-     Pablo Neruda, Ode to Copper

At the distance of two decades, there should be an opportunity for reflection on what this effort achieved, and where it fell short. This discussion has been started on an excellent note by the Responsible Mining Foundation’s (RMF) commendable recent report, Closing the Gaps, which has inspired this article. The reflection, analysis and discussion should not end here. There is much to be gained from revisiting the recommendations portion of the MMSD final report (Breaking New Ground) as well as considering the opportunities identified by RMF in Closing the Gaps.

Excerpt from an article published by the Responsible Mining Foundation. You can read Luke's full article here.

For the Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Sustainable Development (IGF), a government to government association that now includes some 79 governments, SDSG did a capacity building and consulting project with the Government of Ecuador on how to implement their duty to consult.

Luke Danielson, as lead author, with six Latin American co-authors, has written a major article on the state of jurisprudence on this issue in Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico, analyzing some 30 decisions of superior courts in these countries related to the duty to consult. The article, The Path to Peace and Development, will be published in Spanish by the Human Rights Institute at the University of Deusto in Spain in January.

SDSG received a grant from the Foundation for Natural Resources and Energy Law to translate this article into English, and will present it at the Foundation’s Mexico City Conference in April.

All the countries mentioned above are signatory to the 1989 International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention 169 on the Rights of Tribal and Indigenous Peoples and the 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). The US endorsed and voted for UNDRIP, but did not join the ILO Convention.

In any case, Alex Holmes, JD Candidate at the University of Denver's Sturm College of Law and SDSG summer intern, prepared a short piece on the state of play of the duty to consult in the United States legal system. We shared it with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) staff and gave them a short webinar on our conclusions. They seem to have liked it. We have also shared it with the United States Army Corps of Engineers. You can read this study on Consultation Policies for Government Activities Affecting Indigenous Americans, published on our Sustainable Development and Indigenous Peoples webpage.

Congratulations to our SDSG President, Luke Danielson, for receiving Antioch College's 2022 Horace Mann Award given annually to recognize contributions by alumni who have “won some victory for humanity” following Horace Mann’s advice to the graduating class of 1859. 

Recipients are persons or groups of persons whose personal or professional activities have had a profound effect on the present or future human condition. The Alumni Board, who makes the nominations, noted Luke's life-long work in environmental and sustainable development from multiple perspectives as an attorney, a professor, and a researcher.

Past recipients of the award include District of Columbia Congressional Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton, evolutionary biologist Steven Jay Gould, civil rights activist Coretta Scott King and Danielson’s mentor, the late Margaret Hansson, a pioneer for women in business.

For more details, see this Gunnison Times report.

SDSG Board Member, Nadia Ahmad, is a co-principal investigator with a multi-disciplinary team of researchers awarded a $500,000 grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to work with communities in designing a framework for creating policies that mitigate these impacts for a more just transition to renewables. 

Nadia was also appointed earlier this spring to the Academic Advisory Group for the International Bar Association’s Section on Energy, Environment, Natural Resources and Infrastructure Law (SEERIL). In their recently published book, Resilience in Energy, Infrastructure, and Natural Resources Law, Nadia wrote a chapter on calibrating finance mechanisms of the International Renewable Energy Agency and the Energy Charter Treaty. The book assesses legal responses to disruptive nature-based events, and examines legal pathways for more sustainable outcomes.

New SDSG Executive Director, Julia Metzger, met this spring with SDSG co-founders, Luke Danielson and Cecilia Dalupan and early Board Directors, Jim Cress and Chet Tchozewski, to learn about the creation and early days of SDSG. Now as SDSG Senior Advisors, Chet and Cecilia continue to support and promote SDSG's work.

It's an inspiring story, with a mission that has since been carried forward by many others in the SDSG family, advancing SDSG's vision of a future where resource development respects human rights, aligns with the economic and social objectives of local communities, and protects the natural environment.

All of our SDSG partners, collaborators, interns and fellows, past and present, are invited to join us for a celebration of this milestone on September 19th. Register here today!