Current Work
Book: 101 Things to Do With a Hole in the Ground
Aimed at inspiring new thinking around what to do with old mine sites, this book is beautifully illustrated with spectacular examples of post-mining regeneration and pithy explanations of what is achievable with open minds and creative thinking.
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Event: Claylandscape Restoration Workshop, Cornwall, UK
Mid-Cornwall’s Claylands offer a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for realizing world class landscape restoration. It combines ecological improvements with new prospects for people and communities. On 30 July 2010, we organized a workshop for local stakeholders to explore what the area might learn from world class landscape restoration projects in other places, with key speakers invited from around the country.
For further information about the workshop and its outputs, click here
Project: Eco-Town Development, Cornwall, UK
We have been assisting (industrial minerals multi-national) Imerys in their bid to the UK government’s Department of Communities and Local Government for Eco-Town (exemplar new sustainable communities) status for new developments in Cornwall's china clay mining area. The plan incorporates leading practice in the design of homes, workplaces and leisure facilities, including a substantial proportion of affordable housing, connected by green transport routes, with skills training for local people in emerging green industries. It is hoped that we will be successful in rolling out the Eden Project’s experience in regeneration, sustainable construction, renewable energy, social enterprise and local economic empowerment to these mining communities. The Alliance’s role to develop ideas and be involved in the planning process is an ideal opportunity to explore post-mining approaches that may be transferable to other post-mining locations.
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Project: The Living Edge of Africa Project, Namaqualand, South Africa
South Africa 's Diamond Coast is a starkly beautiful and sparsely-populated place. Its semi-desert landscape is heavily disturbed by diamond mining. The recent decline in mining led to large-scale lay-offs in Namaqualand - an area with few social or economic alternatives. An Eden team worked with the industry, local communities and Conservation International to develop a long-term vision for the post-mining regeneration of the area, which became known as LEAP - the Living Edge of Africa Project.
LEAP case study - screen version
LEAP case study - print version (folds into a four-page leaflet)
Report (in development): From Negative Legacy to Positive Inheritance
This report aims to make a significant contribution to our understanding of successful ways of dealing with mining legacy. It will identify key barriers to change and outline how to overcome them, embedding this discussion in a series of examples drawn from different jurisdictions around the world. The report is the culmination of two years’ work by the Post-Mining Alliance, initiated during the Toronto roundtable in March 2008 and provides key recommendations for the major international stakeholders in dealing with mining legacy sites.
Other Work We are Involved in:
Project: World Bank Decommissioning Toolkit. We are participating in a review of work being undertaken by ERM to develop a toolkit on regulatory, institutional and fiscal frameworks for decommissioning in the mining and oil and gas sectors. The toolkit will be disseminated among government agencies in developing countries to help them improve their regulatory framework and management of the issue.
Project: Community Resource Guide. There are many resources available to assist mining companies to work more effectively with local communities by optimising the local socio-economic impact of their operations. However, none of these resources has been developed from the perspective of the community affected by mining. Building on the participatory engagement methods used by a number of voluntary organizations and incorporating our own experiences, we are planning to develop a programme that will help communities to deal more constructively and effectively with mining companies and local regulatory authorities on closure and legacy issues.
Event: Inter-Governmental Forum. We have been working with the secretariat of the Inter-governmental Forum on Mining, Metals, Minerals and Sustainable Development based at Natural Resources Canada and the UK Department for International Development to provide input for the UN Commission for Sustainable Development process for 2010. One of the three key strands of the Forum is dealing with mine closure and mining legacy.