International Journal of Mining, Reclamation and Environment

Vol. 25, No. 2, June 2011, 133–151

Improving socio-environmental outcomes at Andean mines

C.J. Odella*, M. Scobleb and J. Recharte Bullardc
a
Norman B. Keevil Institute of Mining Engineering, 6350 Stores Road, Vancouver V6T 1Z4,
BC, Canada; bDepartment of Mining Engineering, Norman B. Keevil Institute of Mining
Engineering, 6350 Stores Road, Vancouver V6T 1Z4, BC, Canada;
c
Andean Program of the Mountain Institute, Instituto de Montaña, Petit Thouars, 4381
Miraflores, Lima 18, Peru
(Received 9 November 2009; final version received 21 July 2010)

Planning for the social impacts of mine closure is essential to an effective closure
process, especially in developing countries where impoverishment can lead to a
high level of mine dependency. This article presents the initial results of a study
that seeks to monitor and improve social wellbeing and sustainability through
mine closure. The research responds to an initiative by a network of community
environmental organisations in the Peruvian Andes interested in improving the
sustainability of the social outcomes of mines in their communities.
The research adapted value-focused decision analysis (R. Keeney, Value
Focused Thinking: A Path to Creative Decision-Making, University Press,
Harvard, 1992), a methodology that has been successfully applied in participatory
planning processes in North America, to the Andean context. In this way it
generated indicators, which captured the complexities of the social situation in the
Andes without losing pragmatic utility for evaluation and planning processes to
which they are currently being applied.
Keywords: sustainable mining; mine closure planning; value-focused decision
analysis; indicators; rational planning

1. Introduction
This article presents the initial results of a study which sought to assist concerned
citizen groups in communities affected by mining operations, to monitor and
improve the social impact of these projects on their communities during mine
closure. In this study, a framework of socio-environmental sustainability indicators
was developed using information gathered from communities located in the
neighbourhood of mines in Peru. It is expected that the outcome of the study will
benefit mining companies in general.
The article begins with a discussion of the need to plan for and measure socio-
environmental outcomes throughout the mine life cycle, in order to achieve
sustainable results at closure. It then presents the context of the study within the
work of the Ancash Regional Network of Local Environmental Monitoring
Organizations (RROLVAA) and the Andean Program of the Mountain Institute.

*Corresponding author. Email: caroljaneodell@gmail.com

ISSN 1748-0930 print/ISSN 1748-0949 online

Ó 2011 Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1080/17480930.2010.537155
http://www.informaworld.com
134 C.J. Odell et al.

These organisations promote collaboration towards sustainable development in

mine-affected communities in Ancash, Peru.
The article then summarises existing approaches to socio-environmental
indicator development in mining regions and describes a methodology which
combines the main strengths of these measurement strategies with compensation for
their key limitations. The methods employed are then reviewed and initial results are
presented. The article concludes with suggestions for further applications of the
research to date and a brief description of planned future research, which will
employ the findings presented here to probe further the challenges and opportunities
for sustainable development around mines in the Andes.

2. Social monitoring and sustainable mine closure

The shared responsibilities of mining companies for the development of mine-
affected communities cease following mine closure, and accountability eventually
reverts to the communities, the appropriate local governments and central
government agencies. Mine closure legislation typically focuses on environmental
reclamation of the mined area, and therefore social impacts associated with closure
are addressed voluntarily if at all. In situations where a company has operated
responsibly, promoting long-term development initiatives to avoid government and
local population dependency on the mine, the transition to a sustainable post-mining
scenario should, in theory, be relatively smooth. However, experience indicates that
boom and bust scenarios are still common in mine-affected communities and that an
exclusively environmental focus at closure is insufficient. This is especially the case in
developing countries, where high levels of unemployment, limited economic diversity
and the challenges of corruption often influence the dependency on mining and
frustrate well-designed development efforts [1]. In order to improve this situation, a
combination of awareness, transparency and broadly framed rational planning are
required to enable local communities to participate effectively in development
processes to secure a better future. In Peru, the increasing role played by the mining
sector in the economy has led to growing conflict between impact and benefits
distribution around mine sites [2].
This article describes research that tests the premise that objective indicators can
be designed with the capability of describing the impacts and benefits of mining
operations on the aspirations of mine-affected communities for the short, medium
and long term. These indicators could be employed within a participatory rational
planning process to assist creating better socio-environmental outcomes at mine
sites. It argues that expanding the focus of community monitoring activities to
include broader indicators of sustainable development has the potential to promote
joint development initiatives between a mine and its local community in Peru for a
number of reasons:

