Developing Forest Smart Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining (ASM) Standards

Deforestation and forest degradation are the second leading cause of global warming. Forest loss disrupts ecosystem services, depletes biodiversity, and ultimately undermines the fulfillment of basic human rights. The mining sector is the fourth largest driver of deforestation after agriculture, wood production, and urban development. To tackle the threat that mining poses to forests, the World Bank conceived forest-smart mining as part of their Climate-Smart Mining Initiative, which was launched in 2019. Forest-smart mining (FSM) is mining that acknowledges and understands the relationship between forests and other land uses such as socio-economic uses and ecosystem services, and actively seeks to reduce loss or damage to those uses, and in some cases, promote a net gain for them. In 2020, the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) made funds available to the Extractives Industries and Environment & Natural Resources Units of the World Bank to carry out the study Developing Forest-Smart Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining Standards/Guidance, and a sister study Guidance to Applying Nature-Based Solutions in the Large-Scale Mining Sector that examines the scope for mining companies to more robustly finance and support nature-based solutions. The FCPF funded these studies to get the private sector more directly involved in financing nature-based solutions. This final report provides an overview of the project's purpose, scope, methodology, and processes, and a compilation of the project's findings, recommendations, and products. The authors acknowledge with gratitude the valuable inputs from the Global Advisory Panel, contributing to the conceptualization, development, and validation of the main deliverable, the Forest-Smart Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining Standard (FS-ASM Standard and Guidelines), produced as annex I to this report. The report provides general recommendations for the adoption of the FS-ASM Standard in global and national processes. In addition, there is a suite of road maps, workplans, and budgets for ground-validating the standard in the pilot sites in Colombia, Peru, Ghana, and Liberia.