Conflict resolution and community engagement in post-audit EIA environmental management: Lessons learned from a mining community in Thailand

Abstract

Conflicts between communities and projects continue to erupt and are still not being resolved smoothly despite the implementation of environmental impact assessment (EIA). The objective of this study was to understand the causes of conflict between a community and a development project, and identify ways to prevent the conflict through post-audit EIA engagement efforts. The relationship and attitude of the villagers of Ban U-Mung (the mining community) towards a local iron mine were studied by conducting community surveys through questionnaires, focus groups and in-depth interviews. As potential heavy metal pollution was among the main concerns for the villagers, soil and water samples were collected and tested for contamination. The heavy metals concentrations were compared to those in the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). The results revealed that all heavy metal concentrations except arsenic were under national soil quality standards and did not change significantly from the original results. The villagers’ concerns were due to a lack of information from the project and led to conflict between these two parties even after post-audit EIA. The surveys revealed that the villagers wanted a more active role in the post-audit EIA period and to be informed about the impacts from the project. To prevent conflict with communities, this paper recommends that the post-audit EIA needs to be improved with more proactive, transparent and collaborative public engagement policies and practices. Communities must be provided with adequate information, tools and opportunities to make informed decisions about the future of development projects that have direct impacts on their livelihoods.