© ARM
July 23th 2014
Following the publication of the Fairmined Standard version 2.0 (v2.0) that increases opportunities for the world’s artisanal and small-scale miners and opens up new ethical markets, the Alliance for Responsible Mining (ARM) is happy to announce the publication of the Fairmined Standard v2.0 in French.
The publication of the French version of the Fairmined Standard is an important development for the Fairmined initiative that since last year has been testing the Fairmined certification approach in Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal.
“The publication of the standard in French is important as it makes the Fairmined standard, and its role as a formalisation instrument, available to a larger percentage of the world’s artisanal and small scale miners. In many francophone African countries the miners get organised, create associations, federations and cooperatives. These steps are important for the ASM sector as competition between ASM and large scale mining is increasing on the ground. ” Said Yves Bertran – Projects Leader Africa.
ARM is well positioned to apply its Fairmined experience to other responsible mining and supply chain initiatives across the African continent with one foot strongly planted in francophone West Africa through its involvement in regional initiatives such as ICGLR and through the project “Creation of a responsible artisanal gold mining supply chain and reduction of mercury emissions in West Africa” with United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) jointly funded by Fonds Français pour l’Environnement Mondial (FFEM) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF).
The Fairmined standard was developed by miners, supply-chain actors and other stakeholders to support sustainable development of Artisanal and Small-scale Mining (ASM) communities through formalisation and access to ethical markets. The standard includes requirements for Artisanal and Small-scale Mining Organisations (ASMOs) to perform responsible mining: formal and legal mining operations, environmental protection, labor conditions, traceability, and socio-economic development through the Fairmined Premium.
ARM believes expanding the Fairmined standard to francophone countries will increase its applicability in others regions of the world and transform it into a more universal tool for integration of the artisanal gold mining into the Southern formal economies.
For more information on the ARM’s project in West Africa project please visit:
http://lorequitable.org
To download the Fairmined standard in French and in other languages:
http://communitymining.org/en/our-work/standard-setting/fairmined-standard
Download official press release here in English, Spanish and French