Pacheco Cueva - An Assessment of Mine Legacies and How to Prevent Them: a Case Study from Latin America

Department of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark

Vladimir Pacheco Cueva

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Given the foci of the research, the process of enquiry in this book is iterative or moving from the general to the specific and vice versa. Sometimes national and international trends and statistics are reflected and/or validated in local realities. At other times the reverse occurs: a local observation requires larger trends and explanations in order to make sense. The most appropriate technique for this iterative process is the Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA). There are many reasons for using this technique in assessing mining legacies:

Relying on various sources of information means that RRAs can generate large amounts of data within a short period of time. This also means that, often, it can become difficult to separate the ways in which data were collected. Still, three forms of data collection and calculation methods are distinguishable in this study: in situ or field observations; key informant interviews; and analysis of secondary sources. The in situ or field observations are qualitative in nature as well as the interviews with key informants. Secondary sources consisted mostly of quantitative data obtained from government agencies, other studies carried out in the area (such as those by the Centro de Investigacin sobre Inversin y Comercio-CEICOM) and expert opinion. Quantitative data from secondary sources was supplemented with queries to government agencies and local NGOs. The study also made use of results from a CARITAS Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) carried out earlier in 2008 at La Presa hamlet, San Sebastian. Additional information about the socio-economic environment of the municipality of Santa Rosa de Lima and the department of La Union came from a variety of sources, including the governments statistical agency (DIGESTYC), the central governments water authority (ANDA), the Ministry of Health and the Central Bank. Also, on several occasions under the auspices of the new law on information access for citizens, the author made use of the Office of Information and Response (OIR) at the Ministry of Economy (Directorate of Hydrocarbons and Mines) and the Ministry of Finance. Interviews were also carried out with officials from the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock and the Hospital in Santa Rosa de Lima.

The in situ inspection, interviews with key informants and analysis of secondary sources provided information to suggest that there are four main legacies left by the San Sebastian mine:

For reasons of space and simplicity the methodology used for each one of these legacies is explained in Chap..

References

Footnotes

The research relied on the cooperation of two local NGOs: ASPRODE and CRIPDES. These NGOs and the communities of San Sebastian have a long history of collaboration meaning that institutional knowledge of the area is strong. Furthermore the author hails from the eastern part of the country and his family has intimate knowledge of the territory where the mine is located.

Department of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark

Vladimir Pacheco Cueva

Email: