The Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI) is an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to improving countries' governance over their natural resources (in particular oil, gas and minerals) to promote sustainable and inclusive development. The headquarters of NRGI are based in New York..
Mineral discoveries are a critical outcome of exploration activities, shaping the future availability of non-renewable resources. While prior research emphasizes the importance of geological potential and institutional quality in exploration decisions, empirical analysesAnalysis of the determinants of exploration success remain limited. This study examines the drivers of mineral discoveries using data on goldGold and copperCopper deposits alongside national-level exploration expenditures. Results reveal that exploration budgets are the primary determinant of success, while institutional quality has minimal direct impact when budgets are accounted for. Notably, findings suggest risk-seeking behavior among exploration firms, as rising marginal discovery costs exceed commodity prices. These insights underscore the need for better strategies and coordination in exploration stages to ensure the long-term availabilityLong-term availability of minerals.
This article examines the role of narratives in shaping Colombia’s energy transition debate. While the current government’s proposal to phase out fossil fuels has gained international recognition, domestic discourse remains polarised and dominated by powerful economic and political interests. These dominant narratives often marginalise alternative voices – particularly those from civil society and fossil-fuel-producing regions. In response, a participatory initiative led by the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI) and partners convened diverse social actors to co-create a metanarrative and set of alternative narratives for a just energy transition. This article explores how inclusive narratives rooted in equity and justice can counterbalance exclusionary discourses and serve as strategic tools for advancing transformative change in the energy transition pathway.
Our capacity to predict trajectories of ecosystem degradation and recovery is limited, especially when impairments are caused by multiple stressors. Recovery may be fast or slow and either complete or partial, sometimes result in novel ecosystem states or even fail completely. Here, we introduce the Asymmetric Response Concept (ARC) that provides a basis for exploring and predicting the pace and magnitude of ecological responses to, and release from, multiple stressors. The ARC holds that three key mechanisms govern population, community and ecosystem trajectories. Stress tolerance is the main mechanism determining responses to increasing stressor intensity, whereas dispersal and biotic interactions predominantly govern responses to the release from stressors. The shifting importance of these mechanisms creates asymmetries between the ecological trajectories that follow increasing and decreasing stressor intensities. This recognition helps to understand multiple stressor impacts and to predict which measures will restore communities that are resistant to restoration.
This paper reviews resource sector developments in 12 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa that made their first (major) petroleum discoveries during the most recent commodity boom. The analysis, which goes back to 2001, looks at sector forecasts of international organizations, governments, and companies and compares them with the results that emerged. The paper finds all 12 countries experienced disappointment. A third of the countries did not make any commercially viable discoveries. Among those that potentially had commercial finds, the latest timelines from discovery to production are 83 percent longer on average than initially expected. In the six countries for which there are comparable data, revenue collected thus far or the most recent revenue projections for countries yet to reach production are 63 percent lower on average than the initial forecasts. The paper also documents the various policies adopted in response to the discoveries and-with the benefit of hindsight-finds that, in some cases, this over optimism contributed to the `presource curse': suboptimal policymaking that did not align with the new realities.
This paper analyses the political paths of congresswomen in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Chile between 2009 and 2016. Their trajectories are classified according to their previous experience and the territorial levels at which they won elections before entering congress, and includes both novices and professionals. The professionals had prior political experience at either national or subnational level, with some having won re-election. Despite the countries' differing institutional structures, the vast majority held their first political position at national level in congress (novices). Among the professionals, most of them in Chile, Ecuador and Peru began their careers at national level, while in Colombia and Bolivia they began at subnational level.
