
Autumn in Bajkas. Photo: Jan Erik Länta
What’s in a Social License to Mine?
Indigenous, industry, and government best practices for social innovation.
The project aims to develop tools to manage Swedish land use conflicts involving the mining industry, indigenous communities and the state by drawing on Canadian comparison and experience. Sweden saw an increase in contestation over mine establishments, particularly related to indigenous rights and land use, in recent years. Consequently, the government and affected actors call for knowledge and practices to avoid mining related conflicts. One response is the need for mineral developers to gain a Social License to Operate from local communities. However, the interplay between the established regulatory framework and the extra legislative SLO related activities and commitments are not well researched.
The project objective is to compare social licensing and mine establishment across Swedish and Canadian jurisdictions, explore the role of the regulatory framework, and identify well-functioning practices in relation to indigenous rights and land use. Five cases in Sweden and Canada will be explored using governance and institutional theory.
This project (project No. 2017-02226) has received funding from the national Swedish Strategic Innovation Program STRIM, a collaborative effort by Vinnova, Formas and the Swedish Energy Agency
List of publications
Scientific publications
MacPhail, F., Beland Lindahl, K. and Bowles, P. 2022. Why do Mines Fail to Obtain a Social License to Operate? External link.: Insights from the Proposed Kallak Iron Mine (Sweden) and the Prosperity/New Prosperity Gold–Copper Mine (Canada). Environmental Management 2022. Special Section: Social license to mine: best practices.
Wilson, Gary N. and Christina Allard, ”Institutional Determinants of Mining Projects in Canada and Sweden: Insights from the Prosperity and Kallak Cases External link.”. Environmental Management 2022. Special Section: Social license to mine: best practices.
Allard, Christina and Deborah Curran, “Indigenous Influence and Engagement in Mining Permitting in British Columbia, Canada: Lessons for Sweden and Norway? External link.” Environmental Management 2021. Special Section: Social license to mine: best practices.
Allard, Christina, “Sami Land Rights: Recent Developments in Swedish Case External link, opens in new window.” European Yearbook of Minority Issues, 2022 (Vol. 19/2020): s. 221–238.
Poelzer, Gregory A., Poelzer, Gregory A., Poelzer, Greg, Noble, Bram: “Community as Governor: Exploring the role of Community between Industry and Government in SLO” External link. Environmental Management 2023
Poelzer, Gregory A. “Corporate Engagement Strategies in Northern Mining: Boliden, Sweden and Cameco, Canada External link.”. Environmental Management 2023
Jackson, Sarah, Poelzer, Gregory A, Poelzer, Gregory A, Noble, Bram: “Mining and Sustainability in the Circumpolar North: The Role of Government in Advancing Corporate Social Responsibility External link.”, Environmental Management 2023
Beland Lindahl, K., Wilson G. N., Allard C, Poelzer G To Approve or not to Approve? A Comparative Analysis of State-Company-Indigenous Community Interactions in Mining in Canada and Sweden External link, opens in new window.”, Environmental Management 2024
Popular publications
Beland Lindahl, K., Allard, C., Poelzer, G. A., Poelzer, G., Frimpong, R., Noble, B., Wilson, G., Bowles, P. and McPhail, F. 2022. What’s in a Social License to Mine? Indigenous rights, rules and company-community engagement. Learning from Canadian – Swedish comparison External link, opens in new window.. Popular summary of research results in English, Swedish and North Sami, Swedish version with recommendations to Swedish politicians and decision makers
Beland Lindahl, K., Allard, C., Poelzer, G. A., Poelzer, G. Gruvindustri och urfolk: Rättigheter, regelverk och arbetssätt: En jämförelse mellan Sverige och Kanada i syfte att lära External link, opens in new window.
Beland Lindahl, K., Allard, C., Poelzer, G. A., Poelzer, G.
Ruvkeindustriija ja vuoigatvuođat, njuolggausat ja bargovierut: Buohtastahttin Ruoŧa ja Kanada gaskkas oahppama váras External link, opens in new window.
Beland Lindahl, K., Allard, C., Poelzer, G. A., Poelzer, G., Frimpong, R., Noble, B., Wilson, G., Bowles, P. and McPhail, F. 2022. What’s in a Social License to Mine? Indigenous rights, rules and company-community engagement. Popular Case Descriptions,
Poelzer, G., Frimpong, R., Noble, B., Wilson, G., Bowles, P., McPhail, F. and Poelzer, G. A. What’s in a Social License to Mine? Indigenous, Industry, and Government Best Practices for Social Innovation. Popular summary of research results
Project Reports
Owusua Frimpong, R. 2020. What is in a Social License to Mine? Indigenous Communities, Industry, and Government Best Practices for Social Innovation. A Project Submitted to the College Of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies In Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Sustainable Environmental Management In the School of Environment and Sustainability, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon.
