OrganizationallearninginEIAagencies-thecaseofQuebec,Canada

1、Local development in a mining community in Southeast Brazil IAIA11 - Impact Assessme nt and Resp on sible Developme nt for I nfrastructure, Busin ess and Industry , 31st Annual Conference of the International Association for Impact Assessment. May 29 th-June 4 th, Puebla, Mexico 1. In troduct ion Th

2、e con tributi on of mining to local developme nt has bee n the subject of debate for a long time. In Brazil, the expa nsion of mining that took place in the last decade -in line with global expa nsion and in creased dema nd for min eral resources both internal and overseas -has been stimulating poli

3、tical debate about the contribution of this activity to local mun icipalities and com mun ities. This study focus on one mine situated in Southeast Brazil, examining the relati on ships betwee n the successive owners and the commu ni ty. An en vir onmen tal impact assessme nt (EIA) un dertake n in 2

4、009 (Promi ner, 2009) for the mine expansion and submitted to public consultation in March and April 2011 was an opport unity for the com mun ity to review the relati on ships betwee n the mi ning compa ny, the local gover nment and the com mun ity. 2. The Cajati mine The occurre nee of iron deposit

5、s in the “ Mine Hill wasdetected in the XIX cen tury, but it was not until the 1940s that geological prospecting detected a phosphate deposit. Mining started in 1945 after a residential camp was established alongside other in frastructure. As the reserves of residual, easily processed, ore approache

6、d depleti on, a research and developme nt effort led by Departme nt of Mining Engineering at the University of S? o Paulo resulted in the patenting of a world-first flotati on process for concen trat ing low grade apatite (a calcium phosphate), known as “Serrana process ” , from the name of the comp

7、any: Serrana S.A. de Minea?o. As the rock containing apatite also hosts a high grade of calcite, the flotation process was designed to obtain calcite as a co-product, which was stored until the con struct ion of a ceme nt pla nt in 1972. A chemical pla nt produci ng sulfuric and phosphoric acid star

8、ted afterwards. The ceme nt pla nt was sold in 1997 to a ceme nt group and in 1999, followi ng corporate restructuri ng, Serra na became Bunge Fertilizers, operat ing ano ther mi ne in Mi nas Gerais State and several other in dustrial sites. Part of the chemical pla nt-produci ng food grade phosphor

9、ic acid-was sold to ano ther compa ny and land around the in dustrial site was also sold to local developers, bringing the com mun ity closer (physically) to the mine and the in dustry. In May 2010, Bunge Fertilizers was sold to the mining company Vale, the second biggest mining compa ny in the worl

10、d, particularly strong in the iron ore market, but until then featuring no interests in the fertilizers sector. The personnel at Cajati, in cludi ng mine and pla nt man agers, rema ined fun dame ntally un cha nged after this acquisiti on. The ceme nt factory and the food grade chemical pla nt remai

11、n as in depe ndent and separate compa ni es. Waste rock is sold to ano ther compa ny for aggregates product ion. The project described in the en vir onmen tal impact study (EIS) further expa nds the mine, its waste rock dumps and tailings ponds for 25 years. The former hill is now the pit bottom, at

12、 100 m below sea level, which is scheduled to reach -270m in 25 years. Continuity afterwards is likely and alternatives include further deepening of the pit or an underground mine. The mine is located in the least economically developed region of S?o Paulo State which is also a key area for biodiver

13、sity conservation, featuring significant remnants of the original tropical rainforest interconnected by preserved areas. 3. The Cajati municipality and its region Although S? o Paulo State features the highest economic performance in Brazil, the Ribeira Valley region, where Cajati is located, did no

14、t benefit from the tremendous growth observed during the first half of the XX century, largely due to the expansion of coffee plantation. The Ribeira remained reliant on subsistence agriculture until recently and still features a relatively large rural population. While the percentage of rural dwell

15、ers is 6% for the State, in Cajati, 27 % of the total population is rural and in neighbouring Barra do Turvo and Eldorado, the rural population is, respectively, 59% and 51%. The most important economic activity in the region is banana growing. Cajati is a new municipality, incorporated in 1991, fol

16、lowing a public referendum that led to its separation from Jacupiranga. At that time, Cajati was 23,822, out of which 51% lived in the urban zone. In the year 2000, its total population reached 29,227 and most growth was in the urban zone, as the percentage of population living in the urban area was

17、 72%. Ten years later, the total population decreased to 28,371. Its origins are closely related to the mine, growing from a mining village to a small urban centre in the 1960s and 70s until its population outstripped the population living in Jacupiranga. In the early 1960s, Cajati was a mining cent

