Abstract
Opposition to mines endures even in countries with relatively strong environmental assessment processes and regulations. Why proposed mines fail to obtain a social license to operate is analyzed by develo** a framework comprised of three concepts—process legitimacy, distributional outcomes, and values compatibility—drawing from the social license to operate, interactive governance, and environmental justice literatures. The framework is applied to understand opposition from local Indigenous people to two mine projects, one in Sweden and the other in British Columbia, Canada. Evidence from interviews with Sami legal experts and Reindeer Herding Community representatives and an advisor with the Tŝilhqot’in National Government, as well as from secondary sources is used to analyze the contestation. Despite the proposed mines being situated in different governance contexts, the reasons for the opposition are markedly similar - environmental assessment processes are illegitimate, distributional outcomes unfair, and values incompatible. The comparative empirical analysis leads to refining the framework as a scaffold with values compatibility as the foundational plank, rather than three independent planks contributing to a social license to operate. The analysis offers insights into company commitments to Indigenous engagement, enhancements to process legitimacy, and evolving and paradigmatic shifts in governance processes, as articulated by Indigenous peoples and international governance mechanisms such as the 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
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Notes
Tjiellde means Sami RHC in the Lule Sami language.
The TNG represents Tŝilhqot’in communities of Tl’etinqox, ʔEsdilagh, Yuneŝit’in, Tŝideldel, Tl’esqox and Xeni Gwet’in (Tŝilhqot’in National Government. Communities). Population data are from a British Columbia, Government of. Consulting with First Nations. https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/environment/natural-resource-stewardship/consulting-with-firstnations/first-nationsnegotiations/first-nations-a-z-listing/tsilhqot-in-nationalgovernment
This definition points to the need to modify the binary distinction made between the “natural” and “social” “systems-to-be-governed” made in the interactive governance literature. Indigenous approaches do not necessarily view the two “systems” as independent in this way.
These Acts were replaced, respectively, by the B.C. Environmental Assessment Act, 2018 and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, 2012 (and in turn by the Impact Assessment Act, 2019).
For categories of evaluation, see B.C. EAO. (2018) and Canada, Government of. Canadian Environmental Assessment Act: An Overview. https://www.canada.ca/en/impact-assessment-agency/services/policy-guidance/canadian-environmental-assessment-act-overview.html#public For a schematic overview of the federal environmental process, see Mehdic et al. (2020) and for the B.C. process, see Haddock (2010).
See British Columbia, Government of. Frequently asked questions about environmental assessments. https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/environment/natural-resource-stewardship/environmental-assessments/frequently-asked-questions The new B.C. Environmental Assessment Act, 2018 became law in 2019.
The B.C. EAO maintains, however, “that the provincial EA process provides meaningful opportunities for First Nations’ engagement throughout the process” and “that any impacts on established and admitted rights are justifiable” (B.C. EAO 2009a, 132 and 135).
Mehdic et al. (2020) attribute the different conclusions to subjectivity of judgments, legislation/policy, and information.
See Dasiqox Tribal Park. Our Story.https://dasiqox.org/about-us/ourstory/
The process for prior consultation, however, needs to be carefully determined so as to be beneficial (see Le Billon and Middeldorp (2021) for analysis).
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Acknowledgements
We are very grateful to representatives of the Sami RHCs Jåhkågaska tjiellde and Tuorpon and SSR for sharing their knowledge about the Swedish case study and to J.P. LaPlante, Advisor to the Tŝilhqot’in National Government for contributing his knowledge and guidance on the B.C. case study. We also greatly appreciate the comments of two anonymous reviewers which have strengthened the paper. The authors alone are responsible for correctness of the statements provided in the article.
Funding
The authors appreciate financial assistance for this research from the 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.
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MacPhail, F., Lindahl, K.B. & Bowles, P. Why do Mines Fail to Obtain a Social License to Operate?: Insights from the Proposed Kallak Iron Mine (Sweden) and the Prosperity/New Prosperity Gold–Copper Mine (Canada). Environmental Management 72, 19–36 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-021-01587-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-021-01587-3