On-line SLO Toolkit
Company – Indigenous Community Engagement Toolkit. Practical advice for the mineral industry and Indigenous communities.
This research has received funding from the Vinnova project “What’s in a Social License to Mine? Indigenous, Industry and Government Best Practices for Social Innovation” (project No. 2017-02226), which is part of the national Swedish Strategic Innovation Program STRIM, a collaborative effort by Vinnova, Formas and the Swedish Energy Agency
This toolkit is designed to assist building relationships between mineral exploration and mining companies and Indigenous communities. Navigating the potential issues that arise out of mineral exploitation is central to ensuring affected parties are treated fairly and as community partners. While the tools are primarily oriented to industry, they are intended to provide information pertinent to all actors engaged in on-going or potential mining operations. The toolkit provides simple and practical tips, sharing best practices.
Importantly, the content of the tools is intended to be interpreted and applied in a manner suitable to the context. Each of the tools contain background information and, sometimes, examples of application but they are fundamentally built around the intent or ‘spirit’ of the tool. It is also intended to exist as a living document, with new tips added as new issues and practices arise through input from industry and Indigenous actors.
The toolkit is divided into two parts. The first section of tools covers general issues, applicable to all actors. It includes tools that give important background information on conduct and context that fit into scenarios where industry will engage with Indigenous communities. The second section contains tools that provide practical advice from industry, for industry. These tools are derived from best industry practices which companies want to share. The first contribution comes from Cameco, a company with longstanding experience of working with Indigenous communities in northern Saskatchewan where long term mutually beneficial relationships exist.
Section 1: General Tools
TOOL: Corporate Ethics
The societal demands on mining companies continue to grow, forcing a shift in corporate practices. For a business to be considered ethical, it must balance pursuing profit and fulfilling social responsibilities. Pressure to respond to the socio-political environment – increased demands for corporations to bear greater responsibility for their impacts – spurred mining companies to create voluntary codes of conduct, both individually and in industry-based groups 1. Voluntary codes of conduct, and the governance and ethics practices that emanate from them, represent values that seek to address some of the societal concerns associated with the operations of the company – an alignment of corporate and community values. Thus, the way a company treats its stakeholders, particularly actors affected by operations, reflects its ethical standards.
As a result, the leadership of companies continuously adjusts governance and conduct to meet the demands beyond profit generation including, but not limited to, their social and environmental impacts. These changes in the daily operations of exploration and mining companies reflect the influence of actors beyond investors and have for example led companies to adopt stakeholder management practices that incorporated non-economic factors into decision-making. From the business viewpoint, this ethical approach to operations translates to developing solutions that take cognizance of the public’s concerns while being economically efficient. This activity is critical to engender public trust through reputation, which also helps in avoiding being tainted for bad conduct of other companies 2.
The outcome of corporate ethics can come in many forms and permeate all kinds of interaction, from open-ended consultations to agreements that requires negotiation between the company and affected stakeholders.
Five Important Things to Know
1. Corporate ethics are the principles by which a company operates, particularly in relation to their key stakeholders.
2. Defining corporate values is common within the mining industry where criticism of negatives externalities (socio-environmental harm, land use competition) is relatively high.
3. Ethical principles are often codified in a code of conduct or similar document to communicate their strategies and procedures to avoid and/or mitigate negative impacts.
4. Corporate ethics are intended to protect both the company and affected stakeholders when difficulties or disagreements arise, allowing negotiation towards solutions to continue in good faith.
5. The timing of consultation and negotiation in the project development cycle has implications for transparency and the balance of power in the negotiation process,
trust is built upon early and open communication that responds to Indigenous perspectives and needs.
Five Important Things to Do
1. Include Indigenous input in the development of corporate ethics and company protocol and share these corporate guidelines with affected stakeholders.
2. Clarify the roles and relationships when entering into extra legislative? consultations, agreements and other, regulatory processes such as environmental impact assessment and project permitting.
3. Engage in consultations and negotiations in good faith, understanding that participating in the dialogue? does not imply a stakeholder’s consent for the proposed development project.
4. Ensure that sufficient financial and human resources are available for stakeholders to meaningfully engage in consultations, negotiations and related processes, including resources for meetings, expertise and local information gathering.
5. Include dispute resolution mechanisms as part of agreements, such that both parties are clear on the procedures to follow should conflicts arise or commitments are not met.
Authors: Gregory Poelzer
Footnotes
1 Paton, B. (2000), ‘‘Voluntary environmental initiatives and sustainable industry’’, Business Strategy and
the Environment, Vol. 9 No. 5, pp. 328-38.
2 Sethi, S.P. (2003a), ‘‘Globalization and the good corporation: a need for proactive co-existence’’, Journal
of Business Ethics, Vol. 43 Nos 1/2, pp. 21-31.
