By the Witness Radio Team
The global rush to secure minerals for the clean-energy transition is exposing local and indigenous communities to land dispossession, conflicts, human rights abuses or violations, and attacks on those who challenge mining projects, according to a new report by the Business & Human Rights Resource Center (BHRRC).
The report, Mining for the Future, Undermining Trust: Participation Deficit at the Heart of the Energy Transition, warns that growing demand for minerals like copper, lithium, nickel, and other transition minerals is advancing faster than mechanisms to ensure affected communities have a meaningful say in decisions about mining projects on their land.
Tanzania is among the African countries positioning itself as a future supplier of minerals needed for the global energy transition. The country has significant potential for graphite, nickel and rare earth elements, while investor interest is growing in minerals used in batteries and renewable-energy technologies.
In Kandaskira, a village in Simanjiro District, the drive to extract these minerals raises deep worries about land loss, water scarcity, forced displacement, and exclusion from decisions shaping their future.
Indigenous rights organization PINGO’s Forum has documented land conflicts, fears of forced displacement, risks of water contamination, and exclusion of communities from negotiations with mining companies around graphite projects. It also recorded unfulfilled corporate social responsibility promises, violence against community members resisting mining projects, and gender-based violence.
Rombo Ole, chairman of Kandaskira, said communities need clear information about the opportunities and potential impacts of the energy transition. He also called for transparent laws, procedures, and fair compensation for people whose land, livelihoods, or resources are affected.
“A just energy transition is important because energy is about people and communities. The transition must put people at the center and ensure no community is left behind or unfairly affected,” Rombo said.
Kandaskira’s story echoes a broader struggle faced by communities living near transition-mineral projects worldwide.
According to the BHRRC report, the resulting “participation deficit” risks undermining public trust and could fuel conflicts, lawsuits, and delays to projects supporting the global transition away from fossil fuels.
“The energy transition cannot be built on the silencing or exclusion of the people and communities who bear its costs,” the report argues.
The findings come as demand for transition minerals is projected to rise sharply in coming decades. The report estimates that by 2040, the share of global mineral demand for the energy transition could rise from 20% to 45% for copper, 38% to 92% for lithium, and below 10% to 54% for nickel.
As demand surges, so do the dangers for those who challenge mining projects.
The report documents over 1,880 attacks against critics of the mining sector in 11 years, highlighting a shrinking civic space around mining activities.
It identifies 1,226 allegations of abuse connected to transition-mineral mining since 2010. About one in six involved attacks on human-rights defenders, while 25 cases involved strategic lawsuits against public participation, known as SLAPPs.
The report says more than a third of human-rights defenders murdered over the past decade were raising concerns about mining, while close to 40% were Indigenous defenders.
The findings come against a broader deterioration in civic space globally. According to the report, only seven percent of the world’s population currently live in countries where civic space is considered free or relatively open.
The report says restrictions on civic freedoms make it harder for communities, journalists, environmental defenders, and human-rights organizations to scrutinize mining projects or challenge decisions affecting their land and livelihoods.
The report recorded at least 173 cases in 2024 and 2025 where communities or workers pushed back against abuses linked to the energy transition.
It identified 125 legal cases brought by people affected by abusive energy-transition projects. Eighty-nine involved transition-mineral mining, while 71 lawsuits targeted states for authorizing business activities.
The report calls on governments to protect civic freedoms and human-rights defenders, strengthen Indigenous rights and free, prior and informed consent, improve transparency around mining contracts and licenses, and ensure that affected communities have meaningful influence over decisions.
It also calls on mining companies and investors to conduct human-rights due diligence, establish effective grievance mechanisms, disclose project information, provide fair compensation and benefit-sharing, and commit to zero tolerance for attacks against human-rights defenders.
The report warns that unless communities have a meaningful role in mining decisions, the rush to build a clean-energy future could deepen the very conflicts and inequalities the transition is meant to address.
