Catherine Coumans. Regulators, investors, and communities are increasingly aware of the potential environmental and social harm associated with open-pit mining projects. Local-level conflict is now commonly associated with proposed and operating mines as community members struggle to protect economic and social values of importance to them, to assert the right to refuse a mine, or to advance claims on mining companies for damages. In response, mining companies seek partnerships to help them secure a so-called social license to operate and manage risk to reputation. This essay examines the role of anthropologists, development organizations, and socially responsible investment companies in the context of conflicts between indigenous Ipili and the Porgera Joint Venture gold mine in the highlands of Papua New Guinea. In dialogue with the mine, these corporate engagement actors define the problems to be addressed and implement solutions that may impede the agency of the Ipili by not reflecting and advancing Ipili claims on the mine, providing information and advice regarding the community to the company (where it often becomes proprietary), lending legitimacy to corporate social responsibility strategies, and remaining silent about the environmental and human rights abuses to which they become privy.
We need to think about whether development brings any benefits to those who are largely self-sufficient – like many of the world's 150 million tribal people
Canadian mining company Nautilus Minerals Inc.
(Nautilus) is set to embark on the unprecedented
extraction of metals from the sea floor. The mining
project, known as the Solwara 1 project, will extract
gold and copper from the floor of the Bismarck Sea
in Papua New Guinea. It is the first of a potentially
large number of deep sea mining projects within the
Pacific Region, including others in the Solwara area.
The PNG LNG Project, operated by ExxonMobil subsidiary
Esso Highlands Limited, is predicted to double Papua New
Guinea’s gross domestic product and result in significant
social and economic change — both positive and negative.
The Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, James Anaya, conducted an official visit to New Caledonia, a sui generis collectivity of France, from 6 to 13 February 2011, where he visited North Province and South Province on the main island of New Caledonia, as well as Loyalty Islands Province.
The new wave of land deals is not the new investment in agriculture that millions had been waiting for. The poorest people are being hardest hit as competition for land intensifies. Oxfam’s research has revealed that residents regularly lose out to local elites and domestic or foreign investors because they lack the power to claim their rights effectively and to defend and advance their interests.
