States in mineral-rich jurisdictions must promote mining as a development industry just as they must protect people and environment from the worst excesses of extractivism. State Governance of Mining, Development and Sustainability explores how the State’s role in facilitating a developmental and sustainable mining industry has been defined. In doing so, this astute book considers the impact of the policies and laws of mineral-rich States themselves, multilateral international governance institutions, industry associations, and environmental justice advocates in the areas of property relations, mineral taxation, environmental management and mine closure.

This book is open access under a CC-BY license. The multiple purposes of nature – livelihood for communities, revenues for states, commodities for companies, and biodiversity for conservationists – have turned environmental governance in Latin America into a highly contested arena. In such a resource-rich region, unequal power relations, conflicting priorities, and trade-offs among multiple goals have led to a myriad of contrasting initiatives that are reshaping social relations and rural territories. This edited collection addresses these tensions by unpacking environmental governance as a complex process of formulating and contesting values, procedures and practices shaping the access, control and use of natural resources. Contributors from various fields address the challenges, limitations, and possibilities for a more sustainable, equal, and fair development. In this book, environmental governance is seen as an overarching concept defining the dynamic and multi-layered repertoire of society-nature interactions, where images of nature and discourses on the use of natural resources are mediated by contextual processes at multiple scales.

This book explores a disciplinary matrix for the study of the law and governance concerning mining and minerals from a global perspective. The book considers the key challenges of achieving the goals of Agenda 2030 and the transition to low-carbon circular economies. The perspective encompasses the multi-faceted and highly complex interaction of multiple fields of international law and policy, soft law and standards, domestic laws and regulations as well as local levels of ordering of social relations. What emerges is a largely neglected, unsystematised and under-theorised field of study which lies at the intersection of the global economy, environmental sustainability, human rights and social equity. But it also underlies the many loopholes to address at all levels, most notably at the local level – land and land holders, artisanal miners, ecosystems, local economies, local linkages and development. The book calls for a truly cosmopolitan academic discipline to be built and identifies challenges to do so. It also sets a research agenda for further studies in this fast-changing field.

This book explores a disciplinary matrix for the study of the law and governance concerning mining and minerals from a global perspective. The book considers the key challenges of achieving the goals of Agenda 2030 and the transition to low-carbon circular economies. The perspective encompasses the multi-faceted and highly complex interaction of multiple fields of international law and policy, soft law and standards, domestic laws and regulations as well as local levels of ordering of social relations. What emerges is a largely neglected, unsystematised and under-theorised field of study which lies at the intersection of the global economy, environmental sustainability, human rights and social equity. But it also underlies the many loopholes to address at all levels, most notably at the local level – land and land holders, artisanal miners, ecosystems, local economies, local linkages and development. The book calls for a truly cosmopolitan academic discipline to be built and identifies challenges to do so. It also sets a research agenda for further studies in this fast-changing field.

Since colonial times the position of the social, political and economic elites in Latin America has been intimately connected to their control over natural resources. Consequently, struggles to protect the environment from over-exploitation and contamination have been related to marginalized groups’ struggles against local, national and transnational elites. The recent rise of progressive, left-leaning governments – often supported by groups struggling for environmental justice – has challenged the established elites and raised expectations about new regimes for natural resource management. Based on case-studies in eight Latin American countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Colombia, Bolivia, El Salvador and Guatemala), this book investigates the extent to which there have been elite shifts, how new governments have related to old elites, and how that has impacted on environmental governance and the management of natural resources. It examines the rise of new cadres of technocrats and the old economic and political elites’ struggle to remain influential. The book also discusses the challenges faced in trying to overcome structural inequalities to ensure a more sustainable and equitable governance of natural resources. This timely book will be of great interest to researchers and masters students in development studies, environmental management and governance, geography, political science and Latin American area studies.

States, corporations, and other actors worldwide have committed to measures aimed at bringing down global emissions to net zero by the year 2060 or earlier. While the need for a clean energy transition is clear, incoherently designed transition programs can pose complex environmental, social, and governance risks, including legal liability and protracted disputes. At the same time, the rush for minerals needed to manufacture clean energy technologies raises fundamental questions–most crucially, how to ensure the exploration and development of energy transition minerals in a manner that does not exacerbate resource conflicts, resource nationalism, human rights violations, protectionism, energy insecurity, social exclusions, and inequity, especially in conflict-affected and high-risk regions. By studying the legal and regulatory systems of Africa, Asia, Europe, Australasia, and North and South America through the themes of sovereignty, security and solidarity, Net Zero and Natural Resources Law provides an in-depth discussion of tools and techniques for addressing the legal and contract risks relating to the clean energy transition. This book offers a comprehensive and authoritative account of the nature, scope, and guiding principles of natural resources law and policy in a net zero era. Consideration is given to the integrated resource governance roadmap that is needed to improve coherence and coordination in the design, financing, and implementation of energy transition programs across the entire natural resource value chain.

This book examines the nexus between conservation, land conflicts, and sustainable tourism approaches in Southern Africa, with a focus on equity, access, restitution, and redistribution. While Southern Africa is home to important biodiversity, pristine woodlands, and grasslands, and is a habitat for important wildlife species, it is also a land of contestations over its natural resources with a complex historical legacy and a wide variety of competing and conflicting issues surrounding race, cultural and traditional practices, and neoliberalism. Drawing on insights from conservation, environmental, and tourism experts, this volume presents the nexus between land conflicts and conservation in the region. The chapters reveal the hegemony of humans on land and associated resources including wildlife and minerals. By using social science approaches, the book unites environmental, scientific, social, and political issues, as it is imperative we understand the holistic nature of land conflicts in nature-based tourism. Discussing the management theories and approaches to community-based tourism in communities where there are or were land conflicts is critical to understanding the current state and future of tourism in African rural spaces. This volume determines the extent to which land reform impacts community-based tourism in Africa to develop resilient destination strategies and shares solutions to existing land conflicts to promote conservation and nature-based tourism. The book will be of great interest to students, academics, development experts, and policymakers in the field of conservation, tourism geography, sociology, development studies, land use, and environmental management and African studies.