Because the West Coast faces a deluge of prospecting and mining applications that require serious legal firepower to combat, PTWC has launched a crowdfunding campaign.
Please help us fund legal action against mining companies on the Cape West Coast that continue to flout environmental laws, marginalising communities and degrading the environment.
In some instances, mining rights are renewed for periods of up to 30 years using long-outdated environmental management plans that are obsolete, and fail to take into account the most up-to-date science and modern socio economic considerations related to mining. This places vast tracts of coastline at serious risk, which places severe pressure on communities who subsist off land and marine-based food sources.
In the absence of proper oversight and governance, the job is left to civil society to ensure that mining activities are done lawfully, and that the companies keep to their promises to help communities with their social and labour plans and land rehabilitation once they finish mining, not to mention sharing some of the wealth they generate on indigenous Khoi and Nama lands in a tangible and restorative way.
Applications for prospecting and mining along the West Coast are increasing at a scary rate, and are spreading south towards Langebaan. This means that hundreds of kilometres of nearshore ocean, sensitive coastline and sandveld at risk, including various estuaries, the Olifants River estuary being one. The Olifants estuary, a RAMSAR global bio-diversity hotspot, lies on a knife’s edge that tips it towards ecological collapse. Our legal team needs resources to tackle the deluge and turn the tide on unscrupulous activity.
We have managed some success already in forcing Environmental Impact Assessments, and wider public participation and consultation, and are confident we can make a huge difference in ensuring that the West Coast remains a thriving and abundant region for the environment and the communities who live there.
Link to campaign can be found HERE
Words by Steve Pike.
