Looking Ahead - Mining and the Environment: From Ore to Metal - page 845

damage, some serious. Despite a major overhaul of the regulations and their enforcement,
public outrage toward mining in the Philippines continues, fuelled by a strong anti-
mining lobby. In the Philippines, it would appear that the public and its elected representatives
have become over-sensitized to the impacts of mining so that even minor spills, such as
those that occurred at Rapu Rapu in 2005, cause a disproportionate level of outrage.
Another current trend is the increasing inl uence exerted on governments by NGOs.
There has long been entrenched opposition to mining from a variety of environmental
groups, some of which are radical and outspoken, with an inl uence that, on occasions,
seems to be disproportionate to their size and scientii c credentials. This inl uence seems
to rel ect a perception that the NGOs speak on behalf of the host communities (see also
Case Studies 3.6 and 8.11). While this may be the case in some circumstances, there are
other cases where local people are exploited by NGOs to support their own ideologies.
In general, the popular press i nds the views of these groups more newsworthy than the
views of those involved in the industry. As a result, the industry continues to be portrayed
in a less than complimentary light. The situation is unlikely to change in the foreseeable
future; however, this does not mean that biased reporting should not be challenged.

Evolution of Government Capacity

One of the most serious problems in developing countries, particularly those without a
signii cant history of mining, is the lack of capacity among government personnel, to eval-
uate the merits and demerits of new projects, as well as to adequately supervise the perfor-
mance at existing operations. Too often there are insufi cient numbers of adequately
trained personnel, lack of relevant experience and a chronic shortage of funds and equip-
ment. It is easy to understand why delays occur at the EIA stage as regulators, under
constant pressure from the proponent to approve a project, struggle to understand large
amounts of highly technical information. Their situation may be compounded by out-
spoken opponents generating daily press coverage claiming that the project will have
disastrous impacts. This situation is not unique to developing countries: in the 1970s the
environmental approval system in Australia, the US and other newly environmentally
conscious countries, was administered largely by new graduates, many of whom had never
seen a mine. Fortunately, experience has shown that this situation does improve with time.
Co-operation and assistance on the part of industry can expedite capacity building to the
benei t of all.
An effective approach followed in many countries to augment government capacity, is
through the use of 'expert committees' to review new mining proposals, particularly large
or controversial projects. Commonly, such committees are assembled from academia and
industry as well as senior government experts. The main criterion is that the committee as
a whole is able to understand all issues involved in the project. Clearly, the success of this
approach depends on the quality and objectivity of the people involved.
One major impediment to capacity building in developing countries concerns the low
salaries paid to government personnel and also to academics. This undoubtedly contrib-
utes to corruption in some countries. It may also lead to a situation where the best technical
people obtain employment in industry, with less capable people in government. As men-
tioned previously, capacity generally improves over time as government personnel become
more knowledgeable and experienced. However, this is not inevitable. One effect of the
current mining boom is that key government personnel, including environmental special-
ists, are being recruited by an industry that is itself short of qualii ed personnel, leading to

One of the most serious
problems in developing countries,
particularly those without a
signifi cant history of mining,
is the lack of capacity among
government personnel.

One major impediment to
capacity building in developing
countries concerns the low
salaries paid to government
personnel and also to academics.