Legal empowerment for local resource control

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In addition, although few lessons from recent experience with SIAs in largescale
investment projects are publicly available and there is a clear need for
further work in this area, the available literature on early SIA exercises
suggests that weak methodologies, inadequate baseline research and lack
of understanding of complex local (“customary”) resource tenure systems
have led to disappointing results in many past SIAs. For instance, there have
been reports that the number of affected people has been substantially
underestimated in several cases (Cernea, 1997; WCD, 2000). In the Ruzizi
Hydroelectric Project (Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Burundi),
the “less than 200 people” that were expected to be displaced by the project
ended up being 20,000 (Cernea, 1997). While the focus of assessment
exercises has often been on displacement, other negative impacts on local
resource rights (e.g. loss of seasonal access to grazing land) were overlooked
in many cases (Cernea, 1997). And, in assessing the extent of loss of land
rights, the focus has often been on cultivated land. Under many
“customary” systems, this is only a fraction of the land held by local
resource users – part of the land being left fallow for regeneration
purposes. In resettlement schemes, this has resulted in considerable
reductions in cultivable land per family (e.g., on the Nangbeto Dam in Togo,
Cernea, 1997).
Some recent SIAs have developed much more sophisticated ways for
dealing with social impacts, including by paying greater attention to
minimising and compensating negative impacts on “customary” resource
rights that are not legally protected (for instance, with regard to the
Environmental Management Plan developed for the Chad-Cameroon
pipeline project). Involvement of lending institutions like the World Bank
has been instrumental to improvements in SIA standards. Given the rapid
development of this area of law and practice, there is a need for more indepth
research on more recent approaches to SIAs and on their
outcomes.
A final challenge for the effectiveness of SIA processes in minimising
negative impacts on local resource rights relates to the extent to which
government agencies have economic, human and other resources to ensure
compliance with applicable legislation on standards. This aspect varies
significantly across countries but tends to be problematic across Africa.