Mining codes and oil laws have a huge impact on how well a country’s natural resources are managed. PWYP members around the world seek to influence and amend these frameworks so that the rules change and integrate transparency and accountability into the natural resource management process from the off. It’s not just codes and laws; a country’s constitution can also enshrine natural resource principles.
Some of the things the natural resource legal framework can determine:
- Whether a government decides to publish its extractive contracts and licenses.
- Whether communities should directly receive a portion of extractive revenues, and what this portion should be.
- How much revenue should be set aside for future generations rather than spent straight away.
- The standard for environmental and other obligations companies need to abide by.
Visit the EI sourcebook for more information, but in short these frameworks are crucial in influencing how well natural resources are managed.
Many resource-rich governments are looking to revise their oil and mining codes. This provides an opening that PWYP coalitions are seizing to change the way their resources are governed and ensure that focus on attracting investors does not come at the cost of citizens.
Some examples of PWYP coalitions at work:
- In Guinea, the new mining code of 2011 included the publication of all mining contracts, which are available in one repository.
- In Côte d’Ivoire, the PWYP coalition campaigned for a revenue sharing system to be included the revision of the mining code in 2014, which means that communities will now directly receive a portion of the royalties for their resources extracted locally.
- PWYP Niger members were involved in the drafting of the country’s constitution of 2010, which states that extractive contracts will be made public and enshrines the principles of transparency in natural resource management.