TOOL: Recognizing Indigenous Rights and Engagement
Tool 1.2: Recognizing Indigenous Rights and Engagement
Mineral extraction often occurs on traditional Indigenous land. To follow national laws and respect Indigenous rights are paramount for all mining companies who wish to explore the possibility of ore extraction, but also for companies continuing their operations. Companies, therefore, must understand and respect the existing Indigenous land and resource rights while also being cognizant of the existing best practices with Indigenous communities.
Indigenous rights differ depending on the jurisdiction. Some offer constitutional recognition of Indigenous peoples and, as such, rights are protected by the legal system. In Canada, the Duty to Consult Indigenous peoples flows from this constitutional recognition and is developed through case law from the Supreme Court of Canada and other courts on provincial levels. This Duty to Consult is intimately tied to user and ownership rights around land, which both overlap with mining operations and infrastructure. In other jurisdictions, Indigenous rights are linked specifically to traditional livelihoods and cultural practices. In Sweden, the Indigenous Sami population is recognized by the constitution but find property rights primarily tied to reindeer herding, but also other land use activities such hunting and fishing. However, these rights are exclusive to members of reindeer herding communities. Again, because many of these Indigenous rights place land use at the forefront, it is imperative that mining companies understand how these rights fit into planned or existing operations. In all cases, mining companies need to be aware of any contestation over Indigenous rights, particularly related to resource extraction and land use, in the jurisdiction they plan to operate.
However, understanding the suite of Indigenous rights in any mining jurisdiction, is only one part of the company-Indigenous relationship. Mining companies need to go beyond the legislative requirements to build trust with Indigenous communities, including an understanding of their vision and values. When they engage early and often with communities, companies develop on-the ground knowledge and a connection to the community, including a better understanding of community needs, aspirations and implementation of rights. Proactive development of a local engagement strategy, led by respected people with Indigenous background or expertise from within the company, has been shown to be instrumental to strong company-community relationships and building trust, for example in northern Saskatchewan. Such relationships can help implement and realize Indigenous rights in a mining context.
Further, companies need to consider continuity in terms of ‘who’ is leading company-community engagement, as this becomes key to building and maintaining trust with communities. Indigenous communities need to be respected, valued, and involved in deciding how their territory and resources should be developed (or not) to protect the elements that define their identity (language, culture, livelihood). Company-community partnerships are likely to become mutually appreciated and successful when predicated on strong personal relationships, trust and supported by institutions protecting Indigenous rights.
Five Important Things to Know
1. Engagement with Indigenous communities should focus on understanding the rights, vision, values, and needs of the community and build trust
2. Companies need to understand both the legal context and existing best practices within the jurisdiction they plan on operating
3. Indigenous rights create the background through which mining companies understand their legal obligations to Indigenous communities affected be operations, including where the current suite of rights is contested.
4. Rights to land and water will likely play an important role in the planning and development of mining operations and must be respected while exploring solutions to use land for different industrial and cultural activities.
5. Continuity and frequency in engagement are important for building mutual understanding of Indigenous rights and maintaining trust with communities.
Five Important Things to Do
1. Acquire proper knowledge and understanding of the Indigenous rights that pertain to potential mining operations and its effects
2. Work with already active companies and Indigenous representatives, or experts, to understand both the legal and non-legal requirements and community expectations
3. Companies should be proactive in their approach to community engagement, looking for opportunities to understand community understandings of rights, vision and values, along with building partnerships beyond legislation.
4. Employ Indigenous community members, or experts, to help develop and implement corporate strategy in ways that are aligned with Indigenous rights and Indigenous communities’ understandings.
5. Develop both formal and informal lines of communication with communities to build trust and mutual understanding through regularly scheduled meetings and keeping in touch on day-to-day matters.
Authors: Gregory Poelzer
TOOL: Community Engagement
Tool 1.3: Community Engagement
Strong company to community relations are built upon good engagement practices. Across the mining sector, the importance of participation in decision making 1 and the ability to have influence in both process and outcome is critical. The identification of communities in proximity to mineral exploration and mining operations is one of the fundamental pieces to begin community engagement and set a tone of understanding and responsiveness to the needs of the communities potentially affected by a mine project.
The community concept is commonly used in the mining industry to indicate the geographic community in its area of interest. However, companies should be aware of the range of community actors affected by operations, beyond geographic proximity. Strong community engagement processes are usually based on the inclusion and engagement of the range of affected community actors, and entering into formal agreements with Indigenous communities and/or rights holders. The engagement process is very important because the industry seeks views on how the local community is constituted from a broad cross-section of people and that engagement processes are tailored accordingly. Early engagement with communities in the design and implementation of the industry's process increases the process's legitimacy and provide knowledge of community aspirations and needs. Through timely and respectful engagement with Indigenous communities and rightsholders, industry can establish and maintain positive relationships. If appropriate and mutually desirable, industry can sign community-based agreements that provide the communities with positive benefits when/if communities give consent to operations. Community engagement can also include building partnerships and strengthening networks between different groups and organizations so that there is a sense of shared focus for achieving agreed outcomes.
