Extractive Industry Activities Research Articles

Marine conservation versus offshore oil and gas extraction: Reconciling an intensifying dilemma in Atlantic Canada

Conflicts between the drive to expand offshore oil and gas development and the effort to protect marine areas are intensifying globally. These competing imperatives are manifested acutely off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada, where petroleum interests overlap with diverse protected areas: while the Government of Nova Scotia fosters the expansion of its offshore petroleum sector, the Government of Canada is advancing Marine Protected Area networks that place limits on extractive industrial activities offshore. This paper examines how this conflict is being managed through the process of offshore petroleum licensing with a focus on call for bids that spatially overlap with or are adjacent to conservation areas. Drawing on interviews with 25 marine stakeholders (government, fishers, environmental, and Indigenous groups), we found that consultation processes failed to resolve conflicts, sector trade-offs were poorly understood, and petroleum interests were prioritized over biodiversity protection. Efforts by the offshore oil and gas regulator to secure a social licence to operate have not been successful. An evolving program of marine spatial planning in the Scotian bioregion has the potential to address broader issues at this contentious intersection.

Corporate Behaviour towards the Upholding of Human Rights – Exploring the Possibilities of Human Rights Impact Assessment in the Sápmi Region

One of the most current challenges the Sami are facing is the rapid expansion of extractive industries throughout the Arctic region, creating obvious conflicts between states and Sámi people. European High North has already proven to be rich in mineral deposits. Furthermore, it is suggested that the world’s largest remaining untapped gas reserves and undeveloped oil reserves are located in the Arctic. Therefore, there is a growing pressure to conduct extractive industrial activities on the territories important for the Sámi, for instance on reindeer herding areas and reindeer migration routes. The expansion of extractive industrial developments causes significant challenges to the enjoyment of their human rights, unless effective procedural measures are in place to mitigate adverse impacts. The aim of this paper is to explore the possibility of integrating human rights impact assessment (HRIA) in existing license granting mechanisms, to examine how particular companies comply with human rights norms applicable to local and indigenous, and to scrutinise the possibility of these and other Northern mining companies to carry out HRIA in the future. The integration of HRIA would ensure that the special status and interests of Sámi people is properly taken into consideration when planning and implementing extractive industrial projects.

Land-use conflicts between biodiversity conservation and extractive industries in the Peruvian Andes

The exceptional endemic species richness found in the Tropical Andes is being subjected to high rates of environmental degradation and natural resources exploitation. While many forms of land-cover change and other impacts on species are difficult to control through environmental regulations, governments usually determine how and where extractive industries can take place. This study examines potential conflict between the location of extractive industry activities and biodiversity conservation in the Peruvian Andes. Using geographic information systems, we carry out overlay analyses to determine the spatial congruence between mineral mining, hydrocarbon and logging concessions, on the one hand, and the distribution of protected areas and endemic vertebrate species on the other. The results show that regional protected areas extensively overlap with resource concessions. Furthermore, 16% of endemic species hotspots concur with current concessions, while the geographical distribution of 21 endemic vertebrate species overlap by more than 90% with concession areas. To reconcile conservation and economic development objectives in the future, the geographical distribution of biodiversity, and in particular of endemic species, needs to be considered in natural resources planning and land-use/management activities.

Food and Nutrition Security as a Measure of Resilience in the Barents Region

Food and nutrition security builds resilience in a society when people have access to safe and nutritious foods. The Barents region, covering the Northern parts of Finland, Norway, and Sweden, and the North-western part of Russia, seeks common goals that include the well-being of the region’s inhabitants by ensuring preservation of local culture and social and environmental sustainability. This paper reviews existing literature on food and nutrition security in relation to building resilience and promoting well-being in the region. Amongst the local communities, traditional foods have served as a major source of healthy diet that ensures food security. Access to secure, nutritious, and healthy food is one of the aspects offering greater human security and societal stability. Traditional food has served as a major source of healthy diet, in particular, in the remote sparsely populated Barents region and amongst the local communities of the region. However, there is concern about global climate change and its effect on the region and pollution from human activities, such as the extractive industrial activities, that are detrimental to safe and secure food supply chain. In this paper, I highlight the contribution of traditional foods to food security in the Barents region. In addition, the paper emphasized that value addition to these traditional foods will help to stimulate the economy by creating new jobs. Ultimately, ensuring food and nutrition security in a sustainable way within the region will help to build resilience and promote culture and ecology with a view to offering greater human and societal security.

Securing protection standards for Canada's marine protected areas

In 2015, the Government of Canada committed to protecting 5% of marine and coastal areas by 2017, and 10% by 2020. While admirable progress towards this target has been made, less attention has been given to improving the quality of protection afforded to marine areas. Extensive scientific study supports that several factors are critical to the success of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) for marine biodiversity conservation and management objectives, including no-take areas and prohibitions on extractive and industrial activities. However, the majority of Canada's MPAs allow extractive uses within their boundaries. As Canada works toward international and national commitments to marine protection targets, it is critical to consider the degree of protection afforded by the legal designations used to create these areas. This paper reviews the current inconsistent standards of protection across marine protected areas (MPAs) designated under the Oceans Act, Canada's flagship legislation for marine protection. Recommended amendments to the law include standards of protection that would exclude all extractive industrial activities from MPAs in order to better guide the designation and decision-making processes for marine protection.

The effect of industry activities on public support for ‘fracking’

ABSTRACTResearch suggests that previous, current, and prospective extractive industry activities influence perceptions of new development. Studies that have drawn this conclusion, however, have usually focused on specific projects in specific communities. Here, these factors are examined on an aggregate, national scale. Combining geospatial data on extractive industry activities and survey data from a nationally representative sample (N = 1061), the influence of extractive industry activities on support for fracking is studied. While limited evidence is found for the impact of proximity to oil and gas wells or production on support for fracking, employment levels in the natural resources and mining sector in the respondent’s county and residence in an area experiencing active oil and gas development significantly increase support for fracking. The results highlight the role of spatial and community factors in shaping support for energy development.

