Description
In Rosia Montana, a village from Apuseni Mountains in Romania, a Canadian company wants to undertake the biggest gold mine in Europe. The local communities together with many other people all around the country, but also around the globe are opposing gold mining for social, cultural, economic and environmental reasons. The project will support the effort of Rosia Montana community to fight against this open pit cyanide project within the EIA process and other authorization processes. The project will inform the population affected by the mining project (70,000 people), will activate a minimum of 5000 people in specific activities of advocacy and public participation processes, and will involve 100,000 people to distribute relevant information on the mining project through social media. The project team will monitor all the EIA process of Rosia Montana project and other authorization procedures of the project, will elaborate reports and informative materials, will support lawsuits against the authorization of the mining project and will deliver advocacy and information campaigns to empower the citizens to participate in the decision making process.
Summary of project results
The Save Rosia Montana Campaign – Solidarity for Community project aimed to support Romania’s largest environmental and social movement – the campaign against the Rosia Montana mining proposal. The project aimed to create mechanisms, tools and strategies to effectively influence the decision-making process, to create public awareness and involvement regarding Rosia Montana as well as correlative and larger issues such as: non-transparent management and policy of mineral resources and dangerous technologies used in mining in Romania and Europe; constant breaches of law from public authorities' side in decision-making on mining projects; the necessity to promote sustainable solutions for the protection of the cultural patrimony of Rosia Montana that has universal importance. A combination of court cases, informative events, materials and actions, joint advocacy campaigns and continuous strategic campaign planning led to the achievement of project’s objectives. The decision-making process for the mining project is now blocked, given that vital permits obtained by the mining company so far have been irrevocably annulled and suspended. A bill to completely ban the use of cyanide in mining in Romania is again discussed in the Parliament and the Ministry for the Environment issued a positive position for the bill. The Save Rosia Montana campaign now advocates alongside tens of NGOs and action groups in Europe for a ban of cyanide in mining at European level and to stop the European Union to sign the controversial Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (“TTIP”). Over 200,000 citizens are constantly informed and called to action via social media official pages, the official website, press releases and newsletters as well as printed materials distributed during public events or during informative tours, such as the direct distribution of the Apusenii Liberi newspaper. Locals from Rosia Montana opposing the mining project have again a future with sustainable development due to the elimination of legal and administrative blockages at the local level. The cultural patrimony of Rosia Montana has a greater level of protection and the chances to become an UNESCO site increased exponentially. Thousands hundred citizens from Romania and abroad are substantially more informed and involved in critical issues related to mining policies and to the protection of cultural and natural patrimony of universal importance.
Summary of bilateral results