Five Important Things to know
- Conducting in-depth community consultations and, if appropriate, negotiations with affected local and Indigenous communities/groups before regulated consultations is a good way to explore possible mutual interests. Make sure all consultations and negotiations follow agreed protocols and best practices regarding representation, participation, facilitation, documentation, capacity and resposinveness.
- There should be mutual understanding between the company and the Indigenous community concerning impacts on, and measures to protect, he community's socio-economic, cultural, and environmental assets such as wildlife, fish habitat and culturally/economically significant sites. A private agreement ? can identify action that the industry will take to enhance and protect Indigenous communities and their culture and support traditional hunting, fishing, and trapping activities.
- Ensure Indigenous communities and industry priorities are addressed and establish programs supporting community needs and mutually agreed engagement goals such as community tours, local community websites, community forums, and project-specific engagement programs.
- Regarding environmental protection, the community engagement process can set out the management measures that are agreed to mitigate impacts and protect the environment including Indigenous participation in environmental monitoring, if desired. Community engagement complements the legal Environmental Impact Asessement and monitoring processes.
- Foster relations with Indigenous communities and establish trust. This means that representatives should sit at the table, provide feedback, and identify and resolve issues and differences in an open manner. Being open includes asking for concerns and agreeing to disagree. Responsiveness includes respecting the views of Indigenous communities and (only?) pursuing solutions that are mutually agreeable.
Five Important Things to Do
- Industry should start early and continue the consultation and communication initiatives throughout the project to maintain transparency, respectful, and mutually beneficial community relations.
- To confirm social acceptability of its operations, industry must discuss and develop mutually agreed community engagement protocol with communities, intended to establish and support long-term, productive work relations based on mutual trust and respect.
- Formal agreements should highlight the parties' agreement on participation, collaboration, discussion, and communication. This can be achieved by creating a committee to monitor compliance with the agreement. This committee can for example include representatives of Indigenous communities and the industry and indicate the number of times they shall meet in a year.
- The industry can enter into a framework agreement with affected communities that includes both contacts related to mining activities (as above) and support for Indigenous businesses (see Benefit Agreements).
- Ensuring that all activities, in cooperation with Indigenous partners, comply with all environmental legislation and regulations in the community in which the industry operates.
Authors: Rosette Frimpong, Gregory Poelzer, Greg Poelzer, Bram Noble
Footnote
1 Conde, M., Le Billon, P., 2017. Why do some communities resist mining projects while others do not? Extr. Ind. Soc. 4 (3), 681–697.
TOOL: Environmental Impact Assessment
Tool 1.4: Environmental Impact Assessment
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), also referred to as environmental assessment (EA) or simply impact assessment, is the process of identifying, predicting, evaluating, and mitigating the biophysical, social, and other relevant impacts of development proposals prior to major decisions being taken and commitments made.1 Projects or physical undertakings are the dominant focus of EIA, though other forms of impact assessment provisions and practice do exist including at the regional (land use, multi-sectoral) and policy level.
The basic idea behind EIA is quite simple - ‘look before you leap’ - with the process serving an important information gathering and analytical role to inform decision makers but also developers, communities, and other interests about the potential impacts of proposed mine developments. In the long-term, EIA is one of many public policy instruments indented to promote sustainable resource development. Although biophysical impacts are often the focus, the scope of factors considered in EIA has broadened considerably in recent years to include such factors as cultural impacts, Indigenous rights, social and economic impacts, human health, and gender-based impacts.
EIA is not about preventing development, but neither is it about securing a development permit. Rather, EIA serves an important technical, regulatory, communications, decision support, and impact management role. EIA identifies and evaluates the potential impacts of proposed development actions and proposes strategies for managing those impacts; ensures that projects comply with regulatory standards, laws, and authorizations; provides an opportunity for public input; informs decision-makers about whether a proposed development is in the public and environmental interest; and provides a framework for ongoing environmental management following the consent decision for development.
EIA systems vary as to how they are set up and organized and do not contain the same design features or requirements. The complexity of any single EIA application varies depending on the regulatory and project context. Generally, however, most EIA systems are comprised of a series of systematic steps:
Pre-EIA planning → Project proponents and responsible authorities engage in early consultations with potentially impacted communities and interests. A project description is prepared that presents the project’s objectives, design, and its need.
Screening → A determination is made as to whether an EIA is required and, if so, the responsible authorities and other applicable laws and regulations.
