Within the past 25 years, the amount of sand traded has increased six-fold, mostly due to high demands in the Asia Pacific region [5][7], with half of the worldwide demand currently being driven by China [1][8]. Additionally, the high demand in sand and gravel – especially by regions with fewer sand resources – is estimated to increase by 5.5 per cent each year following “urbanization and infrastructure development trends” [7].
Sand extraction consists of three phases: Extraction, Transportation and Sale. Independent contractors or legitimate companies are responsible for mining activities. The extraction phase is the least lucrative one, which is why local villagers are mostly responsible for the extraction work. The second phase is transportation, carried out by contractors or mining companies. The extracted sand and gravel are then bought from transporters and sold to builders; this process is regularly connected to “political elites” [2]. Furthermore, political parties are considered a complicit in sand extraction [5]. Due to high transportation costs, most of the extracted sand is consumed regionally [2].
Already, the growing demand for sand – because of growing overall population, urbanisation, and economic growth – cannot be met by the amount of existing sand resources [2]. Extraction activities would not be a big problem in itself, if it were not for the increasing demand in sand and therefore the increase in mining activities. Most mining activities take place in remote or impoverished areas. Also, barriers to the entry into the sand mining business are considered low because no mines are required [5].
Extraction of sand, both legally and illegally, has been reported within biodiversity reserves and otherwise protected areas, leading to the invasion and threat of marine and freshwater habitats. Illegal sand mining activities are reported to occur in about 70 countries worldwide, often with the support of local governments [4]. Because the continuing unsustainable extraction of sand and gravel harms multiple freshwater, marine and coastal ecosystems [7], sand mining is framed “one of our major global sustainability challenges of this century” [2].
Worldwide, many areas have already been heavily exploited in recent years, which is why licit supply of sand and gravel are insufficient [5]. Additionally, bans on the export of sand have led to the appearance of sand smuggling practices [9]. Smuggling practices build a foundation for black market trade [1], because sand trade is recognised as a lucrative business [3]. The World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) estimates that 32 to 50 billion tonnes of sand and gravel are extracted and traded each year [4]. Other sources speak of about 40 to 50 billion tonnes every year [2][3][9], “double the amount of sediments being replenished naturally […] by the sum of the world’s rivers” [1]. Of these estimated 40 billion tonnes, merely 15 billion are traded through legal trade, estimated to make up a total of US$70 billion each year [9]. Illegally traded sand generates estimated US$17 million each month [12].
Not much official data and general knowledge is available on sand extraction and its trade in most parts. Both are to be found solely in a few developed countries only. Additionally, sand is poorly traceable within supply chains. Reporting on accurate data and the sharing of such is not available, neither nationally nor internationally [2]. However, because sand extraction and cement production rates possess a positive correlation and the amount of produced cement is reported on, estimates are possible to make [2][5]. The sand mining business is particularly non-transparent, because it is a fragmented and informal industry, especially when it comes to knowledge concerning the trade and export rates, for which the transparency is “extremely limited”. Especially, because it is unknown who “holds relevant data or mandates to collect relevant data” [2].
Current extraction rates already exceed natural sand resources and the rate at which sand can be replenished [2], yet the overall demand in sand within developing countries is assumed to increase even further [4]. With 58 per cent of global cement production, China is considered “the largest cement producer in the world” [4], followed by India (6.6 per cent) [2].
