Constraints and Opportunities in the Mitigation of Adverse Environmental Impacts in Mineral Resources Harnessing—Some Marange Diamond Perspectives

Zimbabwe has a population of 15.4 million people in which 2.8 million of them live in extreme povertyPoverty . Since independence, the ZimbabweanZimbabwe(an) governmentGovernment has implemented a plethora of populist macro and microprogrammes to deal with povertyPoverty . These have had differing success. ZimbabweanZimbabwe(an) economy has been struggling to deal with povertyPoverty and foster community development for the past decades. Zimbabwean nominal gross domestic product in 2016 was pegged at $14.6 billion. The largest productive sectors in the economy were hotels and restaurants (13% of GDP), manufacturing (12% of GDP), agriculture (12% of GDP), transport and mining (11% of GDP) and mining (9% of GDP). Zimbabwe’s economy relies on interconnected activities in mining, agriculture and tourism. Between 2006 and 2009 diamonds were discovered in ChiadzwaChiadzwa ward in MarangeMarange area. On a macro level, the discovery of diamonds in Zimbabwe created an expectation that the economy will grow through job creation, infrastructureInfrastructure development, investment opportunities and improved livelihoods of the host communitiesCommunity, communities, local communities . Prior to the discovery of diamonds in ChiadzwaChiadzwa , the local community economy was viewed as heavily dependent on animal rearing craft and farming droughtDrought -resistant crops and dependent on donor organisations for survivalSurvival . Mining companies in ChiadzwaChiadzwa had a capacity to produce about US $600,000 worth of diamonds per week. With such great potential one expects that the diamondDiamond sales trickle to the local community and national level. CSRCorporate Social Responsibility (CSR) seems to offer a plausible solution to sustainable socialSocial development to disadvantaged communities. It is against this background that this chapter aims at critiquing perspectives of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) implementation in ChiadzwaChiadzwa where communitiesCommunity, communities, local communities should be beneficiaries of mineral extractiveExtractive activities. CSRCorporate Social Responsibility (CSR) may also help to improve the quality of lifeQuality of life thus in a way combating povertyPoverty among the marginalised groups such as womenWomen , youthYouth and childrenChildren in the host communities. When correctly implemented, CSRCorporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is expected to positively impact on the host communityHost community . Evidence from the literature shows that CSRCorporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is largely voluntary and generally communities do not always benefit in the mining profitability in third world countries. This chapter recommends pathways state and non-state actors can pursue mandating mining companies to have practical sustainable CSRCorporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes when conducting mining operations and perform mandatory follow up studies after the mines have completed their operations. The CSRCorporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the mining industryIndustry should be motivated by sustainable development rather than establishing legitimacy. Through CSRCorporate Social Responsibility (CSR) implementation expectations are that the host communitiesCommunity, communities, local communities are protected from exploitation of their community resources which in turn advance equity of all marginalised groups particular womenWomen and childrenChildren .