Informed Consent and Mining Projects: A View from Papua New Guinea

Free, prior and informed consent is increasingly perceived as a means of ensuring that people's human rights are respected and their interests protected. This paper explores issues arising in the context of gaining informed consent about mining projects from people who are citizens of a developing nation. Assumptions about rights, processes of negotiation, scientific knowledge and environmental degradation are often alien to the local people involved. Drawing on anthropological research in Papua New Guinea, the complex interactions between understandings of scientists, environmentalists, corporation managers and indigenous people are examined. The pragmatic problems of ensuring that informed consent is gained and that the human rights of local people are equitably protected are explored and some tentative solutions offered.