The World Bank says as demand for critical minerals is set to surge 500 percent by 2050, along with growing demand for land, the need to secure indigenous peoples’ land tenure has never been more urgent.
The bank argues that while governments and companies can play a vital role in addressing development challenges when they engage indigenous peoples as partners and respect their rights to self-determination, many countries fail to formally recognise vast areas of land held and managed by Indigenous groups.
In a blog posted on Tuesday on the bank’s website, the bank said by taking action to secure existing land tenure and strengthen land systems, mineral-rich economies can reduce the risk of land conflicts, attract investment, promote sustainable use of land, and prevent the displacement of local landholders.
Reads the blog in part: “Clear and enforceable land rights are essential to regulating mining transparently and upholding the rights of landholders.
“Strong land tenure systems are also a building block for secure minerals supply chains and can open the door to global markets, which increasingly prefer responsibly sourced critical minerals.”
The global shift towards renewable energy and electrification has led to a surge in demand for minerals such as graphite, titanium, uranium, and rare earth elements, all of which are found in abundance in Malawi.
Despite its vast potential, the multilateral bank earlier noted that government has limited experience administering large mining projects, and concerns around weak governance, lengthy permitting processes, and uncertain regulatory frameworks deter investors.
The Mines and Minerals Act and related regulations have been amended six times since 1981 to strengthen legal oversight of the extractive industry, while laws such as the 2017 Environment Management Act and the 2022 Land Act aim to protect people and the environment.
However, there were no large-scale mining operations in the country when most of these laws were drafted. Speaking at the opening of the Mining Investment Forum in Lilongwe last week, President Lazarus Chakwera ordered officials in the mining sector to embrace transparency and accountability in transactions and ensure that Malawians are not given raw mining deals.
“Our minerals are a matter of national security and there is no better security than putting things in the light,” he said.
Malawi Chamber of Mines and Energy president Maxwell Kazako said that the country could leverage mining to catalyse economic transformation and promote inclusive growth.
Mining is part of the Chakwera administration’s ATMM Strategy comprising Agriculture, Tourism, Mining and Manufacturing around which government expects to build the nation’s economy.
Currently, the sector contributes just 0.7 percent to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) and 3.5 percent to national revenues.
But with extraction and processing expected to start this year and early next year, authorities now project that the sector could account for over 10 percent of GDP and generate up to $40 billion in cumulative export earnings between 2025 and 2040.
