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Abstract
Johannesburg Plan of Implementation identified three priority areas to
ensure sustainability in mining, one of which is enhance the
participation of stakeholders. This paper aims to assess the effectiveness
of Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) as community engagement
method in public consultation of the Environmental Impact Assessment
by comparing with the conventional method performance.
Participation rate was higher in the PRA. Moreover, more than 60% and
9% of the PRA attendee were community and indigenous leaders, and
women respectively, while in the conventional method, village
headman, officials, and councils dominated the event by more than
50%, but no women represent the group. The PRA succeed to obviously
identify that each villages has its own particular preferences which
remain unclear in the conventional method. Thus, the method was
effective to increase participation of indigenous communities and
women, as well as the quality of engagement, which essential to
sustainability in mining sector.
Keywords:
Participatory Rural Appraisal, Community Engagement, Participation
Rate, Indigenous Communities and Women, Sustainability in Mining
Sustainable Mining: Concept and Measures
How to apply sustainability concept in mining as the project will
eventually be closed due to its non-renewable resources? How to
implement sustainability to an activity that its very nature against the
sustainable development characteristic as mining operations
characterized by removing without replacing, having major impacts on
the local environment, and on the communities around the mines
themselves? (the guardian, 2012). These two basic problems are mostly
discussed in sustainability discussions in mining sector.
Revised:
Online Publication Date:
Page 22
Page 23
while in the conventional method, village headman, Furthermore, the comparison of concern level of main
officials, and councils dominated the event by 11 issues related to mining activities between PRA and
people, or more than 50% of the participants. The Conventional Method are presented in figure 2.
difference is largely due to the nature of the program,
where the PRA organized informally and in the
PRA
Conventional
community, whereas the conventional method took
place formally in a government office.
4,76% 0,00%
2,73%
9,09%
PRA
3
27
70
10
110
24,55%
42,86%
52,38%
63,64%
Method
Conventional
9
11
1
0
21
Page 24
However, the real challenge of many operating mines http://www.theguardian.com/sustainableis mostly less associated with legal license. In fact, as
business/blog/responsible-mininga mine commence, social issue tends to emerging
live-discussion Retrieved January
more. An effective community engagement may lead
15, 2014.
the company to appropriately deal with the issue, and
as a result, to earn and maintain its social license.
Understanding this, the application of PRA in the
public consultation had helped the company to
identify a legitimate issue that was neglected in the
conventional method.
Lessons Learned
Even though there are no clear rules about how to
perform public consultation, it is important that the
process remains innovative and flexible. The use of
PRA illustrated that a serious community
engagement will result more reliable inputs to the
mining firm. Compared with the conventional
method, the PRA delivered understandable
identification of the environment characteristics,
local and indigenous community values and
aspirations to the project. The method was effective
to
increase
public
participation
and
representativeness rate of particularly indigenous
communities and women, as well as to address the
legitimate issues that may prevent the mining firm
from having conflict in the future. This may
eventually lead to the development of sustainability
in Indonesian mining sector.
References
IISM. (2014). Public Consultation Report of Bauxite
Mining EIA Project. Unpublished manuscript.
MMSD Project. (2012). Breaking New Ground.
International Institute for Environment and
Development and World Business Council for
Sustainable Development. UK.
http://www.fao.org/docrep/v8350e/v8350e06.htm#pu
blic participation Retrieved August 13, 2014
http://www.sacome.org.au/policy-andadvocacy/environment-a-social/communityengagement.html Retrieved August 13, 2014
http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/index.php?men
u=230 Retrieved January 13, 2014.