18、re featuring about 500 inhabitants and provided with services unavailable in the region, including a movie theatre and a sports club. In his essay on regional geography of the Lower Ribeira Valley, Petrone (1966) favorably compares the quality of life of Cajati with neighbor communities. In the 1970

19、s, Serrana managers proposed to the Jacupiranga municipality a partnership to develop land for housing aimed at the company workforce. The intention was twofold: to provide affordable housing to employees and to limit population growth in the mine surroundings. The first set of 250 houses was actual

20、ly built, but the original plan to raise two other similar blocks never prospered and many employees and their families stayed in Cajati, which, in turn, expanded without any form of urban planning. This far-reaching initiative, although unsuccessful, contrasts with the management decision in the 19

21、90s of disinvesting property, which opened up a new subdivision to low income families vey close to the industrial unit. 4. Socioeconomic indicators for Cajati As part of a joint research encompassing ten mine communities in Brazil, the study about Cajati intended to look at a series of local socioe

22、conomic indicators, by comparison with indicators for neighbouring municipalities (where mining is not an economic activity) and average State and national indicators. A selection of indicators will be summarizes here. A Human Development Index (HDI) for municipalities is calculated in Brazil with d

23、ata collected in the decennial censuses, using the same criteria adopted by the United Nations Development Programme. Data obtained in the 2010 census, however, were not yet available at the time of writing. Table 1 shows the HDI for Cajati, neighbouring municipalities, the State and the national av

24、erage, for 1991 and 2000. There is a clear improveme nt everywhere. Cajati features in dexes below both State and national average and above neighbouring municipalities. Table 1 -Huma n Developme nt In dex en tity Global Educati on Life expecta ncy In come 1991 2000 1991 2000 1991 2000 1991 2000 Caj

25、ati 0.700 0.751 0.723 0.807 0.773 0.814 0.605 0.631 Jacupira nga 0.714 0.760 0.797 0.830 0.695 0.743 0.650 d 0.706 ” Eldorado 0.683 0.733 0.742 0.823 0.662 0.743 0.645 0.633 Barra Turvo 0.595 0.663 0.609 0.755 0.644 0.670 0.533 d 0.563 ” S?o Paulo 0.778 0.820 0.837 0.901 0.730 0.770 0.766 0.790 Braz

26、il 0.696 0.766 0.745 0.849 0.662 0.727 0.742 0.723 source: PNUD (2000) -Atlas do Desenvolvimento Humano.Bras lia. Ano ther in dex developed in Brazil for the sake of comparis on and follow-up among municipalities (known as “ Firjan index featur)s data for 2006 and 2007 (Table 2), and is useful for c

27、omparing Cajati with its neighbours and the State and national average. This in dex departs from the UNEP HDI by con sideri ng a doze n parameters to make up the global in dex. Firja n in dex was selected for compari ng the ten muni cipalities in cluded in the project. Table 2 - Firjan ” Development

28、 Index en tity Global Educati on Health In come 2006 2007 2006 2007 2006 2007 2006 2007 1 Cajati 0.741 0.739 0.784 0.805 0.735 0.755 0.703 0.657 Jacupira nga 0.691 0.659 0.805 0.776 0.775 0.745 0.495 丁 0.497 Eldorado 0.626 0.662 0.806 0.793 0.744 0.763 0.327 0.430 Barra Turvo 0.679 0.661 0.746 0.722

29、 0.786 0.786 0.504 d 0.476 1 S?o Paulo 0.864 0.870 0.838 0.870 0.864 0.870 0.889 0.869 Brazil 0.738 0.748 0.679 0.708 0.770 0.783 0.764 0.754 source: Firja n, provided by Cetem - Cen tro de Tecno logia Mineral Cajati global index is above its neighbors, but below the State average. In terms of educa

30、tion and health, Cajati ranks lower than neighbors, except for the tiny rural Barra do Turvo, whose economy is based on subsistenee. Data from the 1991 cen sus showed that Cajati populatio n featured an average schooli ng of only 3.3 years -compared to 4.3 in Jacupiranga. Nine year later, years of s

31、chooling in Cajati raised to 4.7, but Jacupiranga remained ahead with 5.5 years. In 2000, 75% of Cajati population featured less than 8 years at school, while the State average was 56%. The low schooling rates for Cajati are in contrast with data analyzed by Enriquez (2008), who found that the popul

32、ation of Brazilian mining municipalities featured higher schooli ng tha n non mining muni cipalities. Local finan ces have bee n a matter of con flict betwee n the compa ny and the municipality. Bunge legally challenged the payment of mining royalties established by the Federal Con stituti on of 198