(1) The promise of sustainable development: The increased focus on mining in the
Peruvian economy has led to ongoing debate over the role that mining should
play in the country. There is general agreement that mining should contribute
to the sustainable development of local communities and regions as well as
that of the country. The expectation of both short- and long-term tangible
and intangible benefits is the predominant reason that many local
communities agree to having mining operations in their vicinity [3]. However,
 International Journal of Mining, Reclamation and Environment 135

there are debates over how responsibilities should be distributed between

companies, communities and governments to avoid mine dependency,
support institutional development and ensure that corruption does not
sidetrack well intended and well designed development efforts [4,5].
Companies must also consider the high local expectation of benefits resulting
from centuries of marginalisation and limit the impacts of the conflicts that
increasingly emerge in and around mine-affected communities. On a more
fundamental level, the effectiveness of specific development strategies is also
debated, with discussion of how to tailor programs to the existing strengths
and limitations of Andean communities; fortifying social organisations and
the capacity of family members to earn a living with dignity, in the face of
entrenched and systemic obstacles [6].
(2) Changing Impact-Benefit Profile of Mines: The impact/benefit profile of
mining operations has changed significantly in the last few decades. Whereas
formerly mines provided large numbers of opportunities for unskilled
labourers and impacted relatively small land areas (despite producing very
significant local contamination), mines today produce much less employ-
ment, impact larger land areas and produce less significant local contamina-
tion [7]. This is, in large part, due to the transition from underground mining
to very large mechanised open pits. In addition, the scale of modern mining
operations means that they can completely dominate local economies in an
unprecedented way. Notwithstanding the continuing environmental concerns
of communities surrounding mine sites, there is an increasing tendency for
the main impacts (and benefits) of mining operations to be in the socio-
environmental domain rather than being restricted to the physical environ-
mental domain. These facts change the relative balance of social and
environmental concerns in closure processes.
(3) Need to Communicate about Trade-Offs: Trade-offs are ubiquitous in the
sustainable development process. Limited environmental degradation is
routinely expected of many of the development initiatives that are promoted
in communities because of their collateral benefits. For example, most
Peruvian communities support improvements to the local road infrastructure
to access markets and provide limited short-term employment in road
construction and maintenance. In order to achieve these benefits, they accept
the loss of limited amounts of land and sometimes serious erosion impacts, as
well as the increased pace of cultural change that accompanies improved
access.
(4) Because Peruvian mine closure legislation focuses on environmental
parameters and excludes most social requirements, companies are encour-
aged to concentrate more on managing environmental issues, in contrast to
the interests of local communities, which centre on social benefits including
employment, training, improvements in services and agro-pastoral develop-
ment efforts. In the presence of the vested interests that tend to develop in
mining areas; the narrow focus of mining companies can be manipulated by
parties with illegitimate interests of personal benefits, to polarise the situation
around mine sites into pro-conservation and pro-mining factions, which
erode the possibilities for sustainable local development. Using a wider range
of criteria in decision making enables attention to be focused more effectively
and transparently on the trade-offs inherent in the development process and
136 C.J. Odell et al.

on the fair distribution of impacts and benefits between different impacted

groups.
(5) From Public Relations to Participatory Planning Processes: The rise of cor-
porate social responsibility and voluntary ‘best practices’ in the mining sector
challenges the corporate sector to transform the traditional one-way com-
munication strategies of the benefits of mining into the two-way commu-
nication system based on an understanding of the local social environment
[8]. The international mining sector began their efforts in this direction with
the Global Mining Initiative [9]. At the same time, from the community
perspective, recourse to conflict has, in some cases, appeared as the only
viable way of communicating positions due to the absence of mechanisms for
effective advocacy of important issues. Thus, conflict tends to escalate when a
company’s public relations does not support effective two-way communica-
tion. Indicators based on local values is one tool at improving this com-
munication in a manner that is familiar and comprehensible to mining
companies, which may struggle to understand more anthropological
representations.

For all of the above reasons, it is suggested that mine closure planning be
expanded to include a wider range of concerns, including all of the elements of
community wellbeing that is important to neighbouring communities. In addition, it
is suggested that these elements be monitored using indicators that encompass the
full range of community concerns. These arguments also support the need to
encourage the development of democratic mechanisms, which articulate local
perspectives on sustainable development through participatory monitoring and
permit continuous learning and future improvement.

