Asian Transformations in Action - Api-fellowships.org

36 PERSISTENT PROBLEMS, PROMISING SOLUTIONS AND BENEFICENCESOCIAL IMPACT OF JAPANESE PRIVATE-SECTOR PROJECTSON LOCAL PEOPLE IN THE PHILIPPINES AND MALAYSIAHozue HataeIntroduction“Sustainable development” has been the mainstreammindset of development projects since 1992 whenthe World Environmental Summit was held in Rio deJaneiro. The concept is derived from the challenge of howwe can dissolve the conflicts between “development”and “the environment” for our lives to be sustainable.In this light, various actors, such as multinationalcorporations and financiers, have set up “self-imposedcontrol” and social responsibility policies which takeinto account environmental and social aspects.Japanese campanies have done the same. Currently,more Japanese corporations are engaged in developmentprojects abroad, especially in Asia. They have beenfocusing on large-scale infrastructure projects, suchas dams, irrigation systems and power plants, andextractive industry projects, such as oil, gas and mining.These projects are supposed to attain “sustainabledevelopment” with their own “self-imposed control”and social responsibility policies.However, these controls and policies have still beenunable to prevent significant social impacts resultingfrom these large-scale development projects. The localpeople who live near the projects still suffer from losingtheir homes, livelihoods and traditional ways of life. It isdifficult to say that “sustainable development” has beensuccessfully achieved.Objectives and significance of the studyThe research aims to reflect on the reasons for the abovementionedsituation and make some recommendationsfor the attainment of genuine “sustainable development”for local people. Japan currently plays a vital role indevelopment projects in Asia as investor, financier andimplementor and will certainly seek new opportunitiesfor development projects abroad in the future. Thus,it is important to make recommendations about goodpractices for Japanese campanies to secure social justiceand genuine development for local people.MethodologyIntensive interviews with local people affected by threeJapanese private-sector projects were conducted inorder to identify:(1) What kinds of social impact local people areconcerned about;(2) How the meaningful participation of theaffected people was secured in the planning,implementation and/or monitoring processesrelated to the social issues; and(3) Whether the project proponents couldsuccessfully prevent or mitigate social impact.Findings: Illustrations from three casesThree Japanese private-sector projects show how largescaledevelopment projects could possibly turn intodestructive ones for local communities and highlightthe challenges in achieving “genuine development” forlocal communities. These cases are presented below. 1Case study 1: Coral Bay Nickel Project in thePhilippinesThe Rio Tuba Nickel Mining Company (RTNMC) hasbeen operating an open-pit mine situated in BarangayRio Tuba in the municipality of Bataraza in the southernpart of the province of Palawan since 1975. After thirtyyears of open pit mining, the RTNMC entered intoa partnership with Coral Bay Nickel Corporation(CBNC) to put up a Hydrometallurgical ProcessingPlant (HPP) in order to recover nickel and cobalt fromthe low-grade ore that forms a mountain of mine wastesfrom the original nickel mining activity. The majorcomponents of the HPP project include a hydrogensulfide facility, a limestone quarry and tailings dams.The HPP was constructed within the existing miningarea of the RTNMC with an investment of USD150million and started its operations in 2005. There iscurrently an expansion plan to construct another HPP,with the second plant next to the existing HPP.The project owner is the joint venture CBNC, composedof three Japanese companies, Sumitomo Metal MiningAsian Transformations in ActionThe Work of the 2006/2007 API Fellows