Fair Trade Diamonds Or Conflict Free Diamonds?
As it stands, the certifying bodies are grappling with standards. To qualify as a fair trade product the item in question must comply with several conditions. Supreme amongst them are the requirements that:
1. The product is harvested, produced, and/or processed by labour that is not abused in terms of pay and/or working conditions, and,
2. The community implicated in those stages of the production benefits from the acquisition of the product through a premium on its retail that pays for an improvement in the community’s welfare.
If it were up to the first condition alone, all Canadian diamonds would have qualified for certification as labour conditions in Canada are progressive and apply to all workers regardless of community affiliation, geographical location or otherwise.
The catch is the second condition. There is no premium directed by retailers towards benefiting those implicated in the mining and processing of diamonds in Canada.
Is any of them close in spirit to the fair-trade certification concept?
There is one company that stands out as the closest. Igloo Diamonds allocate a hefty donation from the actual markup of the sale of each and every diamond to the clearing of a plot within a minefield in Mozambique in Africa. Unlike others that might allocate “5% of the profit” to a cause that might be tantamount to nothing through creative accounting, here is an actual donation per sale. Igloo do it through the UN affiliate of “Adopt-a-Minefield” and the diamond and its buyer are granted also a certificate and a map, indicating the plot’s size and location. All the diamonds are Canadian Diamonds, with Igloo’s certificate of Canadian Origin.
While the official Fair-Trade certification program requires that the community at the source of the product benefits from a premium allocated from its final sale, Igloo Diamonds source non conflict Canadian diamonds and benefit, a community in a region of the world affected by abusive diamond sourcing, namely, Africa. Thus, two communities are positively affected by Igloo Diamonds activity: the mining and extracting community employed in the mining and processing operations in Canada, as well as a community in a remote Mozambican community, where a landmine is being cleared, a land is being rehabilitated, useful again, workable again, accessible again, passable again… Igloo self-defines itself as the new “not for profit only” brand.
Igloo diamonds seem to be the world’s first pro-actively ethical diamonds retailer. You cannot get any closer to the spirit of the fair-trade movement in the diamond world than Igloo Diamonds.
The above being said, it becomes clear also that Fair Trade might not be that fair to a trader. Initiatives such Igloo, albeit embodying the spirit of the Fair Trade movement still do not qualify to be certified as such…
As for “Conflict Free diamonds’, this label does not coincide in its denotation with “Fair Trade Diamonds’. All that is required of a conflict-free diamond is to originate, in a traceable manner, in a part of the world where it sponsors no military brutality etc.
Igloo Diamonds purchases their Canadian Diamonds only from suppliers who are subscribers to the Code of Ethics of Canadian Diamonds where the source and traceability of these ethical diamonds are guarantied. Canadian diamonds (the likes used by Igloo Diamonds) are clearly Conflict free diamonds.
One thing cannot be denied: the example of Igloo Diamonds embodies the closest one gets to a bona-fide Fair-Trade product in the world of diamonds, and the good they do in Africa through a reputable international organization is undeniable either.
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Fair Trade Diamonds Or Conflict Free Diamonds?
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