Participatory Environmental Monitoring (PEM) is a key component of the Environmental Governance Programme, EGP. The aim of PEM is to build community knowledge and engagement to address environmental and social risks through monitoring the local environment and collecting data.
Findings and data from monitoring can be used when local communities engage in multi-stakeholder partnerships, which can help improve relations between local communities, states, society and the private sector. A more inclusive, participatory, and responsive governance of the mining sector can reduce environment-related community grievances and social conflicts that arise from mining activities. Testimonies from Mongolia, for example, show that both communities and mining companies experience a higher level of mutual trust as a result of community-led PEM activities, and consequently, this reduces the risk of conflict.
EGP has supported and tested several different PEM activities in its programme countries. Six countries – Peru, Colombia, Mongolia, Liberia, Argentina, Kyrgyzstan – are currently in the process of harnessing lessons from their PEM projects, that are now set to continue in 2024. Another three EGP countries are considering PEM pilots next year.
In October-November 2023, EGP organized a Global Virtual PEM Workshop to reflect on, and learn from, PEM activities in these six countries. EGP also organized regional meetings in Africa and Latin America, in which delegates from Zambia, Kenya, Liberia and Namibia, and Peru, Colombia, Argentina and Ecuador participated. The meeting in Latin America was framed by this region having the highest number of social conflicts related to mining in the world, and that the level of conflict has been on the rise in the past 15 years.
Learnings discussed in these meetings include:
- Data collection related to biodiversity and water monitoring by local indigenous women’s organizations in areas affected by mining. This includes, for example, the potential effects of mercury contamination in parts of Colombia.
- Liberia shared experiences of initiating pilot PEM activities in the context of artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM).
- Other examples highlight the organization of national networks of local PEM Committees. This strengthens the capacity to advocate legal and policy changes, rally around common agendas such as the PEM Women’s Leadership Agenda in Peru, and provide opportunities to share experiences nationally.
The intention is to include identified key learnings from the meetings in upcoming global knowledge products, in particular a Global Guide for PEM, which EGP plans to publish in 2024.
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