3. Prior research, purpose and expected contribution

The results presented in this article evolved from collaborative work between the
Mountain Institute’s Andean branch and the RROLVAA, a network of local community
environmental committees in the Ancash region of Peru. The network consists of six
environmental committees in communities impacted by a variety of mining operations
including large scale multinational enterprises and medium and small scale operations.
In 2005, the RROLVAA (which was founded in 2003) requested support from
the Mountain Institute in pooling the collective experience of the committees to
develop a conceptual model of Mining and Local Sustainable Development. The
collaboration consisted of a series of participatory workshops in combination with a
number of other capacity building initiatives. As a result of this project, the
RROLVAA defined Mining and Local Sustainable Development as follows:

Mining and Local Sustainable Development is the promotion of the efficient rational
management and conservation of natural resources without impacting present or future
generations, respecting local culture and customs in a climate of trust, transparency and
openness in communities close to the development of mining activities. It benefits civil
society, state and mining companies equitably in order to enable economic, social and
environmental development based on an integral shared vision (p. 6) [10].

Although this definition was based on generic definitions of sustainable

development and the community members’ living experience, the definition produced
 International Journal of Mining, Reclamation and Environment 137

has some similarity with the definition of the sustainable mining community
produced by leading scholars in the field [11]:

A sustainable mining community is one which could realize a net benefit from the
introduction of a mine which lasts through mine closure and beyond. In practice this
means that the community must adhere to the three fundamental pre-requisites of
sustainable societies outlined by George Francis (1999): ecological sustainability,
economic vitality and social equity (p.192).

In addition to the conceptual work carried out by the RROLVAA, the network
also developed a strategic plan to guide implementation of the framework on the
ground in the various communities. A key element of this strategic plan was the need
to monitor and evaluate community outcomes in terms of the Mining and Local
Sustainable Development model, using objective indicators that measured results
rather than subjective measures elicited from stakeholders, or the input measures
favoured by the mining industry.
For understandable reasons, input measures and quantifying actions entirely
within the control of the company appear to be the preferred corporate indicators of
mining social responsibility (e.g. numbers of dollars invested in development projects
around mine sites). However, because of the complexity of the development
processes, sidetracking of development funds, and low levels of community-
corporate trust, such input measures tend to augment tensions between the
companies and the communities in Peru: local stakeholders ruminate on where the
money may have gone rather than recognising the social investment by a company.
There was also consensus that the indicators used should be based on community
aims and visions rather than on those of outside actors (company, NGO or distant
government) because, in the end, it is the community that bears the impacts and
determines whether the benefits are appropriate. In addition, as mining is a
temporary land use, local communities and governments ultimately have the
responsibility for ensuring that there are lasting benefits after mine closure, within
the existing legal framework.
This work presented the result of collaboration between the Mountain Institute,
RROLVAA and the University of British Columbia (UBC). It forms part of the
PhD research program of Carol Odell at UBC in mining and socio-environmental
sustainability. Carol became involved in the Mining and Local Sustainable
Development initiative in order to provide expertise on the social impacts of mining
and to guide the design of effective indicators to be used by the committees. These
indicators were designed to serve both in the monitoring of impacts and benefits on
communities and also as a planning tool for development projects that would
address both short-term and long-term (post closure) interests using an integrated
sustainable development approach.

4. Existing approaches to measurement

The consideration of social impacts on closure planning dates from the Mining
Minerals and Sustainable Development process [9], with the Sullivan Round Table
[12] representing an important milestone. In Peru, closure legislation was not
introduced until 2006 and its focus is on site rehabilitation [13].
The measurement of social impacts and benefits of mining on local communities
is also relatively recent, dating from the mid 1990s. The most successful of the
138 C.J. Odell et al.

existing measurement approaches is probably the Lutsel K’e initiative in Northern

Canada, where indigenous communities, which have diamond mines on their
traditional lands, monitor the social outcomes of the mines annually using an
indicator framework designed through participatory anthropological research [14].
Other frameworks have been developed by experts in collaboration with universities
or with mining companies. For example, Noronha [15] and Noronha and Nairy [16]
studied impacts around mines in Goa; Bury [17] studied patterns of impacts around
the Yanacocha mine; while Filer [18] designed social indicators for the Porgera mine
in Papua New Guinea.
These frameworks have proven capable of providing a nuanced description of the
patterns of impacts and benefits around mining operations, but have had limited
application beyond the initial studies that generated the indicators. Their use for
assessing sustainable development options through mine closure is also very limited,
as their complexity confounds their use in comparison.
The Global Reporting Initiative mining reporting framework [19] and other
reporting frameworks (e.g. [20]) also include social indicators at the operations level.
However, these indicators focus on company actions, as they are designed for
investor reports and are very limited in their ability to monitor and guide sustainable
development in mine-affected communities.
In summary, social indicator frameworks for mining have proven capable of
providing detailed descriptions of the patterns of impacts and benefits around mines
in different socio-cultural and political environments and of reporting broad
corporate social performance. Only the Lutsel K’e’s indicators have demonstrated
accessibility and continued use by local populations [21]. There is no available
framework that is applicable to the more pro-active task of designing improved
development strategies to promote sustainable closure. What is needed for this
purpose is an indicator framework which:

. Maintains the descriptive capacity of the anthropological frameworks.