Scoping → The scope of the assessment is determined, including the affected components to be considered, and a baseline assessment is completed to identify changes over time and key drivers and indicators of change relevant in the project’s local and regional environment.
Impact identification → The project’s potential impacts are identified and characterized, including cumulative impacts, based on trends analysis, modelling, scenarios, and scientific and local knowledge.
Impact management → Strategies are identified for managing potentially adverse impacts and creating or enhancing positive ones.
Significance determination → After impact management strategies are considered, and assuming their effectiveness, the significance of any residual impacts is assessed considering the vulnerability, irreplaceability, values, regulatory standards, and other factors that apply to the potentially affected components.
Environmental impact statement review → The project proponent or responsible authority prepares a report of the impact analysis, which is typically made available for public review and comment.
Decision → A responsible authority, usually a minister, director or other elected official, decides as to whether the project can proceed and, if so, under what conditions.
Implementation and follow-up → Project development proceeds and a follow-up program is implemented to verify the effectiveness of impact management strategies and to monitor for potentially adverse impacts.
Five Important Things to Know
1. Different stakeholders and rightsholders can have different understandings and expectations about EIA, including its purpose and role and influence on the decision outcome. It is important that roles, responsibilities, and the procedure is clear to everybody involved.
2. Some of the issues and concerns that communities and interest groups raise when projects are proposed are about policies, land use planning, or benefits sharing, and may need to be addressed before or parallel to EIA, through other processes or negotiation tools.
3. Assessing the cumulative impacts of a project on the biophysical and social environment is central to understanding the significance of a project’s impacts; since project impacts do not occur in isolation of other past, present, and future impacts and disturbances.
4. Early and ongoing engagement of affected communities and rightsholders can lead to reduced project and EIA delays, and to innovative and community-appropriate impact management solutions.
5. EIA does not end when a project is approved; on-going monitoring, impact management, and communications with local communities and interests is essential to effective and transparent EIA.
Five Important Things to Do
1. Understand the context in which the project is being proposed, including EIA regulations and guidelines, consultation requirements, local or regional land use policies, plans or bylaws, and industry standards or best-practices.
2. Clarify the roles and responsibilities of the different parties involved, including regulators, proponents, consultants, communities, and other interests, to ensure that expectations about the EIA process, timelines, and engagement are clear.
3. Ensure early engagement of potentially affected communities and interests in defining the scope and focus of EIA and provide opportunities for traditional and local knowledge integration, participation and input throughout the EIA process. Make sure input from Indigenous communities is fairly addressed and represented in the final assessment report.
4. Follow the impact mitigation hierarchy when determining how best to manage project impacts, from creating or enhancing positive impact, avoiding negative impacts, minimizing or reducing adverse impacts that cannot be avoided, restoring or remediating where impacts cannot be reduced, to compensating for impacts that cannot be remediated.
5. Develop a follow-up and monitoring plan that addresses how anticipated and unanticipated impacts will be managed, and that provides opportunities for meaningful engagement of, and reporting to, potentially impacted communities.
Authors: Bram Noble, Greg Poelzer, Rosette Frimpong, Gregory Poelzer
Additional Resources
International Association for Impact Assessment https://www.iaia.org/ External link, opens in new window.
Footnote
1 IAIA & IEA 1999. Principles of environmental impact assessment best practice. Fargo, ND: IAIA
TOOL: Surface Lease Agreement
Tool 1.5: Surface Lease Agreements
Several tools are available to governments looking to facilitate socio-economic sustainability for communities sharing land with resource development, one such policy option is Surface Lease Agreements, used in many countries. Surface Lease Agreements (SLAs) are usually instituted by the Government to ensure that social and economic benefits are distributed to traditional land users (Indigenous communities). SLA plays a major role in the development of policy and practices. Industries operating in Indigenous (and sometimes non-Indigenous) communities are required to make commitments to these communities under SLAs. The agreements are typically designed to “address broader social and economic questions, such as worker health and safety protection, environmental protection, and the distribution of economic benefits”. They specifically include (1) employment policies and practices; (2) training and development programs; (3) procurement policies; and (4) monitoring provisions1. Each SLA requires the industry operator to negotiate a separate Human Resource Development Agreement for the life of the project with the government.
This establishes a collaborative approach designed to maximize recruitment, training, and advancement opportunities for Indigenous (and/or local) communities which also contributes to capacity development so that Indigenous (and/or local) communities can benefit from future development. Surface Lease Agreements can be designed in different ways to address a variety of local needs and may contain goals which evolve over time in response to changing circumstances and recommendations. The agreements allow industry to work towards achieving their goals in a way that plays to the strengths and needs of the company, particularly around local workforce. The SLAs guarantee benefits, such as compensation for lost income for traditional land users affected by development, and programs to support education, community vitality, employee services, and public involvement in nearby communities.
