Statement of Intent indicates willingness to develop dialogue

Last year, Sitra has held a series of discussions with the mining industry and its stakeholders. The need for closer co-operation is widely recognised by all. At the initial stage, Sitra invited four key stakeholders of the mining industry to participate in the start-up team, in order to plan co-operation and prepare the work of the Network for Sustainable Mining. Sitra provides support and resources for the work.

The start-up team members are Mr Pekka Suomela of the Finnish Association of Extractive Resources Industry (FinnMin), Mr Eero Yrjö-Koskinen of the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation (FANC), Mr Pauli Takala of the Finnish Metalworkers’ Union and Mrs Maiju Hyry of the Regional Council of Lapland.

In collaboration with this start-up team, we prepared a Statement of Intent (SOI) aimed at establishing the Network for Sustainable Mining. The start-up team and Sitra signed the SOI on 27 February 2014. This is an expression of the parties’ intent to co-operate, build dialogue and commit to compliance with mutually agreed principles.

A Statement of Intent is a commonly used, tried-and-tested method of beginning co-operation between different stakeholders. Other sectors have successfully used a similar method to build co-operation between different stakeholders, for instance in promoting the sustainable production of palm oil.

The principles of responsibility included in the Statement of Intent are based on internationally acknowledged standards.