. Maintains legitimacy by being based on local development priorities.
. Has buy-in from local organisations, thus improving the potential for ongoing
implementation.
. Is concise, objective and carefully structured so that it is pragmatically
applicable to monitoring and development planning.

5. Research methodology
Based on the aims of the RROLVAA and on the analysis of the strengths and
limitations of existing social indicator frameworks, the research employed the value-
focused decision analysis (VFDA) methodology [22]. This methodology enabled the
design of indicators, the evaluation of development outcomes and the design of
projects for the future. VFDA is a rational decision-making process based on multi-
criteria analysis using carefully designed interview techniques to identify a clear set
of values and objectives from which a concise series of measures (indicators) is
designed. These indicators are then used to drive the selection of alternative projects
and development strategies and in assessing the trade-offs between alternatives until
acceptable alternatives can be identified. Its distinctive characteristics are the
approaches it uses to incorporate subjective information about decision-maker
values into the rational planning process and its focus on building alternatives
 International Journal of Mining, Reclamation and Environment 139

capable of performing well over the range of desired objectives, rather than selecting
between pre-defined options. The process is iterative and the series of steps is shown
graphically in Figure 2.
The VFDA process has been employed with considerable success in participatory
planning initiatives associated with large scale industry in the Pacific Rim area of
Canada and the United States [23,24]. In addition, the approach has had some
application in developing countries [25] and with indigenous communities in Canada
[26]. Applications to mining have so far been limited to expert and conceptual
assessments [27,28]. In a participatory format, the approach is promoted as having
significant potential to increase transparency around the distribution of impacts and
benefits which are at the heart of so much of the conflict around mining operations
[8]. In addition, experimental applications have demonstrated that the tool is capable
of designing alternatives that are superior to negotiated outcomes [29] due to its
focus on maximising performance over a range of criteria. This contrasts with the
goal of meeting the minimum conditions for multi-party agreement, which is often
seen in negotiated processes [22] (pp. 238–239). In combination with negotiated
approaches, it probably has even greater potential.

Figure 1. Map showing RROLVAA communities.

140 C.J. Odell et al.

5.1. Sample design

The research proceeded through the selection of a subset of the communities within
the RROLVAA representing the range of different community-mining situations
(scale of mining operation, type of operation, size and type of community, degree of
isolation of the community and extent of practice of traditional activities). In each of
the communities selected, a theoretical sampling approach was employed to ensure
that the variety of perspectives was represented. A generic example of such a sample
is shown in Figure 3. The overall goal of the sampling within the communities was to
ensure representation of the different levels of mine impact (direct or indirect), level
of urbanisation of residence, leadership status of informants (local government,
community and other opinion leaders), gender representation, a range of ages of
interviewees, educational level, and employment (professional, skilled or unskilled
labourer) and whether or not a person or close family member worked or had
worked in the mine. These criteria were used to categorise the interviewees, which
later enabled the data to be analysed according to the opinions provided by different

Figure 2. The eight steps in the value-focused decision analysis (VFDA) process (Adapted
from [22]).

Figure 3. Sample design for interviews.

 International Journal of Mining, Reclamation and Environment 141

sub-groups: for example, objective views from women living in communities directly
impacted by the mine. Once interviews in the initial sample of communities had been
carried out, workshops were used to validate the initial results and to adapt the
results to specific situations.

5.2. Interview design

Interviews were focused on understanding the values and objectives of community
members for improving wellbeing in their communities. Following Keeney [22], a
number of techniques were used to access information about underlying values,
which are not usually instantly cognitively retrievable:

(1) Interviewees were asked about changes that had accompanied mine
development in the households and communities (or the most recent 10
years of mine operations in the case of mines which had a longer history).
They were then asked to characterise these changes as positive, negative or
mixed and interviewers probed to ascertain the reasons that these issues were
important both at a community and family level. For instance, if a person
complained about contamination arising from the mine as a negative impact,
the interviewer would question why contamination has a negative effect on
the individual and community. They might be told that this contamination
was detrimental because it led to decreased agricultural production and
increased skin irritations among local children.
(2) Interviewees were asked about their goals for development in their
communities for the next 5 years. Techniques, such as asking what the
interviewee would do if they were the mayor, were used to expand thinking.
Again the rationale underpinning the goals was pursued.
(3) In order to assess interviewees’ longer term interests, respondents were asked
about how they wanted to see their community after the mining operation
closed down, if this issue did not surface without prompting. This question
was followed by queries aimed at understanding the underpinning objectives
and clarifying the immediate steps required to achieve this desired state of the
community at mine closure.

