Land Acquisition and Resettlement - Mining and the Environment: From Ore to Metal - page 600

Health Risks

Involuntary resettlement is often accompanied by trauma. Psychological depression,
together with stress and anxiety experienced during resettlement, may cause a decline in
physical and mental health. Substance abuse may augment such health risks. Unsanitary
conditions at resettlement areas can also contribute to vector-borne diseases such as malaria
or dengue fever. As might be expected, the young, old and frail disproportionately shoul-
der these health risks.

Food Insecurity

Food insecurity and malnourishment are symptoms of resettlement gone wrong. Food
insecurity is directly related to the degree to which pre-displacement sources of income
have been successfully replaced. Successful resettlement should create sustainable value for
relocated people, who should be better off after relocation.

Food insecurity and
malnourishment are symptoms
of resettlement gone wrong.

Loss of Common Land and Resources

Common land while not owned by individuals with direct ownerships rights, often con-
tributes signii cantly to a society's production system. Forest, water resources, or hunting
grounds are common property assets to which displaced people potentially lose access once
they are relocated. To compensate for such loss, displaced people may have to encroach on
protected areas or on the common land and resources of host communities. Pressure on
these resources increases, often causing environmental degradation or depletion.

Social Disarticulation

Resettlement breaks social patterns and interpersonal ties, so that affected communities
risk becoming fragmented and dispersed. The risk of social disarticulation is especially
real for Indigenous Peoples who do not have a long history of interacting with other cul-
tures and societies.
The IRR model can be used in two ways: i rst to identify the main poverty risks that are
involved in the economic and physical displacement associated with mine development;
and second to formulate strategies to mitigate and reverse these risks. A community risk
assessment and reversal matrix based on the IRR can help to concisely outline the level of
each risk and the strategy that is taken to reverse that risk ( Table 14.3 ).

Resettlement breaks social
patterns and interpersonal ties.

TABLE 14.3
Outline of a Community Risk Assessment and Reversal Matrix

IRR Risk Risk Level Risk Reversal Strategy

Tabulate all nine risk factors, e.g.
Landlessness

Quantify risk; e.g. as low, medium or high;
describe risk factors

List mitigation measures