MARTA MIRANDA
Marta Miranda is Senior Program Officer for extractive industries in the
World Wildlife Fund’s Macroeconomics for Sustainable Development Program
Office (MPO). Prior to joining the MPO, Marta spent nine years at the World
Resources Institute, where she conducted research on global extractive industries
policies, with a national emphasis on Venezuela, the Philippines, and Papua
New Guinea. While at WRI, she also helped establish the Venezuela chapter
of Global Forest Watch, a project aimed at tracking development and change
in the world's forests. Marta has edited and authored several peer-reviewed
articles and books, including Mining and Critical Ecosystems: Mapping the
Risks; The State of Venezuela's Forests: A Case Study of the Guayana Region;
and All That Glitters Is Not Gold: Balancing Conservation and Development
in Venezuela's Frontier Forests.
Originally from Portugal, Marta holds an M.A. in Geography from San Diego
State University and a B.A. in Geography from the State University of New
York, Geneseo. Ms. Miranda is fluent in Portuguese and Spanish.
Marta was the author of Chapters 1 and 4, and also served as the overall
substantive editor of the framework.
DAVID M. CHAMBERS, Ph.D.
Dr. Chambers is the president of the Center for Science in Public Participation,
a non-profit corporation formed to provide technical assistance on mining
and water quality to public interest groups and tribal governments.
David has 15 years of management and technical experience in the mineral
exploration industry, and for the past 15 years has served as an advisor
on the environmental effects of mining projects both nationally and internationally.
He is a registered professional geophysicist (California # GP 972) with a
Professional Engineering Degree in Physics from the Colorado School of Mines
and a Masters Degree in Geophysics from the University of California at Berkeley.
Dr. Chambers received his Ph.D. in Environmental Planning from Berkeley.
His doctoral dissertation analyzed the U.S. Forest Service's efforts to plan
for and manage minerals on the National Forests.
He has provided assistance to public interest groups on proposed, operating,
and abandoned mines in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Missouri,
Montana, Nevada, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Washington,
and Wisconsin, British Columbia, Labrador, Kyrgyzstan, and Northern Ireland.
This assistance has often been in the form of technical reviews to assist
groups in submitting comments on the environmental deficiencies of proposed
mines as a part of mine permitting or Environmental Impact Statement reviews,
as well as suggesting mine-development alternatives that are more environmentally
sound than the developer’s proposals. Much of this assistance has focused
on analyzing the potential adverse affects on surface and groundwater quality
of acid mine drainage from tailings pond discharges and runoff from waste
rock piles.
Dave was the author of Chapter 2: Ensuring Environmentally Responsible Mining
CATHERINE COUMANS, Ph.D.
Dr. Coumans is Research Coordinator and responsible for the Asia-Pacific
Program at MiningWatch Canada. MiningWatch Canada is a non-profit organization
supported by environmental, social justice, Aboriginal and labour organisations
from across Canada.
As Research Coordinator, Catherine has supervised Canadian and international
research projects and authored peer reviewed reports on topics such as full
cost accounting for mining, revitalizing economies of mining dependent communities,
and participatory health research with women in mining communities and with
women mine workers. Her publications in journals and books on mining include
a chapter in Moving Mountains: Communities Confront Mining and Globalization;
The Case Against Submarine Tailings Disposal, in Mining Environmental Management;
Research on Contested Ground: Women, Mining & Health, in Pimatisiwin;
and Canadian Companies in the Philippines: Placer Dome, in Undermining the
Forests.
Catherine works with regional Non-Governmental Organizations and, in most
cases, directly with mining affected communities in India, Burma, Thailand,
Indonesia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea and Kanaky-New Caledonia. Her
work has particularly focused on indigenous peoples affected by Canadian
mining companies in this region. She has provided expert testimony on mining
in two congressional inquiries in the Philippines, as well as before the
Constitutional Court in Indonesian.
Catherine’s academic engagement with mining’s impact on communities
dates back to her Ph.D. research on the island of Marinduque in the Philippines
in 1988-1990. She holds an M.Sc. (London School of Economics) and a Ph.D.
(McMaster University) in Cultural Anthropology and carried out Postdoctoral
research at Cornell University. She has taught at Cornell and McMaster.
Catherine is the author of Chapter 3 and its associated appendixes.