2. For purposes of these Guidelines, ‘artisanal or small-scale mining’ refers to mining practised by individuals, groups or communities, with low technology, and often informally or outside of the regulations which apply to commercial scale mining.3 3. ‘Environment’ as used in Article 24 of the African Charter refers to the natural surroundings including the soil, the flora and fauna, the air and water bodies as well as the living species in such water bodies on which people depend not only for their survival but also for the sustenance and improvement of their wellbeing.4 4. For purposes of these Guidelines the term ‘extractive industries’ refers broadly to the operations by private or State actors, usually at a commercial scale, of mining or extraction of natural resources for economic gain. In the narrow sense it refers to oil, gas and other mining industries and the activities involved in these industries.5 The scope of the term ‘extractive industries’ is accordingly the activities of the companies or enterprises through which non-renewable resources such as oil, metals, coal, stone and gas are obtained from under the ground, however, to the extent that it is applicable, it also includes other exploitation of resources, such as industrial logging and massive agricultural undertakings for the production of biofuel.6 5. ‘Exploitation’ in this context refers to all activities that enable actors and stakeholders to engage in business in first, secondary and tertiary sectors in relation to the natural resources and other forms of wealth, and includes extraction, production, commercialization and exports of natural resources.7. 6. For purposes of these Guidelines, apart from its reference to the entire population of a State,8 the term ‘peoples’ under Articles 21 and 24 of the African Charter refers to a group of individuals having a common identity on account of objective markers of shared language, racial or ethnic makeup, historical experience, religious, cultural or ideological affinity, connection to a particular territory and the subjective manifestations of self-identification and awareness as a distinct group possessing of shared identity.9 Peoples are therefore not to be equated solely with ‘Nation’ or ‘State’, but include subnational groups including communities of a particular region exhibiting the above characteristics, or people whose resources are exploited under foreign occupation.10 Local communities or individuals who are most immediately State Reporting Guidelines and Principles  | 11