Pitfalls and Pipelines - Philippine Indigenous Peoples Links

282 Pitfalls and Pipelines: Indigenous Peoples and Extractive Industries
The jewellery industry has been particularly concerned
with the bad publicity that mining has received over recent
years, especially with regard to diamonds and gold. It has
sought to address these through such initiatives as the
Responsible Jewellery Council, which seeks to certify the
trustworthiness of its membership. The Kimberley Process is
a certification scheme that was launched in South Africa in
2002 in response to the well-publicized concern over conflict
diamonds (so called “blood diamonds”) primarily originating
from various African countries. It has had some success in
its stated goals, but has more recently come close to falling
apart, particularly thanks to one of the founders, NGO Global
Witness, withdrawing over some blatant disregard for the
provisions of the Kimberley Process from some of the government
signatories, especially Zimbabwe. 36
In a similar fashion for gold, there is the voluntary code
on cyanide use and the World Gold Council’s development of
standards in gold manufacture. Also various NGOs have tried
to launch their own initiatives, such as Oxfam America and
Earthworks’ “No Dirty Gold” campaign, which includes the
demand for community FPIC. As mentioned in Chapter 2.4,
the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA) seems
to be striving harder for a true multi-stakeholder process
aiming for certification. This is because in theory it includes
a place at the (round)table for those representing directly
“affected and indigenous communities” themselves (rather
than assuming they will be represented by NGOs). The issue
of FPIC is on the agenda, but the process is not particularly
transparent and after many years of discussions it appears – as
far as it is possible to tell – that no real progress has been made
to date. 37