The Turn to Contractual Responsibility in the Global Extractive Industry

AbstractThis article argues that there is a newer model of contracting for natural resources that expands the potential for corporate responsibility towards those adversely affected by business activities. It lays out the conceptual roadmap and justification underlying these shifts and changes in contracting for natural resources. The article calls for a renewed focus in exploring enforcement of corporate obligations for impacts to individuals and communities within a contractual framework. Examples of this type of arrangements include contracts that can be construed to allow third parties to sue on a contract; community development agreements; contracts between investors and communities; environmental contracts; human rights deeds, and investor–state–local community contracts (tripartite contracts). These contractual forms demonstrate that the law of contract has evolved from the nineteenth century idea that contracts merely protect the rights of investors without much concern for those who are directly affected by extractive industry operations. By including affected communities, indigenous communities, and others, these new contractual forms demonstrate that investors and governments are trustees and that extractive resources must be mobilized for the benefits of their publics. In so doing, we map this turn to contracts between multiple parties in the resource extraction context, and argue that it affirmatively demonstrates real potential to address or mitigate the absence of remedial and responsibility regimes for the adverse impacts of extractive industry activities on individuals and communities.

Environmental Management Compliance, Law and Policy Regimes in Developing Countries: A Review of the Zambian Case

This paper is a review of environmental management compliance of the extractive industry; particularly mining in Zambia and the government’s commitment to environmental protection in view of sustainable development .The main objective of this work was to review industrial compliance against Zambia’s environmental legal regime for the period between 2009 and 2014, track environmental policy development, its implementation within the institutional functional framework in view of precautionary principle, polluter pays principle and sustainability. The authors concluded that while the environmental legal framework may be considered relatively new compared to developed nations like United Kingdom, it dates back to the 1970s and is comparable in terms of strength, to that of developed nations. However, there are many challenges regarding effective implementation. Thus, although there are many stiffer and tougher regulations enacted in Zambia (to a point where some advocates of neo-classical frontiers economics have criticized Zambia as slowly introducing one-more among the most highly regulated environmental sectors in the world, deterring development) the authors concluded that implementation was a huge challenge: implementation of Zambia’s environmental regulatory regime faces wide range of problems, from a highly centralized financial and decision-making system and budgetary allocation of negligible size, to lack of appropriate tools, equipment and personnel technical capacity. It was found that while the environmental regulations have been further stiffened around 2011-2013; compliance of mining companies was lagging behind. This was evidenced by failure of 8 in 10 mining firms to submit periodic reports as per regulatory conditions on their permits. Cases of discharging and disposing of hazardous waste to gain savings from the expenses that would otherwise arise through normal disposal procedures still exist. The authors concluded that while new and stronger measures have been put in place by government to ensure that the environmental degradation caused by mining and other extractive industry activities are adequately managed, the measures are not working effectively. These findings are consistent with the findings of the 2014 Auditor General’s Report. It was clear that co-ordination within the government’s regulatory institutional framework with interacting mandates was weak, while the selective nature on the application of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) regulations was demeaning environmental protection and socio-economic justice.

Corporate social responsibility and extractives industries in Latin America and the Caribbean: Perspectives from the ground

This article is based on the contributions to an online forum in which Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) extractive industry corporate social responsibility (EI-CSR) professionals and others contributed to extended discussions on CSR over several weeks in May 2012. This article presents highlights from those discussions, adding a set of grounded perspectives on the emerging and ongoing issues related to the surge in CSR and extractive industry activities (primarily mineral exploration and mining) throughout the LAC region. Analysis by the authors of this article identified four broad themes running throughout the discussions: 1) Current CSR practice in the LAC region is evolving, uneven, and/or limited; 2) LAC CSR models are influenced by global trends and standards but adapted to local context; 3) that in order to be effective, CSR must take into account local histories of the LAC region, particularly with regards to consultation mechanisms and Indigenous peoples; 4) that EI-CSR is generally seen as positive trend, but with many caveats.

The Assessment of Corporate Governance System Quality in the Romanian Sectors. Analysis of the Companies Listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange

This paper aims to analyze the quality of the corporate governance of companies listed on BSE Romania. The contribution of this paper consists in analyzing the corporate governance quality in the main Romanian sectors (extractive industry, manufacture, energy, construction, commerce, transport, accommodation and financial activities). Assessing the corporate governance quality is based on own determined score of transparency and disclosure practices. Our sample consists in 78 companies listed on BSE companies at the end of May 2013. The results reflect that a highest level of adoption the best practice principles belongs to the companies in Energy sector, following by companies in Extractive and Financial activities, and Transportation, Construction, Manufacture, Commerce and Accommodation, relating to the results for the end of May 2013.

Paisajes culturales de Cobija, Costa de Antofagasta, Chile

This paper deals with the different perceptions of Chilean northern landscapes that arecommonly refered to as the Atacama Desert. The present aboriginal descendants of thepeoples that inhabited these lands throughout millennia conceive and live in this partof the country in different ways as the europeans that first explored these territories,and the modern immigrants, today engaged in the extractive industrial activities that are making the northern cities grow faster than ever. We are interested especially in thelocal peoples that had and have taken the best advantage of the poor natural resourcesin this territory. In this occasion, we will focus our interest on the coastal territories ofAntofagasta Region, characterized by its extreme dryness, with no permanent sources offresh water, in contrast with a great richness of its maritime resources.

Ecology and the problems of rehabilitating wastes from mineral extraction

Ecology and the problems of rehabilitating wastes from mineral extraction