A group of seven international conservation and environmental organizations have asked the government of Guinea to implement a renewable five-year moratorium on iron-ore mining in the Nimba Biosphere Reserve, which includes a UNESCO World Heritage site. The Nimba Mountains straddle the border of Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire and Liberia, and are home to springs and streams that provide water to local communities in Guinea and habitat for critically endangered species, such as western chimpanzees. The massif is also a Key Biodiversity Area, which is a site of global importance to the planet’s overall health and the persistence of biodiversity on Earth. 

Read the press release here.

The ARRC Task Force and Sustain Value produced a report describing the results of a preliminary impact evaluation comparing a mining vs conservation scenario in the Nimba Mountains. The report is aimed at assessing the positive and negative values of societal impacts across environmental, social, health and economic dimensions. It highlights that it would likely be more strategic to establish the entirety of the Nimba Mountains as a thriving protected area with focus on ecotourism, sustainable livelihoods, and conservation finance centered around a world-renowned biodiversity offset than to risk mining the site.

The reports in EN and FR can be found on the Reports & Statements page of our website.