While some informants were forthcoming with a variety of concerns, others were
more reticent. For this reason, interviewers used a number of prompts when
interviewees were less forthcoming. The prompts were based on a local adaptation of
the range of issues captured in the 7 questions to sustainability initiative, a North
American multi-stakeholder initiative aimed at monitoring a comprehensive range of
mine outcomes [30].
The degree of tension and distrust in the communities was an important factor
limiting the representation of the interview sample. It was found that especially those
people who were currently employed in certain mines and those who had current
leadership positions in mine-affected communities were in some cases less willing to
be interviewed than others in the community. The reluctance was stronger where
mining operations were larger and intra-community tensions higher. This reluctance
was explained by some research participants as being related to interview fatigue or
to generally high levels of distrust. Other informants explained the reluctance to be
interviewed as related to the personal interests that community leaders have
142 C.J. Odell et al.

employed in order to obtain personal and family benefits from the mine, which could
lead to discomfort during the interview process. Others still related this reluctance to
fear of losing potential or existing benefits from the mine if others reported that they
had talked to outsiders without permission. Interviews were carried out in either
Spanish or Quechua (or both) depending on the informant’s comfort level. The
interviewers were local development specialists experienced in interviewing. In some
cases, local committee members carried out interviews, while in situations where
intra-community tension was intense, interviewers were less closely connected with
the communities.

6. Results
6.1. Structuring objectives
Each interview was recorded using digital tape recorders and the recordings were
used to create detailed notes concerning the content of interviews. These notes
formed the basis for coding the interviews according to themes and the relationships
between themes using the NVivo7TM software. The relationships between the themes
were used to structure the ideas expressed in the interviews into influence diagrams
that graphically depicted the relationships between the different perceived impacts
and benefits and their links with community objectives and values. Because a
theoretical sampling approach was used, the importance of objectives was gauged by
the explanations of relevance and importance for a particular group in the
community, rather than by the overall number of mentions.
Figure 4 shows a portion of an influence diagram for one community and
demonstrates the importance of these diagrams for understanding the interrelation-
ships between objectives and experiences, with many objectives resulting directly
from negative impacts experienced. In the diagram, the relationships between a
diverse set of impacts and benefits result in a dynamic of concentration of benefits in
the hands of a few (white ovals), while the majority of the population is increasingly
impoverished (grey ovals). This process begins with the sale of land resulting in the
loss of grazing animals: an ongoing source of capital, food and savings for
community members. In addition, the dominance of individual interests in the
strategies of many community leaders leads to a concentration of employment
opportunities and associated wealth accumulation in the hands of a few families, an
effect that is magnified by the arrival of additional family members from the city.
These growing families find that their land and housing assets are inadequate, while
unemployed families have lost their safety mechanism for paying, for example,
unanticipated medical expenses (selling livestock). Lacking these ‘savings’, un-
employed families sell land to employed families thus increasing the polarisation of
impacts and benefits. Another dynamic that exacerbates the increased poverty of
many families is the amplified salary expectations of people in communities close to
mine sites and the weakening of community rotating labour and reciprocity systems.
This leads to a situation where many people, who have land but no income source,
are unable to farm their land, because they cannot afford to pay others in the
community to assist in the labour intensive tasks of planting, cultivating and
harvesting. At another mine site studied (influence diagram not shown), the rotation
of unskilled jobs among local community members limited this type of dynamic,
where some people become wealthy while others are impoverished, leading to
generally stronger benefits and less negative impacts.
Figure 4. Portion of the influence diagram for community two, showing relationships between impacts and benefits.
International Journal of Mining, Reclamation and Environment
143
144 C.J. Odell et al.

