About Us

OUR MISSION

To provide a shared database of credible, competent, and trustworthy experts to organizations that support Indigenous communities and other communities affected by mining

The Find An Independent Mining Expert (FAIME) Database is an online collection of global experts available to provide services to Indigenous communities and other communities affected by mining, and to the organizations that support them. FAIME securely catalogues individuals and groups with diverse skill sets and technical expertise related to mining. FAIME further facilitates contact between experts, organizations, and communities that are seeking expertise.

The database seeks to increase access to scientific, socio-economic, legal and technical services to better prevent and mitigate environmental, social and economic impacts of mining on behalf of non-industry clients. The information stored in the database is not public and is only accessible to primary project partners who have agreed to our privacy and confidentiality policies.

A Secure Database

FAIME provides a secure central database for organizations that support affected communities to find and hire an expert

A Tool for Experts

FAIME provides a tool for scientists and experts to offer their services to non-industry clients, such as non-governmental and Indigenous organizations

A Global Initiative

We are a collaborative effort of organizations representing various global regions and we enable experts to share learning and opportunities, regardless of their location.

A Resource for Non-Industry Clients

FAIME increases access to scientific, socio-economic, legal, and technical services to better prevent impacts of mining on behalf of non-industry clients.

OUR vision

A world in which Indigenous communities and other mining-affected communities and organizations can access credible, competent and trustworthy experts

FAIME experts can assist Indigenous and other mining-affected communities in addressing new and existing mining projects and policies affecting their territories and wellbeing.

This includes access to information, informed consultation and negotiation, and enforcement of rights, including to give or withhold consent (the right to say no). FAIME experts are capable of working with respect for community and Indigenous Knowledge.

Mining and climate change

An emerging conflict exists between growing renewable energy generation and storage capacity – which is urgently needed to reduce anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions – and the destructive social and environmental effects resulting from the mining of the metals and minerals required to create that capacity. To mitigate that conflict, it is important to develop, promote, and enforce ways to reduce demand for both energy and materials, as well as to improve practices and instigate stricter regulation of mining and material uses.

Climate change is linked to extreme meteorological events and brings increased uncertainty and risks with regard to water scarcity and water quality. Now more than ever, mine waste safety must be addressed at both the project and policy levels. The FAIME database helps address these realities by connecting organizations and mining-affected communities with credible, competent and trustworthy experts available to provide needed support while ensuring transparency regarding their experience, expertise and ability to work with respect for local and Indigenous Knowledge.

OUR COMMITMENT

Our commitment to the rights of Indigenous Peoples

FAIME partners are committed to respect the inherent and internationally recognized rights of Indigenous Peoples, including the rights to self-determination and to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC), as provided in the American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (ADRIP) and by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). FAIME partners recognize that, as a result of colonization, the doctrine of discovery and its legacy of discriminatory

legal and political systems, Indigenous Peoples have been forcefully dispossessed of their lands, territories, and resources. Indigenous Peoples do not view the lands, the ecosystems, the water, the plants, and the animals as simple ‘resources’ to be extracted, but as ‘gifts’ of the Creator that must be respected. Indigenous Peoples worldwide have sustained the greatest losses and violations of their rights from extractive activities and related businesses.

Indigenous & non-Indigenous
sciences working together

"Measures should be taken to ensure that Indigenous Peoples have access to studies on the potential human rights impact of proposed projects that would affect their territories; those studies should be conducted by independent entities in accordance with international standards and taking into account the Indigenous Peoples’ knowledge of their environment."

Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples

Conducted visits in the Americas, Africa, Asia-Pacific and throughout the World from 2014 to 2020

"Given the inadequacies of the States’ environmental assessment processes, our Nations had to develop their own review process that was built on the principle of 'Walking on Two Legs,' based on our Nations' and on Western’s sciences and knowledge systems, in a way that respects our perspectives, laws, and customs. In this process, the knowledge and support from Western science experts, many of whom are now part of the FAIME database, was as crucial as those of our Elders, hunters, and medicine people, and of our rich collective knowledge and history that go back millennia"

kukpi7 (Chief) Ronald E. Ignace

Skeetchestn Indian Band and Stk’emlupsemc te Secwepemc Nation (Canada)

“Dealing with one of the oldest, largest and most complex Superfund Sites in the country, LEAD Agency has struggled against federal and state agencies who have failed, over decades, to protect our communities from off-site exposure to contaminants. With the help from both science and legal experts, who are now among those listed on the FAIME database, we have been able to push the agencies in a better direction, and advance our cleanup position in a more powerful way, bringing justice to this area where 10 tribes are impacted by these abandoned lead and zinc mines”

Earl Hatley (Missisquoi Band Abenaki Nation)

President LEAD Agency, Oklahoma, USA

Our team

The FAIME Management Committee consists of representatives from various FAIME partner organizations, technical experts who participate as observers, and FAIME operational staff members. The FAIME Management Committee supports the operations of the database and ensures adherence to FAIME's mission, vision, and values.