33、8. Such a positi on defi nitely did not con tribute to the public image of the company in Cajati, not only because it did not filed a similar lawsuit for its mine situated in Minas Gerais State. After Vale acquisition, it started pay ing the royalties, but the past dues are still pending. 5. Local j

34、obs and the mi ning activity , usually viewed An EIS prepared for extraction of clay to supply the cement plant (Golder Associates, 2000) surveyed the perception of a sample of Cajati inhabitants about mining and industrial activity. It found that a major concern for the community was that most qual

35、ified and best paid jobs were out of reach for locals, being predominantly occupied by outlanders. (This finding is consistent with the low education level of Cajati population.) A similar survey conducted for the new EIS (Prominer, 2009) confirmed this perception. These studies suggest that “ job c

36、reation ” as a positive impact of mining, does not significantly benefits locals. Mining and industrial activities are not the major employers in Cajati. Current direct jobs at the mine number about 600, while the cement plant features a staff of 135 and the chemical plant, 120. In the past, Serrana

37、 is said to have had up to 4,200 direct employees. The local government, for comparison, is the biggest job source, employing about 900. Currently, like many other mining or industrial, the company outsources several services which, in turn, not only employ local workers, but also pay a local servic

38、es tax which would not be collected were all employees direct company workers. 6. Discussion The IAIA 11 Conference session on Impa“ct assessment, local governance and corporate responsibility in mining ” inquiries atmining activities from the perspectives of environmental and social impact assessme

39、nt, local governance and corporate responsibility, asking (1) What are the impacts in the local and community level? (2) How do the mining companies develop their business in relation to local community? (3) What are the elements of existing mining legislation in these questions? This research inten

40、ded to contribute to the session goals, through a case study in Brazil, aimed at finding elements to answer to these questions. In short: (1) A comprehensive review of the local impacts was not the focus of this paper. The EIS for the mine expansion identified past, current and future environmental

41、and social impacts. In terms of community impacts, the most significant are related to the maintenance of the level of economic activity, jobs and tax generation. Notwithstanding, the EIS also documented that the community views the company as a source of pollution and feels that its social programs

42、 do not match community expectations and needs. (2) The successive owners of the mine applied a policy of minimum interaction with the community. A recurrent complaint is that the previous parent company (Bunge) was much more acquiescent and active in the town where it operated its other phosphate m

43、ine, Arax, irfiMinas Gerais State. Arax is a city of 96,000 inhabitants which also hosts an important niobium mine and is a dynamic centre in its region. In the early 1990s, the community successfully mobilized against two projects from the mining company. As a result, the mine expansion to a locall

44、y valued vegetation stand used for recreation was not accepted by the environmental agency; the company could not expand the mine and agreed to permanently maintain the water flow to a creek (Snchefiz, 2006). Additionally, the environmental license to a new sulfuric acid plant was refused. Following

45、 several actions by the company intended to rebuild its relationship with the community, the acid plant was finally granted a license and in 2009 a new mine expansion (opposite to the valued vegetation) was approved by the environmental agency. In Cajati, on the other hand, the company was never con

46、fronted to the community through a public consultation process prior to the recent EIA for its expansion. Prepared for IAIA -131st Ann ual Con fere nee of the Intern ati onal Associati on for Impact Assessme nt, Puebla, Mexico, 28th May-4th Ju ne These facts suggest that the EIA process may have a p

47、ositive influence on the relationships between the company and the host community. This has been demonstrated in the case of Brazilian cement companies operating limestone quarries, whose performance in terms of land rehabilitation was better in the mines subject to the EIA process (Neri and Sn chez

48、,d2010). However, the social programs proposed in the EIS are very modest if compared with mitigation and compensation proposed for the biophysical impacts, thus suggesting that the company has a long way to incorporate social responsibility to its actual local practices. Considering the proposals r

49、esulted from the“Mining, Minerals and Sustainable Development ” initiative (IIED, 2002), currently there are no initiatives towards supporting local businesses, employment and skills development or engagement to joi ntly construct a “community sustainable development plan ”. (3) In Brazil, the minin

50、g legislation is inexpressive in terms of influence on environmental performance or social commitments from companies. Environmental licensing legislation is the strong driver for obtaining commitments from companies. The mine and its industrial installations, on the other hand, have been subject to

51、 State pollution control legislation since 1976, but since this law has no provision for public participation, all discussions and negotiations are made between companies and the State environmental control agency. Only the EIA process has provisions for public participation and hence, is an opportunity for the community to get informed about the company, its current activities and future plans. 7. Conclusions This study found no significant difference between the mining and non minin