Lisa J. Laplante & Suzanne A. Spears, Out of the Conflict Zone: The Case for Community Consent Processes in the Extractive Sector

Abstract

Lisa Laplante and Suzanne Spears undertake an admirable agenda in their article, Extracting Without Conflict: The Case for Community Consent Processes. Employing an anthropological approach to understanding community resistance to extractive industry projects, the authors posit that the escalating conflicts between extractive industry (EI) firms and host communities can be "better understood as disputes over community control of resources and the right of community members to control the direction of their lives." Their proposed solution is that El firms voluntarily engage in consent processes with host communities, with a commitment to obtaining their free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) before receiving legal authorization and financial approval of an extractive project. It is obvious that host communities would favor a process that accords them full participatory rights -including the right to withhold their consent-in development decisions affecting the land and resources on which they subsist. Laplante and Spears present the more complicated case for why EI firms should likewise be amenable to voluntary FPIC procedures, relying on the fact that community opposition can prove to be cost-prohibitive.