Five Important Things to Know
- The SLAs are typically negotiated between the parties (government and industry) and provides long-term rental of crown (state) land for industry’s operations.
- It is important to identify, establish and implement support policies that are relevant to the local context and requested by affected Indigenous communities and rights holders.
- SLAs are also legal requirements which can provide measurable goals and a structure in which companies can work towards achieving them and report on their success every year
- Transparency is central and it is important to be open and honest in communicating the agreement development, particularly as circumstances change.
- It is the government that issue SLAs and there are no prescribed requirements for SLA and each SLA may vary in its scope and term.
Five Important Things to do
- Request industry operators to report on their commitments to the government to ensure accountability, measurement, and to enable effective planning of future programs
- Industry operators are supposed to use best efforts to maximize benefits for Indigenous communities.
- If appropriate, develop training programs which can support Indigenous needs as they are identified, and so that local people, interested in working in the mining operations, can be trained quickly to meet the company’s needs.
- Ensure that the principles of negotiations are mutually acceptable by the parties.
- Focusing on priority goals—economic development, training and employment are typical priority goals – but other goals can open additional opportunities for Indigenous people in other contexts.
Authors: Greg Poelzer, Bram Noble, Rosette Frimpong, Gregory Poelzer
Footnote
1 Mine Surface Lease Agreement External link, opens in new window.
Section 2: Applied Practices
TOOL: Benefit Agreements
Tool 2.1: Benefit Agreements
Benefit agreements, also referred to as impact and benefit agreements (IBAs), negotiated agreements, mutual benefit agreements, or socio-economic agreements, are tools for both industry and communities to build lasting relationships and ensure mutual benefit from resource and infrastructure development, along with cooperative solutions to mitigating impacts. Internationally, especially in the mining sector, benefit agreements have emerged as an important, and often expected mechanism for project developers to secure Indigenous community consent to a project.1 Although agreements are sometimes tri-partite, involving the state, industry, and local community, in most instances benefit agreements are privatized, bilateral arrangements between an industry proponent (e.g. mining company) and an affected community or Indigenous group.
Benefit agreements are meant to complement, not replace, regulatory processes such as environmental impact assessment. They are negotiated for different reasons depending on the regulatory framework in place, the existing relationship between the community and the company, a community’s interests, and established Indigenous land and resource rights.2 Most often, benefit agreements are negotiated to manage adverse project impacts, secure community cooperation in development, and ensure that certain benefits from resource development accrue locally. Benefit agreements typically focus on economic and social aspects, such as guaranteed employment, local contracting, company investment in local infrastructure, or access to traditional lands and resources in the project area. Increasingly, benefit agreements in the mining sector also include provisions for local engagement in environmental and socio-economic effects monitoring post-project approval.
For local communities, especially Indigenous communities, benefit agreements provide assurance of benefits from, and influence in, development that they might not otherwise receive. Further, this opens the possibility for a variety of local stakeholders, affected by a mine project, to engage in agreement making with companies. After projects are formally approved, benefit agreements can include dispute resolution mechanisms to support an ongoing and mutually beneficial relationship between communities and companies.
The timing of benefit agreement negotiation in the lifecycle of a project proposal can vary. There are three basic windows of opportunity when agreements are negotiated in relation to regulatory environmental impact assessment and permitting processes:
- prior to commencing an environmental impact assessment process;
- during or parallel to environmental impact assessments and licensing process; or
- after a project’s environmental impact assessment is complete and the project has received regulatory approval.
Negotiated prior to the environmental impact assessment process, communities are best positioned to leverage benefits in return for their support of a project during regulatory review; however, communities are engaging in such negotiations in absence of information about the project’s potential impacts and proposed impact management solutions. For proponents, early negotiation can provide certainty (often legally binding) that the community will consent to the
project or at least not publicly challenge it during the review process. Negotiated after a project receives regulatory approval, the community is more informed about the project’s potential impacts, but they have less leverage to negotiate benefits. Ideally, agreements are negotiated parallel to the environmental impact assessment and project review process and finalized after potential impact studies are complete but before the project receives approval. Doing so ensures a more transparent and even negotiating environment for both the company and the community.
Five Important Things to Know
1. Negotiated agreements are increasingly globally seen as a routine part of doing business with Indigenous communities – especially in the mining sector.
2. Negotiated agreements are typically bilateral and legally binding, involving an individual company and an affected local stakeholder.
3. Negotiated agreements are designed to ensure mutually beneficial outcomes, typically in the form of social and economic benefits accruing to a community/stakeholder in return for the community’s support for a project but can be expanded to include other issues during the lifetime of the project.
