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Client: Jaguar Nickel Inc.
Location: Departamento de Alta Verapaz, Guatemala
Working closely with our client and a Guatemalan consultant, we started to develop environmental and socioeconomic baseline conditions in areas that would probably be influenced by continued development of the project. This included putting in a weather station, establishing flow stations in the local rivers and developing and implementing a surface water sampling program.
The project is close to several small villages; therefore, we worked with JNI to develop a way for the local people to express their concerns through a series of meetings. Some meetings included workshops to improve understanding of the exploration work and environmental controls that JNI was using.
We visited every house owner (over 100) in the immediate project area to gather information on the state of their housing, water supply and concerns so that JNI could focus its community development plan on the community’s needs. Working with JNI and local communities, we forged links aimed at maximizing local employment while forwarding exploration.
Other initiatives included training local people in environmental issues and training a local person to take water samples and flow measurements (he has since obtained other employment using these skills). As the project progressed house roofs changed from thatch to tin, a small but significant indicator that communities benefited from the employment and training.
Services:
- Environmental studies
- Community consultation
- Exploration environmental management
- Training of local people and consultants
- Socio-economic evaluation
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