As a result of water pollution and mining infrastructure, affected communities report an unprecedented decline in wildlife. Presence of bauxite mines in the area threatens the critically endangered Western chimpanzee and potentially the red colobus monkey.
Communities believe that air pollution and dust from mining activities have resulted in the decline, and in some instances the disappearance, of many species of wild fruits and plants in areas used by the communities for medicinal purposes. The alarming disappearance of these plants is threatening traditional pharmacopoeia, endangering their health, way of life, and cultural identity. Affected villages have in some cases been established for hundreds of years and have strong cultural and ancestral ties to the area.
The Compagnie des Bauxites de Guinée (CBG) mine has been operational since 1973. It is currently undergoing an expansion that is expected to increase bauxite production from roughly 15 to 18.5 million tons. The expansion entails constructing various processing facilities and associated infrastructure at the mine site, updating the railway line used to transport bauxite from Sangarédi to the port of Kamsar at the mouth of the Rio Nunez river, and upgrading processing facilities at the export site in Kamsar.
CBG is owned by three major international aluminum producers, Alcoa, Rio Tinto, and Dadco. The current expansion project is partly financed by the International Finance Corporation, the US Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), the German government’s Untied Loan Guarantees program (UFK), as well as a syndicate of private banks. The railway line is also being expanded, through a separate IFC facility, to connect two other inland bauxite mines to the port of Kamsar.
Since the inception of the mine in the early 1970s, local communities have experienced widespread loss of land and livelihoods, due to the expropriation of ancestral farmlands without consultation or the provision of compensation or replacement land.
CBG has systematically minimized and negated the customary land rights of the local communities who inhabited the area under a recognized, organized tenure system, long before CBG arrived. As stated in a USAID review of Guinean land tenure policy and legislation: “such property rights may be formally registered, provided a level of investment has been maintained that conforms to local norms, and following completion of a public process to confirm that there are no contradictory claims on the holding.” The absence of formal registration characterizes much of rural Guinea, but as long as households fulfil the constitutive elements of adverse possession, they are entitled to protections. In negating these rights, CBG, like other mining companies in Guinea, has treated rural land as state property, and ignored or negated the customary land rights of rural farmers. CBG has acquired land without the free, prior and informed consent of customary landowners; neither has it followed a public expropriation process, as required under national legislation. CBG has not provided fair compensation.
CBG’s operations have had widespread environmental and social repercussions. The company expropriated a large amount of farmland, thereby disturbing the traditional crop rotation system and degrading the remaining soil. Bauxite mining has caused widespread water pollution and thus lack of access to clean water. These environmental impacts have triggered serious social impacts, as local communities are struggling without access to clean water. CBG is just one of several bauxite mining companies in Boke that are causing serious detrimental impacts to biodiversity in the area.
In addition to negative social impacts, the mine has negatively impacted biodiversity within the concession area, including critical habitats for endangered chimpanzees. In order to receive a loan for the project expansion from the IFC, the mine developer had to fulfill its obligations under IFC Performance Standard 6, which requires no net loss of threatened species. Therefore, CBG and Guinea Alumina Corporation (another IFC client) funded the establishment of the Moyen-Bafing nature reserve as a “chimpanzee offset.” However, up to 1,500 chimpanzees within the park are now threatened by the Koukoutamba dam, which the government plans to build inside the park with financing from China Export Import Bank.
In 2019, affected communities from 13 villages filed a complaint (see in English and in French) representing 540 complainants with the IFC’s grievance mechanism, the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman. The complaint alleges that that CBG is in breach of all seven of the applicable IFC Performance Standards and that communities have not been accorded their rights and entitlements under these environmental and social requirements. The complaint describes harms that were inflicted after IFC’s investment in 2015, as well as historical grievances relating to the company’s actions over the course of several decades. The CAO found the complaint eligible for assessment in March 2019, and in August the CAO formalized the commencement of the dispute resolution process.