The influence diagram was used to create a second type of analytical diagram, the
means-ends diagram. The means-ends diagram separates intermediate or tactical
‘means’ objectives from the underlying ‘fundamental’ objectives. For example, as
shown in Figure 5, reducing contamination was an aim mentioned by many
interviewees. When asked why this was important, answers almost always
concentrated on crop production and animal and child health. Further discussion
revealed that good crop production was perceived as important to produce food for
consumption, as well as to earn money to pay for living costs (food, education and
health), while child health was seen as an aim in and of itself. In this way, improving
health was identified as a fundamental objective while reducing contamination was
seen as a means objective.
Within the VFDA methodology, this separation of means and ends objectives is
critical to the creation of practical concise indicator frameworks, which avoid
overlap between indicators. Such overlap limits the applicability of many indicator
frameworks to decision making because they tend to double count many issues. For
example, analysis of Figure 5 demonstrates that if indicators of contamination and
child health are both included in an indicator framework, then, aggregating the
outcomes of contamination and child health would cause the double counting of
contamination in the aggregated total. This type of structuring, focusing on desired
results, also assists analysts to concentrate on creative strategies for achieving the
fundamental outcomes desired rather than becoming bogged down in means
objectives, which bias selection towards predetermined projects.
The next step was to design a logical structure for the fundamental objectives
identified, which reflected the objectives described in the interviews but also made
sense from a local cultural perspective. In order to achieve this, an objectives tree was
created in conjunction with the local researchers. The resulting structure reflected the
central place of the family and fields in rural communities, while also allowing
critical elements of community and municipal institutions to be measured. An
example of an objectives tree is shown in Figure 6.

Figure 5. Portion of the means-ends diagram for community two.

 International Journal of Mining, Reclamation and Environment 145

In Figure 6, 14 sub-objectives were organised around four objectives: maximising

family, community and mine-closure wellbeing and promoting continuous learning.
Family wellbeing forms the first objective of the four. The focus on the family
supports measurement of the resources that each family has at its disposal to achieve
the wellbeing of its members and also enables the degree of inequity in resource
distribution (between families) to be monitored. Objectives of maximising healthy
productive resources and maximising financial incomes are combined in the
framework to form a sub-objective of ‘sufficiency of family resources,’ reflecting
the contributions of both to family subsistence. In addition, maximising health status
of family members is an objective and is one criterion, which focused in part on the
situation of women, a particularly important factor in mining situations, as mine
impacts tend to fall unequally on men and women.
Finally under the family wellbeing category is the objective of avoiding stress
(creating tranquillity), which was mentioned by over 90 per cent of informants.
Stress that was generated by the mine fell into three main categories: (i) rapid
changes in lifestyle and customs that accompany mine development, (ii) losses in
income from agro-pastoral activities and the associated losses of sources of savings,
and (iii) corrupt practices by leaders and the manipulation of community meetings
that created a sense of impotence to influence the changes in process. Of these issues
(i) and (ii) were considered in the objective of avoiding stress at the family wellbeing
level. The power to influence changes was separated into two components: one
component was the inclusion of an aspect of community wellbeing and the other
included the aspect of ‘continuous learning’. In terms of community wellbeing, the
focus was on effective institutional processes at the community and municipal levels.
Levels of service provision were not included here because service provision is a
means objective for generating increased agricultural activity and better health and
education levels at the family level. This section therefore focuses on specific
community infrastructure and community and district social organisation and
governance.

Figure 6. The objectives tree for community two showing objectives and sub-objectives.
146 C.J. Odell et al.

The aims for mine closure wellbeing focused on the existence of income sources
and productive resources that will outlast the mine and the level of capacity
remaining in the community. Once again, this category recognises the critical role of
combined income and agro-pastoral resources in the local economy, as well as the
need to diversify income generation strategies to provide more robust wellbeing in
communities. Process concerns centred on interactions between the mine, commu-
nity leaders and community members, which emerged as significant concerns in the
analysis. These cannot, strictly speaking, be seen as fundamental objectives in their
own right; however, more than a decade of VFDA practice has shown that these can
be viewed as important contributors to the fundamental objective of promoting
continuous learning [31], so they were included in the objectives tree under this
criterion. The continuous learning rubric includes the sub-objectives of increasing
public participation in decisions, promoting transparency and implementing
participatory development planning.

