ID: 1617
Presenting Author: Alvaro Paredes
Session: 705 - Navigating Uncertainty in Impact Assessment to Support Expedited Decision-Making
Status: pending
Efforts to expedite decision making will be successful if supported by evidence-based understanding of what measures effectively avoid, mitigate or compensate adverse impacts of mining
Decisions to approve or disapprove projects are based on the significance of predicted residual impacts. There is uncertainty embedded in the estimations of magnitude, geographic extent and duration of impacts; and one reason is the undetermined efficiency of proposed mitigation measures.
Furthermore, while biophysical impacts are normally subject to post-approval monitoring and follow-up; socio-economic impacts, particularly those related to community well-being, labour dynamics or cultural values, are rarely tracked with the same rigour. As a result, inaccurate impact predictions or ineffective mitigation in the socio-economic domain could go unaddressed.
This paper presents examples of mining projects in British Columbia, Canada where environmental and social mitigation measures did not reach expected outcomes; and residual impacts manifested themselves differently than predicted.
The paper also discusses the very limited research that has been published on the topic of efficiency of mitigation measures to address impacts that are common to mining projects and proposes a more systematic approach for assessing mitigation efficiency.
Assessing the efficiency of mitigation measures based on evidence collected from existing projects will provide useful information during the preparation of environmental assessments; and will reduce the uncertainty and the risk associated with the determinations of significance of expected residual impacts.
For efforts to expedite decision making to be successful; these should be supported by evidence of what works and what doesn't.
Alvaro is a Peruvian mining and environment specialist with 30 years of experience in Latin America, Canada and Africa.
He operates as Toclla Consulting; and is based in Lima and Vancouver.
Coauthor 1: Janine Bedford