(3)The Invention of a Territory: Mining Development and Socio-environmental Conflicts in Huasco Alto

摘要

This report provides information on the analysis and formulation of strategic action lines in the field of sustainable development and relations with communities and stakeholders related with Goldcorp's El Morro project, specifically with regards to the process of getting to know the territory or the project?s influence area in the context of a conflict that has been taking place over the last decade. This proposal falls within the context of the span immediately following the decision made by the company to rescind the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)submitted to SEIA in 2008, and the designing process of a new investment and mining project for La Fortuna gold deposit in the area of Huasco Alto, Atacama Region. Bebbington, Scurrah, and Chaparro (2013)noted that in Latin America "socio-environmental conflicts seem to have settled down as a part of the political landscape as well as of daily life in the region (Bebbington, Scurrah, and Chaparro, 2013)", due to the extension of mining investment in the area that started in the 90s'. However, social mobilization and conflicts can also be deemed as an opportunity to model the dynamics of local development and as a space of tension between different sustainability models in the territory. In this regard, our objective is to understand the basic attitudes and valuations of the families of Huasco Alto towards social development in the context of mining activities, in connection with the territory and its resources. The method is structured around liaising visits. Mapping land alterations is not merely documenting changes in the physical environment but also in the dynamics about meanings and socially assigned values to the territory as a 'lived space' (Aliste, 2010).