6.2. Designing measures (indicators)

After formulating the objectives trees, the individual sub-objectives were used to
design indicators capable of measuring the expected or current results for each, in a
series of workshops. Three types of indicators can be distinguished according to
Keeney [22]: natural measures, proxy measures and constructed measures. Natural
measures are the most intuitive measures: for example measuring income in dollars
or productivity in kilograms of crops produced. In some cases, natural measures are
unsatisfactory for a given criterion, but they are appropriate for measuring a closely
related proxy objective, and are therefore used to quantify the objective through the
proxy. For example, measuring productivity in kilograms of crops, becomes
complicated if a variety of crops are produced, in this case, hectares of irrigated land
may stand as an effective proxy for productivity (see Table 1 for more examples).
During the design of proxy measures, it was found to be important to refer back to
the influence diagrams, which clarified how directly the proxy related to the objective
and identified any potential double counting that might be introduced through use of
the proxy measure. Trust in leaders was one objective where a constructed measure
was needed, as no clear natural or proxy measures were available. A subjective
‘Likert’ scale for rating trust, on a 1 to 5 scale, was used initially. However, where
political interests made the subjective measure unreliable, a second more objective
constructed measure was developed, which compared the number of family members
of community leaders who were working with mining contractors or at the mines
with the numbers of the non-leader population enjoying these benefits. This measure
was more complicated to communicate, but its link to key issues of concern made it
understandable within the local communities.
Measurement design proved to be an iterative process, which varied according to
the specific social and decision contexts. For example, measurements for
productivity of resources depended on the context: the types of production and
the specific constraints important in a community. In one community, where
irrigation was the key constraint to productivity, hectares of irrigated land proved to
be an effective indicator of current agricultural productivity and litres of water
available for future irrigation an appropriate measure of mine closure productivity
potential in a participatory strategic planning process. In another community, more
complex ‘constructed measures’ had to be designed to balance irrigated land areas
 International Journal of Mining, Reclamation and Environment 147

Table 1. A selection of objectives and indicators designed in different communities.

Objective Subobjective Measure

Family Sufficiency of Community 1.
wellbeing family resources % of families with at least one person earning
to meet needs minimum wage.
Number of irrigated hectares per family.
% of women who earn at least half of the
minimum wage.
Community 2.
% of families with at least one person earning
minimum wage.
% of families who have increased their
agricultural land holdings.
% of families who have decreased their
agricultural land holdings.
Future Resource Community 1.
wellbeing productivity for Litres per second of irrigation water available in
the future the dry season in the driest 1/3 of the district.
Community 3.
Hectares of healthy pasture in the upper valley.
Hectares of irrigated land in the lower valley.
Water quality at irrigation intakes meets
irrigation standard and/or fish habitat
standard.
Future Competitive skill Community 3.
wellbeing level Extent of entrepreneurial skills in the
population (number of successful small
businesses).
Community 4.
Number of children with basic computer
literacy graduating from elementary school.
Continuous Transparency Community 1.
learning Number of participatory environmental
monitoring activities per year.
Community 3.
Number of service and supply contract requests
made available to local community with
accessible contract provisions.

with quality of pasture for livestock and water resources available for aquaculture.
Similarly, other indicators depended fundamentally on existing conditions, with high
school completion a key objective in many rural areas, while access to computing
resources and technical training were desired indicators of educational competitive-
ness in more urban communities. Still other communities focused on developing
entrepreneurial skills within their communities.
In some communities, certain objectives were largely redundant. For example, in
one district, conflict over distribution of benefits and impacts was a key concern,
with self-interested leaders monopolising mine-related benefits within their families.
In contrast, in another district, inequities were most evident between different
impacted communities and thus inter-community rather than intra-community
equity was the most pressing issue for measurement. Thus, in the first district, the
measure of stress in the community compared the percentages of families who were
148 C.J. Odell et al.

becoming poorer with those who were becoming richer, while in the second district,
the ability of community and district leadership to ensure fair distribution of
community benefits was measured by counting the number of development
initiatives in each community over a 2-year period. These features of the specific
social context of each mine determined the key parameters for measuring the
objectives in the community.
The objectives in rural communities were compared with those in urban areas,
those of communities close to different mine sites were compared with each other
and those of directly impacted communities were compared with those of indirectly
impacted communities. This analysis was then used to present the results of the
analysis at a RROLVAA workshop where these comparisons were used to refine
indicators for each of the communities represented in the RROLVAA. In some
cases, separate indicator sets were designed for individual villages within the district
represented by the RROLVAA. For example, in the coastal areas, some
communities engaged in fishing, others in agriculture and others were largely urban,
thus different indicators of family wellbeing were necessary for these different
communities.

7. Initial conclusions
One general finding of the research is that there is no simple set of indicators that has
universal applicability to all mine-impacted communities in the Ancash region.
Despite this finding, it can be seen that, the general objectives for all of the
communities are largely similar, with key differences in the relative importance of the
objectives in each community and the details of the most effective way to measure the
objectives within each community. Objectives related to livelihood strategies and
conflict dynamics were those most commonly requiring changes from the initial
indicators developed. Other examples of specific modifications that were needed in
different communities included the following:

(1) In one community, prostitution and associated losses in the strength of the
family institution were noted as a serious problem. In this community, the
local town was distant from larger cities, which in other cases served to
displace this type of impact from the local area to urban centres. Here, family
integrity became an important sub-objective for the fundamental objective of
family wellbeing.
(2) In two other situations, several respondents noted the links between local
residents who contracted with the mines and changing values in the local
community. Here, a measure of community cohesion was added to the
measures of community wellbeing.

