The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has prioritised Africa as a strategic partner at both the political and economic levels. According to some observers, the evidence of China’s growing African involvement suggests a strategy devised to secure access to the continent’s abundant resources.

This case study shows how the activities of a large foreign-invested mining company on land held by the Awajun community in the northern forests of Peru have led to a characteristic cycle of state permissiveness in granting mining concessions, thus leading to social conflict.

This report examines the benefits that a resource-rich country can derive from endorsing the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and implementing its Principles. It also searches for courses of action that the EITI Board can pursue to persuade more countries to endorse EITI. Both issues are investigated in the context of Angola, Indonesia, and Trinidad and Tobago. The authors argue that EITI is particularly beneficial for countries that suffer from the so-called “resource curse”.

Thess proceedings are the result of a conference hald in Kinshasa, 2013, to discuss the impact of key peace agreements and the trade in conflict minerals in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Representatives from Congolese academia, civil society, government agencies and political parties reflected on the different peace agreements and conflict minerals in general and the potential impact of the latest Framework Agreement on Peace and Security in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Great Lakes Region signed in Addis Ababa in particular.

How have Latin American countries been using Environmental Impact Assessments in order to build more sustainable extractive industries? A focus on Peru provides some interesting lessons.

Is it possible to develop extractive industries while preserving the environment? Several Latin American countries have been attempting to improve the environmental sustainability of their extractive industry sectors by developing their legal frameworks, in particular through the use and adaptation of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) tool.

Report looks at the role of diamond sales in funding of conflict situations, focusing on countries such as Liberia, Sierra Leone and Angola.Website includes reports from the newspaper, plus an online dicussion forum

This guidebook outlines the outcomes of the 'Building Sustainable Relationships: Aboriginal Engagement and Sustainability' conference. It looks at aboriginal engagement in the context of sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Canada’s natural resources sectors, particularly the mining, oil and gas, forestry, and energy industries.

This report is primarily based on a review of research into the role of voluntary activities in the mining sector.

This report explores how the illicit trade in cobalt and copper in Katanga (south-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo) is contributing to the destruction of the country’s economy, the environment as well as the livelihoods of thousands of Congolese people.As the report demonstrates, the volume of the illegal mineral trade is immense. In March 2004 the Central Bank of Congo reported the DRC produced 783 tonnes of cobalt metal.

The World Bank Group (WBG) has the potential to improve the contribution of extractive industries (EI) to sustainable development and poverty reduction. However, this report by the WBG’s operations evaluation departments finds that although its EI projects have produced positive economic and financial results, it has not been successful in ensuring compliance to environmental and social safeguards.

This report exposes how these last precious forests in the Indonesian archipelago, particularly in the province of Papua are being felled illegally and sold off wholesale to China, which is now the largest consumer of stolen timber in the world.It highlights the following points:there is a complex web of middlemen and financiers from across the region responsible for masterminding the theft of Indonesia’s forests, including timber barons in Jakarta, officials on their payrolls, multinational companies in Malaysia, brokers in Singapore and log dealers in Hong Kong in just a few short years,

This report argues that for many developing countries, oil reserves are more likely to prove a curse than a blessing. Poor countries dependent on oil revenues have a higher incidence of four great and interconnected ills.