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A summary of this dialogue is now available (below). Thank you for your participation in this dialogue!

In this dialogue, participants discussed the ways in which communities dealing with resource extraction can anticipate and prevent conflicts with commercial and governmental actors while empowering themselves in an increasingly globalized environment.  The goals of the dialogue were to evaluate tactics with which we turn the tables and shift the power back to the communities, and ensure that resource extraction benefits the community.

New Tactics hosted this dialogue with the help and engagement of students from the University of St. Thomas Conflict Resolution course.

The featured resource practitioners for this dialogue included:

• Shova Thapa Karki - author of "Drivers of illegal resource extraction: An analysis of Bardia National Park, Nepal," United Kingdom
• Julia DeGraw, the Northwest Organizer for Food & Water Watch working on a campaign to keep Nestle out of Cascade Locks, Oregon, United States
• Ramsey Hart - Canada Program Coordinator for MiningWatch Canada
• Lisa Schirch, Ph.D. - 3D Security Initiative Director and Professor of Peacebuilding at the Eastern Mennonite University, United States
• Viviane Weitzner - manager of North-South Institute's research project “Exploring Indigenous Perspectives to Consultation and Engagement within the Mining Sector of Latin America and the Caribbean,” Canada
• Leonor Hurtado - Food First Fellow in the United States and previously worked with the National Front Against Mining in Guatemala
• Stu Levit from the Center for Science in Public Participation, United States
• Mike Klein, Ed.D. - instructor of the Conflict Resolution course at the University of St. Thomas, United States
• Jaybee Garganera of Alyansa Tigil Mina, Philippines
• Beth Gerstein of Brilliant Earth

Summary

Participants considered the following questions:

• What ingredients in resource extraction situations create a recipe for conflict?
• How can we turn the tables and shift the power back to the communities?
• What new opportunities and new challenges do these human rights defenders face?
• What resources have you found to be helpful that you can share with others?

What ingredients in resource extraction situations create a recipe for conflict?

Three recurring elements contribute to the recipe for conflict in resource extraction situations: (1) the absence of community consent, (2) the division of communities as a result of said situations, (3) the disparity between laws governing resource extraction and reality. Companies often enter indigenous communities without prior consultation, triggering conflict. Furthermore, companies benefit from dividing the community by promising benefits to certain subsections, and undermining community empowerment efforts. Finally, though many countries—such as the Philippines—have laws to prevent abuse, these regulations frequently remain unenforced leaving communities with the stated right to their resources but no means of securing them.

How can we turn the tables and shift the power back to the communities?

In shifting power back to the community, it is important to emphasize accountability. This specifically addresses issues of consent and shifts power back into the community. Sometimes this occurs through contacting specific levels of government, other times communities themselves must create the mechanisms for accountability.

Key to the process of turning the tables is community regulation and organization. Communities must have a developed and organized plan that establishes priorities and affords a range of tactics such as dialogues, negotiations, international allies, media, court action, and more. Food & Water Watch shared their use of various tactics fighting Nestlé Waters. Other participants noted the success in formally designating “sacred sites” to protect certain resources. Finally, educating both company shareholders and consumers can be an effect way of putting outside pressure on companies and governments to change their approach to resource extraction.

What new opportunities and new challenges do these human rights defenders face?

The participants cited a variety of ongoing challenges:

• The contradictions between companies’, governments’, and communities’ priorities (i.e. financial motivators for the first two often outweigh and contradict those values of a community).
• Low prices often draw consumers to products from companies that fail to respect the rights of the communities in which they extract the necessary resources.
• An ongoing absence of enforcement of laws and community rights allows companies to violate or skirt regulations.

In response to these challenges, they came up with the following opportunities and next steps:

• One of the key opportunities is the use of social media to educate consumers and shareholders. Blogs, texts, and consumer campaigns allow communities to reach a broader audience than ever before and subsequently challenge the balance of power between local actors and the giant extraction industry.
• Guidelines such as the Kimberly Process can be expanded and applied to other resources to ensure standards for extraction
• Collaboration between efforts both regionally and internationally through documentation and sharing of tactics

Resources

New Tactics Resources

• Dialogues:
  • Corporate Accountability Beyond Borders: Exploring home states’ efforts to protect against business-related human rights abuses—New Tactics’ Nancy Pearson connects these tactics
• Tactics:
  • Labeling products to assure consumers child labor was not used—New Tactics’ Nancy Pearson connects these tactics
  • Developing international monitoring and labeling coalitions—New Tactics’ Nancy Pearson connects these tactics 
• Notebooks:
  • Leveraging the Money: Enforcing human rights by influencing financial institutions—New Tactics’ Nancy Pearson connects these tactics
  • Recipe for Dialogue: Corporate training for building relationships with Indigenous communities—New Tactics’ Kristin Antin connects these tactics
  • Together We Are Stronger: Peru's National Coordinating Coalition on Human Rights—New Tactics’ Kristin Antin connects these tactics

Online Resources/Documents

• Association of Nepalese Indigenous Journalists (ANIJ)
• Convention N°169 of the International Labour Organisation
• Fairtrade International—“Fairtrade/Fairmined certified gold gives new hope to miners”
• Impact Benefit Agreement Research Network
• Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance
  • "Finding Common Ground: Indigenous people and their association with the mining sector"
• Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR)
• International Institute for Environment and Development
• Kothmale Community Radio in Sri Lanka
• The  OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises
  • Guide to the OECD guidelines for multinationals enterprises' complaint procedure 
• The Taku River Tlingit Mining Policy
• The Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights

[Photo: Negotiation between Occidental Petroleum and the Secoya, Ecuador; by Jim Oldham/Las Lianas Resource Center]