Despite the absence of a unique framework, application of the approach in the

field has demonstrated its potential for identifying stronger and weaker overall
outcomes in mine-affected communities and also for comparing the potential
outcomes or setting targets for different development strategies. In terms of targets,
goals were set for numbers of irrigable hectares or anticipated decreases in
malnutrition levels expected to accompany specific development interventions, to
compare different approaches and to enable progress to be reported against these
goals. In addition, the indicators showed promise as a framework to support longer
 International Journal of Mining, Reclamation and Environment 149

term development planning in mine-affected communities, by overtly incorporating

indicators which reveal the balance between more immediate goals and longer term
or mine-closure wellbeing objectives.
The approach demonstrates that in order to design effective interventions, the
nuances of the dynamic and complex interaction between social context and mining
operations requires a relatively sophisticated understanding of local livelihood
strategies, gender relationships, institutional arrangements, politics and the types of
sidetracking that could derail the most well-designed development interventions.
This knowledge is necessary so that indicators effectively capture the issues of
concern incorporated in the objective and underscores the need to combine
development expertise with transparent and participatory assessment processes. In
addition, changing expectations lead to the need to adapt indicators when conditions
change, as seen with the educational achievement indicators.
Although the approach described was employed in the Andes, a similar approach
could be applied in other mine-affected communities and towns, as the research
observed that important similarities existed between the objectives for different types
of community and scales of mining operation. For this reason, it is proposed that the
indicator framework presented here could serve as a generic model for adaptation in
other areas of the country. The contextual differences suggest that there are different
priorities and key issues in different areas related both to a community and specific
company policies and thus, a series of interviews, focus groups or workshops should
be carried out to refine the framework for application in specific locations.
Key challenges for mining companies and local communities committed to
carrying out participatory monitoring based on this type of framework will include
the political hurdles of collecting objective data in polarised environments, an issue
that Filer [18] reports thwarted social monitoring in Papua New Guinea. This
challenge, evidenced by the obstacles experienced in the field, will apply both to
initial interviews and to any follow-up interviews that are necessary in conjunction
with monitoring, and its solution will depend on the specific situation. In some
places, there will probably be local organisations that have sufficient credibility and
capacity to carry out objective interviews. In other cases, where tension and distrust
are higher, it may be necessary to convene a representative community working
group to oversee indicator development and monitoring. This group could ensure
that funds are provided to credible independent organisations at arm’s length from
the company and other interested parties to promote objectivity and confidentiality.
In these cases, it will also be necessary for the company to openly support the study,
while guaranteeing anonymity to respondents, to encourage those groups most
dependent on the mine to participate without fear of retaliation.
It should be emphasised that the mining situations in this study include operating
and closed mines in the Ancash department of Peru. Mines in the exploration and
construction phases or in areas that are culturally different from the studied areas
may have very different developmental priorities, which would require more in depth
study.

8. Next steps
The field research phase continued into 2008 and consisted of applying the developed
indicators framework to the design and assessment of strategies and projects at the
community level in RROLVAA communities. In addition, the research included
150 C.J. Odell et al.

interviews with regulators and company representatives, focusing on their respective

goals and values for social outcomes around mine sites and how these were balanced
with financial, technical, environmental and political goals. The data will be analyzed
in conjunction with the community data to identify overlaps and gaps between the
objectives of different stakeholder groups and also to identify policies and other
strategies, which show promise for improving the outcomes of mining operations to
all of the stakeholders involved. In parallel with these activities, the RROLVAA will
use the results in this study as a tool to propel their strategic plan for Mining and
Local Sustainable Development and to improve dialogue with the corporate sector
as well as other stakeholders that are interested in sustainable local development in
mining areas.

Acknowledgements
This study was carried out with the support of a Doctoral Research Grant from the
International Development Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada. Information about this
organization can be found on their website at www.idrc.ca. In addition, Carol Odell’s doctoral
study was supported by a Bridge Strategic Research Fellowship and a University Graduate
Fellowship at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. The Mountain
Institute’s activities in this field were made possible by a donation from the USAID
(Cooperative Agreement HFP-A-00-02-00030-00/Matching Grant Program). The researchers
are grateful to the community members who willingly participated in the study.

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