Quais são as melhores práticas para as empresas se envolverem com as comunidades durante um EIA?

Engaging with communities during an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) involves several best practices: 1. Early Engagement: Involve community stakeholders at the earliest stages of the EIA process to build trust and ensure their concerns are considered from the start. 2. Transparent Communication: Share clear, accessible information about the project and its potential impacts, avoiding technical jargon. 3. Inclusive Consultations: Ensure all segments of the community have the opportunity to be heard, including marginalized and vulnerable groups. 4. Continuous Dialogue: Maintain open lines of communication throughout the EIA process, not just at formal consultation meetings.

Applying an holistic approach that embraces different worldviews, especially Indigenous worldviews is critical to doing an assessment that looks at current needs and realities, with the future never forgotten.

Some best practices to engage with communities during an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) are mostly engaging some of the community members in the assessment process knowing that the success of the project is dependent on the people within the community who can convince the entire community to cooperate with the team of accessors. Then, provide a means of communication for the diverse accessors and community to constantly update the appropriate quarters with information. Do not disrespect the culture of the community, try and comply with laws and regulations regarding community engagement. These are some best practices to successfully build a good relationship with communities during an EIA.

You should not respect diversity, you should actively embrace and involve it! It is about a mindset shift FROM let's be nice to ... (obviously very welcome 😉) TO let's be smart and get the best possible outcomes by actively searching for and then (often forgotten) create the best conditions for the most diverse group to feel comfortable, heard, enabled to be part of the process. Diversity is not a problem , it is an invaluable asset.

Conflicts and disagreements are part of the process, nothing new. We need to encourage people to communicate openly about their concerns and ensuring that everyone listens and understands each other. Active listening is key. How do we embrace real participation? It takes time, and we need to promote real spaces for it creating a culture in conflict management. Creating a positive and respectful workplace culture is essential to prevent conflicts from escalating, someone needs to take the lead into making this part of the company. Dealing with conflicts in an assertive and inclusive way will foster a healthier and more harmonious workplace, seeing conflicts as opportunities to grow and build something together.

It's beneficial during the EIA to enhance our connections with vulnerable groups like women, elderly people, ethnic groups, and indigenous people. The legitimate expectations of stakeholders must be taken into account when determining the negative impact of companies' activities. To achieve this aim, it is better to define what are legitimate expectations and what are not. This process relies heavily on communications. Easy-to-understand reports and other forms of communication can assist companies in gathering feedback and making any necessary changes during EIA.

Before, during and after the ESIA process, stakeholder engagement is key to the success of any proposed development. Companies should be encouraged to identify stakeholder groups and classify them according to their interest and influence on the company’s proposed development. In my experience, multiple stakeholder engagement workshops help to collate all stakeholder inputs and to unify the perspectives of different stakeholder groups. One-on-one with highly influential and interested stakeholders such as host community reps and regulators are also necessary to further ensure social license and early identification of policy risks to the project/development.

Most of the time when companies conduct a environmental impact assessment they tend to work with what is comfortable for them instead of ensuring that all diverse groups are accommodated for example making sure that all the political leaders within that community is including the opposing parties are involved to ensure a fair and transparent communication between the company and the community and the local government by including everyone The company insures that there is transparency and fair conduct on their site and it is easy for the community to intern become that same companies ambassadors