Examples of coupled human and environmental systems from the extractive industry and hydropower sector interfaces

• Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 113; no. 51; pp. 14528 - 14535
• Main Authors: Castro, Marcia C., Krieger, Gary R., Balge, Marci Z., Tanner, Marcel, Utzinger, Jürg, Whittaker, Maxine, Singer, Burton H.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States National Academy of Sciences 20-12-2016
• Subjects: Africa; Animals; Benchmarking; Community-Institutional Relations; Conservation of Natural Resources; Environment; Environmental impact; Environmental law; Extraction and Processing Industry; Geography; Health Policy; Humans; Hydroelectric plants; Impact analysis; Laos; Malaria - prevention & control; Mining industry; Natural Gas; Papua New Guinea; Public Health; Religion; Renewable Energy; Sackler on Coupled Human and Environmental Systems; Social impact; Social Justice; Social Responsibility; Social Sciences; United States; Water; United States > US; community health; corporate social responsibility; impact assessment
• ISSN: 0027-8424; 1091-6490
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1605678113

Large-scale corporate projects, particularly those in extractive industries or hydropower development, have a history from early in the twentieth century of creating negative environmental, social, and health impacts on communities proximal to their operations. In many instances, especially for hydropower projects, the forced resettlement of entire communities was a feature in which local cultures and core human rights were severely impacted. These projects triggered an activist opposition that progressively expanded and became influential at both the host community level and with multilateral financial institutions. In parallel to, and spurred by, this activism, a shift occurred in 1969 with the passage of the National Environmental Policy Act in the United States, which required Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for certain types of industrial and infrastructure projects. Over the last four decades, there has been a global movement to develop a formal legal/regulatory EIA process for large industrial and infrastructure projects. In addition, social, health, and human rights impact assessments, with associated mitigation plans, were sequentially initiated and have increasingly influenced project design and relations among companies, host governments, and locally impacted communities. Often, beneficial community-level social, economic, and health programs have voluntarily been put in place by companies. These flagship programs can serve as benchmarks for community–corporate–government partnerships in the future. Here, we present examples of such positive phenomena and also focus attention on a myriad of challenges that still lie ahead.