4. The timing of benefit agreement negotiation in the project development cycle has implications for transparency and the balance of power in the negotiation process, ensuring mutual respect and understanding is critical.
5. The contents of negotiated agreements, for example with respect to employment, revenue sharing, and other financial commitments, are often confidential in nature.
Five Important Things to Do
1. Clarify the roles and relationships between benefit agreements and other, regulatory processes such as environmental impact assessment and project permitting.
2. Engage in negotiations in good faith, understanding that participating in the negotiation of a benefit agreement does not imply a stakeholder’s consent for the proposed development project.
3. Communities’ needs vary and are context dependent; be open to community requests and ensure that the community is aware of the magnitude of the project’s potential impacts before settling on the terms of a negotiated agreement and associated benefits and impact management strategies.
4. Ensure that sufficient financial and human resources are available to local communities to meaningfully engage in the negotiation of benefit agreements, including resources for community meetings and local community information gathering.
5. Include dispute resolution mechanisms as part of benefit agreements, such that both parties are clear on the procedures to follow should conflicts arise or commitments not be met.
Three General Takeaways
1. Benefit agreements represent the formalization of trust developed between companies and Indigenous communities.
2. Agreements represent the interests of both parties and should be adapted to changing circumstances.
3. The terms of negotiation used for reaching agreements should be mutually developed.
Authors: Bram Noble, Greg Poelzer, Rosette Frimpong, Gregory Poelzer
Additional Resources
IBA Community Toolkit https://gordonfoundation.ca/resource/iba-community-toolkit/
Cameco Tools
Footnotes
1 Noble BF. 2020. The relationship between Indigenous-industry agreements and environmental assessment: Enhanced credibility and collaboration, or undermining the project review process?. In Odumosu-Ayanu I., Newman D. (Ed.), Indigenous-Industry Agreements, Natural Resources, and the Law. New York: Routledge.
2 Sosa I, Keenan K. 2001. Impact Benefit Agreements Between Aboriginal Communities and Mining Companies: Their Use in Canada. Canadian Environmental Law Association.
TOOL: Social Well Being and Quality of Life
Tool 2.2: Social Well-Being and Quality of Life
Mining activities are increasingly looked upon to meet a variety of societal needs. Social well-being and quality of life requires more than the fulfillment of basic needs; it requires a sense of personal efficacy in which members of the affected local community have some control over the decisions that directly affect their living environment. Many social, economic, and cultural conditions interact to influence our health and well-being. Social well-being and quality of life should be issues addressed throughout the entire mining life cycle, from exploration and development through to post-closure so that community members can contribute to their living environment's social vitality 1. This participation could occur through health and safety committee meetings, open community forums, or other means where all members of community are welcome to bring forward their interests and opinions.
A growing voice in society demands that industry be proactive in dealing with the community and environment they operate. The widespread criticism of the industry's social and environmental practices led to the industry producing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reports available for the public. CSR reports provide the opportunity for the public to examine the core values of a company and to gain insight into the industry's culture and practices. While reporting to the public is a critical component in the work a company does to build a relationship with the community, the opportunities for the public to communicate back to the company are equally important.
Many companies have instituted programs and agreements with local communities to enhance social wellbeing, including academic awards and scholarships, apprenticeship programs and work placements, counseling and wellness, and employee and family assistance programs. The social well-being and quality of life of a community can be assessed through different programs. The industry can also contribute to wellbeing by recognising its environmental responsibility and encouraging local communities to participate in the environmental assessment and ongoing environmental monitoring activities. Companies can also distribute money to the health and wellness programs, advice and support programs, and funding for specific cultural activities such as hunting. However, it is also important that the company meets with individuals, including local trappers and communities, to assess traditional activities' importance affected by mining activities.
Five Important Things to Know
1. Understanding community sustainable development requires examining the negative impact of all industrial activities on the environment and taking steps to minimize or, where possible, eliminate the impact.
2. Annual reports can serve as benchmarks to attain higher levels of environmental performance through CSR and sustainability reports.
3. Make sure communities and their residents maintain a measure of control over the decisions that affect their immediate environment.
4. Make sure that decisions about resource exploitation, health and safety, and physical development include all relevant stakeholders' decision-making processes?.
5. Set out the fundamental principles and directions on how the industry and the community will work together for their mutual benefits.
6. Maintain a high level of environmental protection by applying practices and technologies that minimize impacts and enhance environmental quality.
Five Important Things to Do
1. Regarding environmental protection, the benefits agreement must set out the management measures for industry activities and provide Indigenous participation in environmental monitoring.
2. The benefits agreement should include financial commitments towards the social wellbeing of Indigenous communities. The benefits granted will be paid into various dedicated funds that may be used, for example, for training, social and economic development, environmental monitoring, etc.
3. Provide a forum that will ensure consideration of communities' concerns and recommendations on how the industry's development occurs in the community.
