République Démocratique du Congo. Syllabus sur le cadre juridique
February 2, 2009Ce syllabus a été rédigé dans le cadre du projet ‘Renforcement de capacité d’ONG congolaises qui travaillent autour les ressources naturelles : méthodologies de recherche et rédaction de dossiers de haute qualité servant de base aux activités de campagne et de lobbying’. Ce projet est éxécuté par l’ONG belge International Peace Information Service (IPIS) et a pour objectif spécifique que les ONG c
Mapping Conflict Motives: Katanga. (Update May- September 2008)
January 23, 2009This report is the third (and for the moment the last) in a series of updates following an initial report on conflict motives in the Congolese province of Katanga. It analyses the most important security developments from May 2008 until September 2008. Download in pdf or open with issuu reader. http://issuu.com/ipisresearch/docs/20090105_mapping_katanga_update3_en The web maps We have publ
Towards a Sustainable Cocoa Chain: Power and possibilities within the cocoa and chocolate sector
December 25, 2008This report contributes in various ways to the debate on a sustainable cocoa economy. A sustainable cocoa economy is where each person investing time or money into the supply chain would be able to earn a decent income for themselves and their family, work in good conditions, and in a manner which did not harm the environment. It provides an overview of the various stakeholders in the cocoa and th
