Certification schemes for natural resource extraction have received considerable attention during the last decade. Aware of such schemes’ potential restrictions to market access and their influence on the development of non-governmental standards, the trade regime has a particular interest in illuminating the angles of these initiatives, particularly as the applicability of the WTO’s Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade to non-governmental certification schemes still remains the object of debate.
This brief will not attempt to answer these more general questions, but will present two certification designs for mining: the voluntary UNEP Cyanide Code and the governmental certification scheme for raw diamonds. First, however, a short overview of the problems associated with mining and the drivers of certification schemes.