Diavik Diamond Mines: community participation
Before diamond production at Diavik's project site in northern Canada started in 2003 Diavik spent eight years building trust and meaningful relationships with indigenous people comprising five Aboriginal groups who have historically used the land in and around the project site.
Regular community meetings enabled Diavik to develop a shared vision of the future mine. With the help of elders, traditional knowledge was incorporated into the project. This process of engagement and commitment led to a number of formal understandings between Diavik and the communities: an Environmental Agreement, a Socio Economic Monitoring Agreement and separate Participation Agreements with each of the five Aboriginal groups. Diavik regards neighbouring communities as full partners in realising the goal of sustaining ecological integrity, improving social well being through increased human and community capacity, and sharing economic prosperity generated by the project.
The project has created opportunities for capacity building and improved social circumstances in communities, especially through empowerment and shared responsibility for community based employment training programmes and small business development. More than 75 per cent of Diavik's workers live in the North; ensuring that company and mine are inseparably part of the evolving social and economic fabric of the region.
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