00:00The chances are, if you have a piece of lapis that was mined any time since roughly the
00:12mid-80s, that will have funded an armed group of one kind or another.
00:17Let's help defund the Taliban by boycotting lapis lazuli.
00:33Lapis lazuli is a semi-precious stone.
00:35It's a very beautiful and historically significant stone used famously in the mask of the pharaoh
00:44Tutankhamen.
00:45Seriously, though, it looks like the ocean.
00:48It is so pretty and how sparkly it is.
01:00Afghanistan is the best source of it, not quite the only source, but the best and most
01:06prolific source of lapis lazuli in the world.
01:09It is directly a source of competition between armed groups, that they fight each other for
01:16control of this resource.
01:18And that has helped to undermine both security and actually the rule of law in those areas
01:23because the groups are competing for control of the lapis, don't want to have a strong
01:28government presence.
01:29Secondly, it helps to fund those armed groups directly.
01:33And lastly, it contributes towards the huge disillusionment of the local population.
01:39So what should be a treasure for Afghanistan turns out to be a poison that really does
01:45more harm than good at the moment.
02:09People are saying this many spots are looted, this many are illegal extractions.
02:26We don't know.
02:27It's all history.
02:28The Taliban takeover of the region was to an extent driven by the lapis lazuli.
02:42I don't think a huge amount has changed on the ground because they are still taking money
02:47from the trade.
02:48But now, of course, they're doing it as a government that, in theory, controls the whole
02:55country, is a really huge geopolitical issue because the Taliban don't have very many other
03:00sources of funding.
03:01And indeed, this mineral gets on the international market, it goes out through Pakistan largely
03:06and then the bulk of it on to China and then on to the international market and certainly
03:11go on to a website from the United States and buy lapis that is coming from a China
03:17based website, but which is ultimately coming from Afghanistan.
03:22I take great pride in making sure all of my crystals are ethically sourced.
03:25And the fact that that is happening breaks my heart.
03:33What consequence is there for this mineral being such a driver of conflict?
03:38Well, at the moment, frankly, the answer is is not a lot.
03:42The real challenge is for the international community and the Afghan government itself,
03:46especially, to come up with a better response that actually creates some incentives for
03:53legal exploitation, that creates some consequences, that helps to make it harder for armed groups
03:59to fund themselves from these minerals and actually reflects the impacts they're having.
04:07And that applies not just to lapis lazuli, it applies across a whole range of minerals
04:12around the world.
04:13The world as a whole has to do much better in injecting an element of ethics and morality
04:22into international trade.
04:24And sadly, it's a long way from doing that at the moment.
