Laurent Cartier, On Ethically Sourced Gemstones
Introduction: This post is an ongoing discussion of fair trade issues in the gemstone sector. It was first posted on the Madison Dialogue list server. Laurent has worked on issues relating to artisanal mining in Madagascar and has studied global gem supply chains.
Midway through this writing, Laurent poses a question to me personally which I respond to in a companion post.
Laurent raises several critical issues around marketing, sourcing and spin that gets to the heart of why the fair trade gemstone market poses so many challenges to the jewelry sector.
Special thanks to Laurent for permission to reprint his email.
I noticed two things while speaking to different people at this year’s Baselworld Watch and Jewellery Show, which finished on April 10th, 2008.
1.) Very few consumers and even retailers know what artisanal mining is, i.e. where the stones come from.
2.) There’s growing cynicism, less of fair trade concepts and reforms in the sector,
and much more about how reform is being introduced and communicated in a minority of cases.
It’s on two fronts: one from the industry itself attempting to improve practices and CR and on the second front with new ventures that are attempting to do fair trade/ethical/green stance, such as Simmons, African Romance etc..
As an example from industry, a leading official from the Antwerp diamond industry was interviewed by Baselworld Daily News, saying:
“Determining the origin is a direct result of the Kimberley Process and guarantees customers that this is a fair trade diamond which has been produced in accordance with ethical standards.”
Kimberly does not guarantee fair trade and says nothing about how the stones were mined. While of course this comment has reassuring intentions, attempting to improve consumer confidence, it risks doing the opposite.
It risks fueling cynicism, ultimately inhibiting the very real potential there is for ethical and fair trade gemstones to become a more widespread reality. And for the little I know from Switzerland, the market and consumers aren’t yet quite ready or demanding fair trade gemstone products. It would be a shame to kill that market before it exists.
Companies rushing and offering ‘fair trade’ alternatives should be brought on board, i.e. try to find some means of cooperating.
I think it’s important to note, for colored gemstones and diamonds, that only very few people buy directly by the river from the artisanal miner (i.e. from the man who dug out the stone). The fact that there is very little large-scale mining means artisanal miners are the main producers of colored gemstones worldwide.
If sitting in Kono, Ilakaka or Arusha buying rough gemstones, I don’t know how complete transparency is possible, i.e. how do you make your supply chain public (a question to Marc) apart from saying that somebody brought you a stone and you paid him a fair price.
The reality on the ground places a number of people in a slightly difficult position. Is a fair price ethical enough, or might the fair trade movement (exaggeratedly said) alienate those traders buying at fair prices but who can’t ‘certify’ their disorganized supply chain?
While I think that Estelle’s four-generation plan and vision designs a path which would fit in well with more organized companies, I have difficulty seeing that model being integrated into some of the strongly diverse realities of artisanal mining and coloured gemstone trading.
Whilst I’m still very optimistic that there is a real future for fair trade gemstones, the newest Tanzanian ruby rush comes to show yet again how the inconsistency factor: supply and time.
Will the mines be producing for one month, one year, or thirty years?
Will artisanal miners just migrate to another area soon?
These issues need to be addressed in this discussion of sustainability. This might be different for gold, but supply is a constant issue for colored gemstones– especially for people who don’t control their whole supply chain, having to source in many different areas because having a business also means being able to supply.
Speaking last week to three different people seriously interested in marketing their gemstones as fair trade (from DRC, Zambia, Madagascar), all three were pretty certain (aside from paying fair price/ fair wages) that they would not be directly investing their premiums in the mining area itself, but rather in more sustainable projects (reforestation, education) in other parts of these countries.
There are two main reasons for this (reversible) decision:
1) ‘Sustainability’, i.e. the mining settlement is dominated by migrants and the area might/will be empty in five or ten years (implying that the premium would be ‘wasted’?)
2) The logistical complexity of assisting artisanal miners without just giving them money. And this is probably one of the reasons for the existence of this MD group; to attempt to find solutions relating to reasons 1 & 2, and make it work for artisanal miners.
These examples, of course, don’t represent the whole artisanal mining sector (e.g. Oro Verde etc.) or industry but represent a major issue that needs to be addressed seeing that once the emeralds or diamonds are gone, they are gone.
