Who gains from saving nature
Ledger 1 : 33 — For each dollar financing nature-based solutions in 2023, about $33 financed activities harmful to nature. (UNEP)
Cases / Mining · Zimbabwe · 2008–2025

Marange diamonds and the Kimberley Process (Zimbabwe)

Nature's voice · report
No measurement of the harm done to me here is on record.
Did nature suffer? Not measured.
People
  • More than 200 people died.
    Miners reported killed at Marange by the army; Human Rights Watch, 2009. The government denied it.
  • More than 1,000 people were displaced or listed for relocation.
    Families moved from the diamond field, 2009–2013, per a local organisation.
Not on record
  • The record does not name which of my species, waters, soils or forests were harmed.
What the record lacks: 2 none on record · 2 not measured · 2 disputed See the gaps

Human Rights Watch reported that soldiers killed more than 200 miners at the Marange diamond field in 2008. The Kimberley Process approved Marange exports in 2011, because its definition of a conflict diamond covers only rebel financing.

200+Miners reported killed by the army at Marange, 2008
Figure as reported by Human Rights Watch (2009); the government denied it.

Status As of November 2025: the Kimberley Process definition of conflict diamonds still covers only rebel financing after a third failed attempt to widen it.

What?
Soldiers were reported to have killed miners at the Marange diamond field in 2008; the Kimberley Process then approved Marange exports in 2011. Human Rights Watch
Where?
Marange diamond field, Zimbabwe. Human Rights Watch
When?
Killings reported for 2008; relocation 2009–2013; export approval December 2011. The Ecologist
Who?
Gained
  • Holders of Marange diamonds certified for export — Access to certified export; the sources reviewed give no amounts. The Ecologist
Lost
  • Miners reported killed; families moved from the field — Lives; homes. Promised water and electricity were still absent in the local record. Human Rights Watch
Harmed
None on record
Why?
The Kimberley Process definition of a conflict diamond covers only rebel financing, so violence by a state's army was outside it. IPIS
How?
The scheme certified exports under its existing definition; Global Witness left the scheme in protest. The Ecologist
6 of 6 questions answered from the record

What happened

The record, in order.

In June 2009 Human Rights Watch published a report on the Marange diamond field in Zimbabwe. It reported that more than 200 miners had been killed there in 2008, and that the army was responsible. The Zimbabwean government denied the account.

In December 2011 the Kimberley Process, the certification scheme for rough diamonds, approved exports of diamonds from Marange. The Ecologist reported that Global Witness left the scheme as a result, saying that it laundered diamonds from Marange.

The Kimberley Process defines a conflict diamond only as one that finances rebels fighting governments. Killings by a state's own army fall outside that definition. An effort to widen the definition failed to reach agreement for the third time in November 2025, according to a civil-society account.

A local organisation recorded that more than a thousand families were moved from the diamond field between 2009 and 2013. According to the same record, the water and electricity promised to them had still not been provided.

  1. 2008Army reported to have killed more than 200 miners at Marange (Human Rights Watch, 2009); the government denied it
  2. 2009Human Rights Watch report on Marange published (26 June); families begin to be moved from the field (to 2013, per a local organisation)
  3. 2011Kimberley Process approves Marange exports; Global Witness leaves the scheme (December)
  4. 2025Third attempt to widen the Kimberley Process definition of conflict diamonds ends without agreement (November)

What was said

Claims, in the words of those who made them.

Where accounts differ

Each party's account, side by side, with its source. The record does not settle these points; it shows them.

Were more than 200 miners killed by the army at Marange in 2008?
Communities and civil society
Human Rights Watch

Reported more than 200 dead at Marange in 2008 and held the army responsible.

Human Rights Watch
Government and regulators
Government of Zimbabwe

Denied the account.

Human Rights Watch
Should Marange diamonds have been certified for export?
Standard-setters and registries
Kimberley Process

Approved Marange exports in December 2011.

The Ecologist
Communities and civil society
Global Witness

Left the scheme, saying the certification system launders diamonds.

Global Witness
Communities and civil society
IPIS and a civil-society coalition

Called for a wider definition of conflict diamonds; the definition covers only rebel financing.

IPIS

How it looked

What was shown, beside what was recorded.

Shown

  • Diamonds from Marange were certified for export under the Kimberley Process in 2011.
    Kimberley Process, as reported by The Ecologist · The Ecologist

Recorded

  • Human Rights Watch reported more than 200 miners killed at Marange in 2008, by the army.
    Human Rights Watch
  • The Kimberley Process definition of a conflict diamond covers only rebel financing against governments.
    IPIS
  • More than 1,000 families moved from the diamond field in 2009–2013; promised water and electricity not delivered (record of a local organisation).

Who gained

Money that reached nature, beside money that stayed elsewhere.

Reached nature or the ground

Not published
No figure published.

Gained elsewhere

Not totalled
Currency: USD · Window: n/a. All figures cover the same period. * Estimate built from cited figures.

Responses on record

  • zimbabwe-government (2009): Denied the account of killings at Marange. · Human Rights Watch

In court and with insurers

Every proceeding and every insurer decision on record.

Lawsuits and rulings

No court case on record. No court has ruled on this case.

Insurers

No insurer decision on record.

What nature saw

Outcomes measured on the ground, and nature's note.

Nature's report opens this page. Below: further outcomes measured on the ground.

Kimberley Process definition of conflict diamond
Rebel financing only
Army killings fall outside it (IPIS)
Marange exports approved
2011
Three years after the killings reported for 2008

What we don't know

Undisclosed, unproven, untried: recorded as data.
No court caseNo independent ecological evaluationDeaths reportedDisplacement reported

Nature

  • Not measured Harm to nature: No independent ecological evaluation is on record.

Court

Accounts

  • Disputed Were more than 200 miners killed by the army at Marange in 2008?
  • Disputed Should Marange diamonds have been certified for export?

Record

  • Not measured The sources reviewed contain no measurement of ecological damage at Marange.
  • None on record The sources reviewed give no figure for the value of diamonds exported from Marange after approval.

Did the harm stop?

The sources reviewed do not say whether killings at Marange stopped after 2011.

Who paid?

Miners reported killed in 2008 and families reported moved between 2009 and 2013.

Sources

Voices on record: — Company or project— Government and regulators— Courts✓ Press and investigations✓ Communities and civil society— Researchers

Press and investigations

Communities and civil society

Connected cases

Related matters, and cases linked to this one through the same organisations, with the role each played in both.
Terms used on this page

Carbon and conservation finance

Voluntary carbon market
Trade in carbon credits bought by choice, mostly by companies, outside legally binding emission schemes.
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