Dubai, a city of The United Arab Emirates, worked on land reclamation projects – constructing multiple sets of islands off the coast. With these projects, Dubai exhausted all their maritime sand resources, therefore the decision was made to import sand from Australia [1][9] to build the “Burj Khalifa tower” [3]. Singapore however, with its growing population, found itself needing more space for housing [5]. Since 1950, Singapore has expanded their land size by 22 per cent and is planning on further expansions, all while justifying this by framing it as “crucial to the city state’s economic and social future” [13]. This makes Singapore the world’s largest importer of sand [5][4][10] used for land reclamation [13][4]. The sand is mostly imported from neighbouring countries, such as Indonesia, Malaysia, and Cambodia [2]. Cambodia’s government has been accused of illegally selling sand and gravel, while trying to silence activists. Discrepancies in reported numbers by the UN on trade in sand were discovered, leading to the revelation that export of sand had been taking place without proper documentation to avoid taxes [14]. Even though some countries have reduced the amounts of exported sand or put bans in place [2][4][5][10], official import and export numbers still do not match up [2][5]. Singapore is keeping the details on their sand trade confidential, calling it “a matter of national security” [13]. Malaysia banned exports to Singapore back in 1997 and Vietnam suspended sand extraction in 2009 [13]. Still, within the past years over twenty Indonesian islands have disappeared because of illegal sand extraction [2][5].
Following bans on the export of sand and gravel, a “thriving illegal trade” has been reported in mainstream media [4] because of the increase in prices for sand and gravel [5]. In India, so-called sand mafias – who provide “unlawfully mined sand from inlands and riverbeds” [12] - are flourishing [2][5][3][9]. This topic first came to attention around 2013, because of increasing media coverage in India. Sand mafia activities are characterised as a type of organised crime. Unfortunately, there is no single sand mafia. Instead, it is a collective term for actors who are involved in the illegal or extra-legal extraction of sand and gravel [5]. Sand mafias are loosely structured without an existing “overarching structure”. Additionally, memberships are transient [12]. Therefore, the activities are not coordinated and close to every Indian province may have “multiple and competing sand mafias”. Within the Indian media, the term is used for actors who threaten others who oppose the illicit extraction of sand [5]. There have been reports of bribery [9][13] and killings [1][15] of police officials, threats and violence used against workers from NGOs, targeted killings of journalists and other acts of violence against farmers and activists [5]. Also, conflicts among sand mafias have led to the deaths of “hundreds of people” [15].
The increasing willingness to use violence against others, makes their activities a “law-and-order threat”. And because of the sand mafias overseas business, it is considered a transnational organised crime [5]. It is not completely clear, why the sand mafia has had an increase in activity within the past years. India’s economy has grown rapidly in the mid-2000s, the demand in housing has increased and therefore the demand in sand. The levels of sand mining activities have increased and with it the number of disposable incomes. Despite its negative impacts, it should be considered that it serves a “necessary social purpose in India”. People from marginalised groups within the Indian population, who get a job outside the formal sector, get a chance to earn their livelihoods [5].
However, sand extraction is not always conducted by sand mafias or other criminal groups. Besides criminal actors who work within hierarchical structures, self-organised work by villagers is present. This work is deemed to be both the result and cause of poverty, especially in rural areas because of “environmental degradation” [5]. Sand mining is an attractive job, because workers earn wages that are higher than the national average [5][16]. Still, people working at sand mining sites are working inside an unregulated sector [2]. They are permanently risking their safety and lives. Officials apparently “turn a blind eye” to “small scale” sand mining, as it is seen as an opportunity for poor villagers to build proper housing [5]. However, legitimate mining companies, who exceed their “terms of licensing” and trade more sand than allowed [2], are also involved in illicit sand trading. Additionally, illicit mining is facilitated by “political patronage” which causes harm to local communities [5].
Internationally recognised “anti-sand mining” activism, led by the NGO “Awaaz Foundation” since 2004, resulted in policy changes in India [16]. Since then, the impacts of sand mining activities have been recognised internationally [16], with the UN first acknowledging the issue in a 2014 publication [17]. The NGO “Mother Nature Cambodia” began their investigation into the extraction and exportation of sand along Cambodian coastal lines in 2015 after local activists have had to “face fines, exile, beatings and imprisonment for seeking to tell the truth”. They uncovered that sand mining companies “had been flouting rules for years with total impunity”; Extraction activities took place “outside designated areas”, or sand was mined deeper than their permits allowed. The NGOs activism got national media involved. Even though, numerous protesters were arrested and later sentenced, their activism led to a “temporary ban on further dredging and exports of sand” that was put in place. In June of 2017 sand mining in Cambodia was officially banned [14].
