Contested Consultations in the Extractive Industries

This volume examines how communities, companies, and governments contest and contribute to the evolution of norms, rules and decision-making procedures that govern stakeholder consultation in the extractive industries. In recent years international organizations, governments and companies around the world have dramatically reformed the regime that governs consultations with community stakeholders about proposed extractive projects. However, the characteristics of this consultation regime are often contested, with diverse stakeholders seeking to defend their interests by drawing on different authoritative interpretations of the rules, norms and decision-making procedures that govern stakeholder consultation. Contestation over the meaning, governance and practice of stakeholder consultation is the central thread that ties this book together. Within this overarching concern, the volume takes a global and comparative perspective that examines the complexity of these intersecting and overlapping consultation requirements, with a particular focus on Indigenous Peoples, using cases from the Global North and Global South, including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, The Central African Republic, The Democratic Republic of Congo, Iceland, Ghana, Greenland, Guyana, Norway, and Peru. The book highlights the tensions associated with the application of this contested regime and identifies possible solutions from best practices around the world. From a theoretical perspective the book unpacks the maze of overlapping consultation requirements and practices that highlights the normative disagreements between key stakeholders and the overlapping rules and procedures that govern the implementation of consultation. A unique contribution of this collection is the commentary from practitioners, who reflect on the same issues addressed by the academic contributors, but based on their own vast practical experience. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars researching public participation and stakeholder consultation in the extractive industries as well as natural resource governance and sustainable development more broadly.