How The Jewelry Sector Perpetuates Africa’s Resource Curse
~ By Marc Choyt, Publisher, Fairjewelry.org
An article published in the South African Times Entitled; Why Africa Is Burning quotes an extensive report prepared by the South African government that concludes, “Global greed for the continent’s natural resources and colonialism’s legacy are among the root causes of conflict in Africa.”
The article refers to what is called the ‘resource curse’. The resource curse explains what seems paradoxical—how a country’s or regions vast abundance of natural resources actually lead to a decline of economic growth.
Quoting from the article, “Sierra Leone, Liberia, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria are key examples of how abundant natural resources, such as oil, minerals and timber, have been more of a curse than a blessing for the continent, causing or exacerbating conflict and corruption.”
Jewelers Support The Resource Curse
The jewelry sector, which funded the blood diamond conflict resulting in the death of nearly four million Africans, and continues to buy dirty gold, contributes to this resource curse. Toxic slag piles and human rights abuses are hidden behind the seductive sparkle of gems, and precious metal.
The reliance on the Kimberley Certification Process by the average jeweler as a “best practice”, means that a diamond can be mined under atrocious human rights and environmental conditions and still be sold as “conflict free.” Kimberley has been widely denounced as ineffective by even former proponents. No one is willing to admit that it cannot work because it relies on functioning, or at least not totally corrupt governments. Since so many diamond producing areas have been ravaged, and the artisan mining sector has not been adequately safeguarded, Kimberley remains a rotten deal.
Secondly, precious metal mining continues to be one of the most atrocious activities on earth.
As I have stated in a previous editorial, even the leaders of the jewelry sector, as represented by the Responsible Jewellery Council, provide no real challenge to these practices.
What You Can Do
There is one very simple solution. As a customer, you can ask for mine to market custody of everything you buy from your jeweler.
As a jeweler, you can only buy from suppliers who can provide you with assurances of the working conditions and environmental impact of their product. Though the colored gemstone sector is weak in terms of mine to market product, recycled metal for fabrication is easily available, and diamonds that can be traced are not difficult to find.
