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The Community Casebook on Mining and Environment is a guide published by the Centre for Environmental Rights to empower South African communities facing mining or prospecting applications. It explains the legal framework of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA), the duties of the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR), and provides four case studies where communities used legal mechanisms—including judicial reviews and appeals—to challenge mining rights or demand financial transparency from traditional authorities.

This case study examines the application processes for prospecting and mining rights for coal on the farms Zoekop, Blyvooruitzicht, and Leewbank in the Belfast district of Mpumalanga. It highlights systemic failures in public participation, discrepancies in property designation, and the disregard of environmental constraints and state department objections by the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) and the applicants, Eyesizwe Coal (Pty) Ltd and Exarro Coal Mpumalanga (Pty) Ltd.

This case study examines the Supreme Court of Appeal's decision in KEBBLE v MINISTER OF WATER AFFAIRS (2007), where the court overturned a contempt of court order against the former directors of Stilfontein Gold Mining Company (SGM). The court ruled that the directives issued by the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry regarding the pumping and treatment of underground water in the KOSH basin were too vague and unenforceable to justify criminal sanctions for contempt.

This case study describes a legal challenge by the Mpumalanga Lakes District Protection Group (MLDPG) and landowners against a coal prospecting right granted to Khulile Mines on Farm Witkranz 53 IT in Mpumalanga. The appeal centers on inadequate stakeholder consultation, the ignoring of biodiversity designations by the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency (MTPA), and the submission of an Environmental Management Plan (EMP) containing materially false information regarding the area's topography and ecology.

This document is a legal judgement from the High Court of South Africa (North Gauteng Local Division) regarding a case brought by the Libradene Residents Association against the Minister of Mineral Resources and others. The residents sought to stop mining activities in the Libradene area, arguing that the mining was unlawful, caused significant environmental and structural damage to their properties, and violated their constitutional rights to a healthy environment and property. The court examined the validity of mining rights granted under the Minerals Act of 1991 and the subsequent Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA) of 2002, ultimately focusing on whether the mining operations complied with legal requirements and environmental regulations.

This case study details the legal challenges brought by a coalition of environmental and civil society organizations against Limpopo Coal (Pty) Ltd, a subsidiary of Coal of Africa (CoAL), regarding the establishment of the Vele colliery in Musina, Limpopo Province. The challenges span four distinct legal processes involving mining rights, environmental management programmes (EMP), water use licences (WUL), and compliance with nature reserve protections.

This case study examines the legal and environmental disputes surrounding the Ferreira mine (also known as the Penumbra mine), operated by Mashala Resources (Pty) Ltd in Ermelo, Mpumalanga. The document details allegations of illegal mining, failure to obtain necessary water and environmental licenses, and the provision of misleading information in regulatory applications, alongside conflicts over land access and compensation for adjacent landowners.

This case study examines the environmental authorization and water use licensing processes for a 'Centralized Tailings Deposition Facility' (CTDF) in Stilfontein, highlighting failures in public participation and administrative errors by government departments.

This case study examines the 1891-1892 legal dispute between the New Gordon Diamond Mining Company and the Du Toit’s Pan Mining Board. The court ruled that the Mining Board had the discretion, but not a specific statutory duty, to remove accumulated water from the mine. Consequently, the court found that the only remedy for negligence in such discretionary duties was an action for damages, rather than a mandamus to compel performance.

This case study examines the 1916 legal precedent New Heriot Gold Mining Company Limited v Union Government, which addressed the liability of a state railway for flooding a mine due to negligent infrastructure management.

This case study details a legal appeal by landowners of the farm Elandskloof against a coal prospecting right granted to Trollope Mining Services 2000 (Pty) Ltd. The document highlights systemic failures in the consultation process, the inadequacy of the Environmental Management Plan (EMP), and the failure of the Department of Minerals and Energy (DME) to ensure procedural and substantive compliance with the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA).

This report by the Centre for Environmental Rights (CER) analyzes the accessibility of environmental information in South Africa through an assessment of 98 PAIA requests and 42 formal requests made to 17 public and 35 private bodies between July 2010 and early 2012. The findings reveal a widespread culture of avoidance, delay, and non-compliance with the Promotion of Access to Information Act, 2000 (PAIA), which the CER argues fundamentally hampers the realization of constitutional environmental rights.

This case study examines the granting of a mining right and Environmental Management Programme (EMP) to Xstrata South Africa (Pty) Ltd for land in the Carolina magisterial district of Mpumalanga Province, highlighting failures in public consultation and the disregard for environmental sensitivities.

This report by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) analyzes the design of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, drawing on a case study of Joint Implementation (JI) forest projects in Costa Rica. It evaluates the technical challenges of quantifying carbon sequestration—such as baselines, leakage, and durability—and argues that the CDM must integrate strict legal and institutional safeguards to ensure that forest projects provide genuine climate benefits without undermining biodiversity or the rights of local and indigenous communities.

This report by the Center for International Environmental Law provides an overview of the risks and persecution faced by land and environmental rights defenders in 2013. It details how individuals protecting natural resources and indigenous rights are targeted by state forces and non-state actors, including corporations and organized crime, often in the context of large-scale investment projects and extractive industries.

This research paper, prepared by Matthew Stilwell for the Center for International Environmental Law and published by the World Wide Fund for Nature in October 1999, proposes the use of the Expert Panel on Trade and Sustainable Development (EPTSD) Framework to reconcile conflicts between international trade, environment, and development policies. Using the WTO Shrimp-Turtle dispute and the potential US-EU GMO labelling conflict as case studies, the paper argues that formal WTO dispute settlement is often too adversarial to resolve underlying environmental and development issues. It advocates for a staged process of dispute prevention—moving from international cooperation and consultation to third-party assisted mediation before resorting to binding arbitration—to promote policy coherence and sustainable development.

This policy brief by the Center for International Environmental Law uses the Alto Maipo Hydroelectric Project in Chile as a case study to argue for the inclusion of social safeguards, stakeholder consultation, and independent redress mechanisms in the Article 6 mechanisms of the Paris Agreement.

This guide by the Climate Bonds Initiative outlines the standards and certification process for issuing green bonds within the agriculture sector, with a specific focus on the expanding market in Brazil.

This guide outlines the Climate Bonds Standard and Certification Scheme for issuing green bonds in the bioenergy sector, with a specific focus on the Brazilian market. It details the requirements for certification, the process for issuance, and the technical criteria for identifying eligible bioenergy projects and assets.

This report by the Climate Bonds Initiative analyzes how sustainable finance taxonomies integrate mechanisms to support the transition of high-emission sectors toward net-zero emissions by 2050. It identifies six specific 'Taxonomy Transition Mechanisms' used to define and evaluate the credibility of transition activities, providing a framework for taxonomy designers, investors, and market professionals to ensure robust and science-based decarbonization pathways.