Despite all these problems, the international watchdogs believe there is still time to fix the Haitian mining industry. But it will be necessary to follow some rules. One of them is to promote a genuine
cooperation between the government, the mining and energy office, the
mining industry, the World Bank and Haitian civil society. “There must
be more transparency and opportunities for public participation in
decisions about possible mining deals between companies and the
government”.
Also,
“communities must have the right to free, prior and informed consent to
any use of their land by mining or other companies. We also need environmental impact studies, companies must be responsible for paying for work to prevent and clean up all the harm that they do”.
Finally,
the Haitian civil society must be given “a genuine say in how the
government spends the payments it receives from the mining industry –
and how those payments are distributed across the country, taking into
account which communities are most affected by mining activities”.
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