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Description
The main activity of the project is the creation of a community online platform where people and communities affected by mining or facing new mining plans can share information, experience, and advice. In addition to the platform, a participation guide will be created, public participatory training will be provided and professional legal advice on specific issues will be given throughout the project to ensure that communities and citizens are knowledgeable when participating in decision-making.
The project will result in collaborative community members living in the mining areas who are aware of the mining process and use and maintain a common communication platform. The Estonian Environmental Law Centre is better equipped in in planning and conducting advocacy on mining issues.
Summary of project results
In Estonia, the need for natural resources for construction has seen an increase caused by new development projects. That is the reason why pressure is growing to expand existing mining sites and to open new ones. All this, in turn, affects the living environments of the people inhabiting the areas surrounding the extraction sites. The and a great number of communities are affected. In the framework of the project communities in Northern coast of Estonia in 3 counties - Harju, Lääne-Virumaa and Ida-Virumaa were brought together and a collaboration platform was created for them to use. The project team also raised their awareness concerning the procedural details and options of partaking in the decision-making, in addition to helping them participate in the administrative procedures. Guidelines were put together for the people and communities affected by natural resource extraction, and a seminar was held to provide guidance on how to participate in relevant administrative procedures. Additionally, free legal aid was provided to communities. One of the co-working platforms is a private Facebook group “Eesti Maapõue Abiks”, which currently has 93 members and is actively used by them for communication and sharing of information. As a result of the project, local residents and communities are better aware of the ways to participate in a more efficient way in decision-making processes that affect their living environment. The project helped create a network of local communities, enhancing cooperation between them – people who have been involved in mining issues for longer can help newcomers. This creates fertile ground for the decision-makers concerning mining projects to take more into account the interests and needs of local residents. To ensure the continuance of the project, a workshop was held for the people active in the field on the options of creating, leading, developing and funding networks. This creates possibilities for members of the collaboration platform to jointly carry out field-related advocacy. The sustainability of the project is also ensured by the fact that the collaboration platform shall remain in operation after the end of the project and there is still a large number of local communities who are directly affected by mining operations and are in need of this kind of shared platform.