Better relationships with neighbouring communitiesHernán BlancoThe relationship between forest companies and neighbouring communities is not always easy in Chile. In many cases, communities argue that they receive all the negative impacts of the activity - some examples are the effects of forest trucks on the roads and of pesticides on their crops - and few positive impacts associated with employment and economic activity. Some forest companies, in turn, blame the communities for forest arson, illegal wood extraction, and animal intrusion in their lands. There are a number of factors that affect the relationship between companies and communities. Some examples are:
The quality of the relationship between company and community is, increasingly, an important dimension in the forest business. Whereas years ago it was the environmental dimension that had to be included in companies' management principles, today the relationship with neighbouring communities is becoming part of companies principles and management practices. Situation This case study presents the experience of one leading forest company in Chile (Forestal y Agrícola Monte Aguila, part of the Shell group) and one of its neighbouring communities, the city of Curanilahue (about 30,000 inhabitants). We developed and carried out a public involvement program inspired by Desmond Connor's approach to "constructive citizen participation". The program's objective was to enrich the relationship between the company and the community in order to contribute to a better quality of life for the community and a better productive performance for the company. A main concern for the company was the occurrence of forest fires and its correlation with a deficient relationship with the neighbouring communities. The objective of this paper is to share the results and lessons of this experience. It is particularly important to show the relevance of Connor's approach in a Latin American context. Activities and Results We started the project by studying both the company and the community involved. This first step would give us key information to plan how to continue with the program of public participation. In order to study the company, we interviewed managers and field staff. Some of the issues we looked at were:
The company profile we prepared focused on the relevant aspects influencing its relationship with the community. We did not attempt to develop an organizational diagnosis, as no significant problems were identified in the company's internal performance. The second step was to undertake a social profile of the city of Curanilahue. A sociologist with field experience spent four days interviewing about 20 people, including community leaders and local authorities. Among our findings were the following:
At this point we were ready to start working on the public involvement program. One of the main challenges we faced was to define the objective of the program: what would the message to the community be? Why this program? Why is the company interested in launching this program now? The case is easier when we think of a participation program for a new project (for instance, within the Environmental Impact Assessment system). In that case, there is a legal procedure that defines deadlines and objectives, and there is expectation in the community as to the possible benefits and negative impacts of the project. This expectation motivates the people to get involved and participate. In our case, one main concern was how to motivate the community to participate in a "constructive" manner. The company had previous experiences with poor results in terms of participation. Before continuing with the public participation program, we had a one-day seminar with the company personnel (from the operation manager down to field staff) to (i) train them on the approach, (ii) agree on the program´s objective, (iii) select the company's team that would be in charge of the program, (iv) and plan the following steps. The program would last about 3 months. Its general objective would be to enrich the relationship between the company and the community. Its specific objectives would be to (i) solve problems that affect both the company and the community, (ii) find and develop activities that would be of mutual benefit, and (iii) build together a long term plan to facilitate their relationship. We then followed Connor's basic sequence of activities: responsive publication, open house and planning workshop (1). The responsive publication's format was double letter size (folded), printed in two colours. It included:
From the information in thee social profile, we concluded that the publication would be best distributed house by house. Since the radio was revealed as a main media for communications, we also considered short radio messages to invite to the open house. The company's team leader also had direct and informal contacts with the community authorities. The open house took place in the local public school, just at the central square of Curanilahue. We prepared simple and informal display panels, each one with a cartoon to best illustrate the information, especially for those with limited reading skills. A couple of days before the open house took place we trained 5 company staff, so that they could work in shifts of 3 or 4, depending on the number of visitors. The open house ran from 11 am to 7.30 pm. More than 600 people were counted. This number of visitors was considered a success. It is unlikely that a traditional public meeting would have attracted as many people. The staff at the open house was completely satisfied with the results. They had the impression that many people in the community took this initiative very seriously, and even came in with documents and proposals. Regarding the opinion of the people about the relationship between company and community, the coupons collected at the open house revealed that 47% thought it was "very good", 40% ranked it "good", and 9% considered it "deficient". Seven issues of concern to the community of Curanilahue were identified:
So far so good: at this point we had an impact on the community, we had informed them, motivated them, and we had identified relevant issues for them. The next step would be to "solve problems". To do so, we would need to sit together with the most important (representative) community leaders - previously identified in the social profile - with relevant company personnel. This is what Connor has named "the planning workshop". The one-day planning workshop took place a couple of weeks after the open house. We previously prepared and distributed terms of reference among the participants. The terms of reference defined objectives, participants, program of work, and date and venue. A neutral professional, with experience in the approach, facilitated the planning workshop. The morning was mainly dedicated to building trust, acceptance and respect among the participants. We reviewed the agenda for the day and all the activities developed so far in the program. We had one flipchart with the issues that concern the community and another with those that were important for the company (like forest arson, illegal wood extraction and animal intrusion). In both set of issues co-operation between the company and the community was fundamental to arrive to solutions. Before lunch we had both set of issues ranked in order of importance. In the afternoon we followed a problem-solving technique, for each item in both sets of issues, based on the following questions:
All the invited leaders attended the planning workshop. They had a positive opinion of the program results so far. This contributed to a constructive environment. Both company representatives and leaders were honest and respectful of one another. We reviewed the most significant problems. For each of them, a set of initiatives was agreed. It is important to mention that in all the activities we developed in this program, we hired services and people from the community. At present, the company has a fluent relationship with the community. The local council has been very positive about this experience; they awarded a diploma to Monte Aguila for its efforts to contribute to the city. This ends our three month program. In the next phase, we will report back to the community on the solutions for issues agreed to at the planning workshop. We will also seek the views of residents on alternative actions. Some lessons learned When we started this project we envisioned a number of challenges:
We believe the program successfully tackled these challenges and satisfied the original objectives. Some of the lessons we draw from the experience are the following:
The company, in turn, has drawn the following lessons:
Finally, and according to our experience (4), we believe Connor's approach is absolutely applicable in a country like Chile, although it is a quite different context to Canada. A powerful characteristic of this approach, that allows its application in different contexts, is the fact that it starts with a comprehensive study of the community involved. This study will determine the way the program should be developed. Notes:
Acknowledgement Claudia Sepúlveda and Darinka Czischke (both sociologists and researchers with the environmental planning center, CIPMA) worked with the author in this project. Jorge Holmberg and Marcial Cortés, from Fundación Chile (www.fundch.cl), also contributed to this project. I'm grateful to Forestal Monte Aguila for their co-operation and permission to publish this article. Bio Note Hernán Blanco is an engineer with a Masters in Environment and Development from Cambridge University where he wrote his thesis on public participation. He has used Desmond Connor's approach to constructive citizen participation in two other industrial development projects in Chile. He is currently Project Coordinator with the environmental research centre, CIPMA, www.cipma.cl, in Santiago, Chile. Comments to this article are warmly welcome; please write to hblanco@cipma.cl.
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