However, in the absence of strong laws and efficient policies to govern the sector, we will continue to experience such nerve breaking situation as we have seen in the Gbanepea’s Gold camp. Natural and extractive resources are gifts that require proper management in order to accumulate sustainable development and bring about social change to the interest of the entire population.

The recent appalling situation in Gbanepea, Nimba County Artisanal Mining Community (AMC), where over 40 miners are said to have died in a mudslide, reveals the lack of robust and proactive policy by state and non-state actors to properly manage the mining sector and the lack of protection for vulnerable communities against environmental degradation. Liberia is endowed with natural resources, including iron ore, gold, timber, diamonds, natural rubber, and vast agriculture land for ensuring food security, yet the country resources are not positively transforming the lives of Liberians but only enriching few while vast majority of Liberians live in abject poverty. It is a term that describes how, on average, countries with large endowments of natural resources tend to perform worse than countries that may be less well endowed. However, poor and mismanagement of natural resources is becoming a leitmotif thus giving currency to the term ‘Resource Curse’. Natural resources can be a blessing when used wisely and efficiently to address the needs of people and countries in which they are found.

Gbanepea Gold Mine - photo: courtesy of Daily Observer

Leitmotif dredge