4. Establish different committees to help bridge the knowledge and information sharing gap between stakeholders, and to help monitor industry activities.
5. The industry fund pertinent professionals to undertake research and significant studies usually funded by the industry to provide unbiased reports.
Three General Takeaways
1. Assessing social well-being requires an understanding of the relationship between social and environmental health.
2. CSR reporting provides an accountability mechanism for companies to receive feedback on their impact on the community.
3. Research is an important tool for developing community indicators on social and environmental factors.
Authors: Rosette Frimpong, Gregory Poelzer, Bram Noble, Greg Poelzer
Footnotes
1 i Suopajärvi, L., Poelzer, G. A., Ejdemo, T., Klyuchnikova, E., Korchak, E., Nygaard, V. (2016) Social sustainability in northern mining communities: A study of the European North and Northwest Russia. Resources Policy, 47, 61–68.
TOOL: Workforce Development
Tool 2.3: Workforce Development
For communities in proximity, mining operations are viewed as an important booster for employment. Not only are jobs provided at the mine site, but the job multipliers related to the overall operations are important to the benefits for community 1. However, for some communities to reap the benefits of this employment growth, training and education are needed to develop local capacity. As a result, workforce development is one of the pillars commonly found in benefits agreement.
In the Canadian context, workforce development often includes training protocols, training budgets, and capacity building plans for Indigenous employee training, long-term training, existing skills upgrading, and literacy improvement. It also provides scholarships to prepare Indigenous employees for positions that require greater technical or managerial expertise. Proponents (industry) will typically provide apprenticeships, co-op programs, summer training, upgrading, and pre-employment training in advance of the project commencement so that there will be adequate time for training before the commencement of operations. This is because Indigenous people usually lack the skills and training to work in the industry. For industries, workforce development provisions can provide access to a readily available and willing labor force in an area. In contrast, for Indigenous people, these provisions are an essential benefit because they provide more direct benefits and opportunities to individual members of the Indigenous communities.
Five Important Things to Know
1. Employment is one of the key elements found in almost every benefit agreement, and it is a commitment to providing opportunities to Indigenous community members. Employment provisions can help proponents' source a local labor force, increase the benefit of mining to the community, and increase community support for the project during the mine's life.
2. A well functioning strategy to build capacity is to establish mentoring programs and on-the-job training for the local community, including Indigenous people. This should include job-specific training (non-transferable skills), industry-specific (transferable skills), general education (upgrading, high school support), and post-secondary (scholarships, bursaries). These programs are mostly funded by the industry and provide support to Indigenous communities by developing strategies to mitigate future workforce disruption, often caused by technological change.
3. There is a need to broaden the recruiting pool to include Indigenous and local communities. The employees' pool should focus more on hiring Indigenous people and ensuring that employment involves creating awareness and teaching them more about the project on their land.
4. Indigenous awareness – knowledge of livelihood and values – at the workplace help to deliver diversity training sessions at all levels of the corporation. Encourage local involvement by offering community experts and Indigenous elders or representatives a role, or by reaching out to Indigenous students and other youth programs.
5. Apprenticeships are programs for secondary or post-secondary students that help develop skills and support hands-on experience through internships. These programs provide dedicated support to the Indigenous community to help them achieve higher levels of educational certification and technical training within their chosen trade.
Five Important Things to Do
1. Any barriers that exist must be removed to increase Indigenous participation because of the negative impact on the industry that operates on their lands. Companies negotiate for 50 percent of the employment to be comprised of Aboriginal employees.
2. Training programs are to be developed in connection with Indigenous people to accommodate industry on their lands.
3. When it comes to hiring, agreements can include companies' measures to employ Indigenous people through specific targets, rolling targets, or hiring preferences. Preferential hiring for Indigenous people will help recruit and retain employees for long term work, including accommodation for flexible schedules.
4. To maximize the positive impact of provisions within benefit agreement, proponents typically agree to bear all implementing programs' costs.
5. The creation of committee boards includes a representative from both the industry and Indigenous communities to distribute funds in school and training. The industry typically provides these funds for employment and social development to the Indigenous people.
Three General Takeaways
1. Companies should be aware of existing Indigenous employment and future plans.
2. Looking for opportunities to support Indigenous employment is an important component to relationship building, including local education and training.
3. Joint boards, between companies and Indigenous communities, can facilitate collaboration on employment.
Authors: Rosette Frimpong, Gregory Poelzer, Bram Noble, Greg Poelzer
Footnotes
1 Moritz, T., Ejdemo, T., Söderholm, P. & Wårell, L. (2017). The local employment impacts of mining: an econometric analysis of job multipliers in northern Sweden. Miner Econ 30, 53–65.
TOOL: Business Development
Editor and Contact: Gregory Poelzer
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