The Sustainability Learning Forum

Facts & Trends: Forests, Forest Products, Carbon and Energy

World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD)

Facts and Trends: Forests, forest products, carbon & energy was developed by WBCSD Forest Solutions Group members with extensive technical support from the National Council for Air and Stream Improvement (NCASI), it supports the ongoing dialogue within the WBCSD membership and with other forest-focused stakeholders in government, civil society and business. more[...]

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It Is Time For A Social Stock Exchange

Prof Muhammad Yunus, Yunus Centre

Many of the problems in the world today persist because of a too-narrow interpretation of capitalism. Most businesses today are run based on the assumption that people are selfish and interested solely in maximizing their own profit. This is a very one-dimensional view of humans who in reality are very multidimensional. As much as selfishness is part of us, so is selflessness, but the selfless dimension is not taken into account in economic theory. more[...]

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In India, a community works to change sanitation and hygiene practices

Eleven-year-old Sharda and half a dozen friends beat drums and chant slogans as they walk through the narrow lanes of Lalapur. Their message is: make the remote village in Uttar Pradesh free from open defecation. more[...]

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Fisheries and the Right to Food

Dr. Olivier De Schutter, UN

In the present report, the Special Rapporteur identifies the challenges facing global fisheries and examines how the individuals most vulnerable to negative impacts (the residents of developing coastal and island countries, (specially lowincome food-deficit countries) can be supported to ensure the progressive realization of the right to food, noting that pursuing a human rights approach is critical to achieving sustainable development in the fisheries sector. more[...] login_required

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Flammable Societies. Studies on the Socio-economics of Oil and Gas

Dr John-Andrew McNeish, CMI
Owen Logan, University of Aberdeen

The impact of the oil and gas industry – paradoxically seen both as a blessing and a curse on socio-economic development – is a question at the heart of the comparative studies in this volume stretching from Northern Europe to the Caucasus, the Gulf of Guinea to Latin America. more[...]

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Rethinking Resource Conflict

Dr John-Andrew McNeish, CMI

Resource conflict is one of several destabilizing phenomena commonly cited as defining many of the extractive economies of the global south. In the post-Cold War in which stability has become a key concern of international governance and investment it has also been an issue that has encouraged a proliferation of scholarly and policy interest. In these studies and policy discussions a large number of terms are now in use in an attempt to account for the complicated state of affairs faced by resource-rich countries in the global south: intractable conflicts, new wars, resource wars, complex political emergencies, conflict trap, resource securitization, petro-violence, blood diamonds. more[...]

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African leaders urged to invest in jobs, infrastructure and protecting development gains

African Development Bank (AfDB)

n unprecedented gathering of experts in Kigali, present and former African Heads of State urged business, community and political leaders to help turn the continent’s impressive growth into economic opportunities for ordinary citizens. more[...]

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Africa Can Feed Itself, Earn Billions, and Avoid Food Crises by Unblocking Regional Food Trade

World Bank

A new World Bank report says that Africa’s farmers can potentially grow enough food to feed the continent and avert future food crises if countries remove cross-border restrictions on the food trade within the region. According to the Bank, the continent would also generate an extra US$20 billion in yearly earnings if African leaders can agree to dismantle trade barriers that blunt more regional dynamism. The report was released on the eve of an African Union (AU) ministerial summit in Addis Ababa on agriculture and trade. more[...]

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Africa’s social diversity: an asset for democracy

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

African leaders, international organizations and civil society representatives will meet in Botswana’s capital, Gaborone, for the next three days to discuss Africa’s diverse social fabric and how it can serve as an asset for democracy and development. more[...] login_required

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Conflict Minerals and SEC Disclosure Regulation

Prof. Celia Taylor, University of Denver Sturm College of Law

Mention the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (“Dodd-Frank” or the “Act”),[1] and most people think of legislation aimed at “fundamental reform of the financial system”[2] focused on regulation of Wall Street practices and complex financial products. But tucked within the voluminous text of the Act (which consists of 2,300 pages and stipulates the passage of 387 rules by 20 different agencies[3]) is a provision having nothing to do with these issues or anything remotely related to them. Instead the “conflict minerals” provision of the Act requires companies that are subject to the reporting requirement of the federal securities laws to disclose whether they manufacture products using so-called “conflict minerals” sourced from the Democratic Republic of Congo (“DRC”) or contiguous countries.[4] more[...]

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Blood on your mobile phone? Capturing the gains for artisanal miners, poor workers and women

Dr. Dev Nathan, Institute for Human Development

Capturing the Gains research into the global production of mobile phones traces the connections between armed factions, poverty and violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and mobile phone users worldwide. The critical link is coltan, or columbite tantalite. It is the raw material for tantalum, an essential mineral in the manufacture of mobile phones, computers and other electronic equipment. more[...] login_required

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Nathan, Dev

Editorial Team

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UNDP-led partnership unveils key to successful community-driven sustainable development projects

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

The Equator Initiative - a United Nations-led partnership which recognizes the success of local sustainable development projects with the biennial Equator Prize - has launched a series of 127 case studies and a volume of “lessons-learned” outlining the key components of successful, community-based development initiatives. more[...] login_required

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Gold is now the Most Lucrative Conflict Mineral from Eastern Congo

Enough Project

Gold smuggled from eastern Congo’s war zone is now the most lucrative conflict mineral and is ending up at jewelry stores and banks, according to a new investigative report by the Enough Project. The study found that following a 65 percent drop in profits from the conflict minerals tin, tungsten, and tantalum, armed groups have increasingly turned to smuggling the fourth conflict mineral, gold, to generate income that finances mass atrocities in eastern Congo. The armed groups use poorly paid miners, who work in dangerous conditions, including thousands of children as young as eight years old. The study maps out how conflict gold makes its way from eastern Congo to consumers worldwide who purchase it in the form of wedding rings and watches, and investment banks that buy gold bars. more[...] login_required

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From Child Miner to Jewelry Store

Enough Project

This is the first of two papers on the illegal conflict-gold trade from eastern Congo that is fueling one of the most violent conflicts in the world. This paper tracks the transnational trade from mines in eastern Congo to consumers. The second paper will map a way to resolve this problem by setting out recommendations to formalize the trade, cut down conflict-gold smuggling, and create jobs to provide living wages to Congolese miners. more[...] login_required

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