ABSTRACT
As earlier chapters have demonstrated, effective public participation is fundamental to the process of change brought about by extractive industries. Not only should residents be involved, whether as a legal requirement or simply through courtesy, but a proposal benefits substantially from feedback from the community – from anecdotes and folklore to information about current uses of a proposed site. In this context, “public participation” is viewed as the long term process of engagement, not necessary linked to a specific extraction project but concerning community relations between an extractives company (or companies) and a community over many years; in contrast to “consultation,” which typically refers to the process of gaining feedback on a specific proposal and as such forms part of a broader public participation programme. Both involve extensive research, multiple stakeholders, an appropriate (and therefore diverse) selection of dialogue methods and comprehensive evaluation. A strategic approach provides the framework to do this in a cohesive manner.
