Development and Peace and the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD) sponsored the mission following a request from their partner, Caritas Tegucigalpa, who wanted help to advocate for a just and responsible mining law in Honduras. Caritas has worked intensively for mining legislation that puts the interests of the country before those of foreign mining companies. In addition, it has been working closely with the communities affected by the environmental and human impact of San Martin, an open pit mine run by Entre Mares, a subsidiary of Goldcorp—a Canadian-based company.

Development and Peace also sought to follow up on the recommendations of Canada’s National Roundtables on Corporate Social Responsibility, a multi-stakeholder process in which the mining industry and civil society worked together to find consensus recommendations to improve the CSR performance of Canadian companies in their overseas operations. By examining the issue of mining in Honduras, the mission sought to show how a weak regulatory framework allows foreign companies to take advantage, and behave in ways unacceptable in their home countries. This, in turn, would illustrate why Canada needs to make mining, oil and gas companies accountable for their overseas operations.

CAFOD sought to follow up on its Unearth Justice campaign, whereby campaigners in the UK are calling on the jewelry industry to purchase only from suppliers who can guarantee responsible production practices. With the launch by former Prime Minister Tony Blair in 2002 of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) the British government has also been at the forefront of efforts to ensure that mining,oil and gas corporations act transparently regarding payments and taxes paid to host governments, and this is one of the issues at stake in Honduras.

The delegation met with a cross section of Honduran government, industry and civil society representatives. It heard about forced relocation of families, legal improprieties by Entre Mares, poor governance, and claims of disease caused by environmental pollution. In particular, the delegation learned the following:

• The current 1998 mining law puts first the interests of foreign mining companies, before those of the Honduran state. The weakness of the law was illustrated by the following situations encountered by the delegation:
• Local mayors complained that they found out only by accident that the government had granted mining concessions in their municipalities;
• The state prosecutor for the environment told the delegation that weak environmental and mining legislation undermines his ability to do his job;
• Bishop Juan Jose Pineda spoke of the rampant corruption aided and abetted by unscrupulous foreign companies;
• Entre Mares, a Goldcorp subsidiary, refused to pay a fine for environmental pollution around the San Martin mine since it did not agree with findings of the Ministry’s environmental tests;
• A broad cross section of civil society organizations, supported by certain key politicians, have worked tirelessly to reform the law and bring it in line with the country’s interests, but are repeatedly confronted by the powerful mining industry lobby which seeks to maintain the status quo
• Mining operations have seriously depleted the water supply of the communities in the vicinity of the San Martin mine; and
• Eight years after relocating to accommodate the San Martin mine, some families still lack title deeds to their lands and fear future eviction.
• The Siria Valley communities living in the vicinity of the mine believe that pollution has affected their health. The government has begun rigorous biological testing, and samples were sent to an independent laboratory in Colombia for analysis. The results have still not been made public.