Emily Greenspan, policy and advocacy advisor at Oxfam America, blogs about the importance of free, prior and informed consent from local communities as oil, gas and mining projects are planned in their backyards. Community consent has come up repeatedly in the past year, notably in the debates over the Keystone XL pipeline in the United States and copper mining in southern Peru, where environmental concerns have slowed or stopped progress on large-scale projects.
But community participation and consultation does not always guarantee genuine community consent.
In 2010, Peru proposed a consultation law following violent clashes over indigenous opposition to massive hydrocarbon projects in the Amazon. Throughout the drafting of the law, the definition of "consent" was an ongoing source of debate. Representatives of local communities argued that omitting a strong provision for community consent—or veto—would allow the state to force its way if an agreement could not be reached. Then-President Alan Garcia argued that the consent provision would interfere with investment, and sought to exclude certain populations from the roster of "indigenous peoples" entitled to consultation.
Peru's new government, which has announced its goal of improved relations between government, industry and local communities, enshrined the right to consultation in law in July 2011. However, questions remain, as RWI's Latin America team noted earlier this year.
There's a stark difference between a mandate that governments and companies must consult communities in resource rich areas, and any obligation to honor those communities' wishes. Still, the trend towards giving greater consideration to local populations is having an impact. This year, groups in the U.S. raised strong environmental objections to the Keystone XL pipeline, planned to run from Canada to the Gulf Coast. Vocal protests resulted in the U.S. State Department postponing any decision on the project and led the operating company to propose route changes at the local level.
"By committing to securing the Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) of communities affected by oil, gas and mining projects, governments and companies can take an important step towards preventing social conflict and promoting a stable climate for investment," Greenspan writes. "When adequately implemented, FPIC ensures that communities have the opportunity to approve or reject projects. FPIC is a basic right for indigenous peoples under international law, and as a principle should also be applied to other communities whose land and natural resources stand to be impacted by oil, gas or mining projects."
Oxfam America is a long-time RWI partner and a key member of the Publish What You Pay U.S. coalition advocating for the new company disclosure rules in the Dodd-Frank financial reforms.
FPIC does not Equal Non-Indigenous Community Consent