ABSTRACT
Conflicting interpretations emerge from mining companies, environmentalists, communities and the public. Competing interests of profitability, conservation, participation and development tend to generate tensions. Cultural theorists argue that
1 POLYCENTRIC PROBLEMS AND IMPERFECT PROCEDURES
Policymakers, administrators and managers concerned with a goal of maximising the social benefits derived from natural resources are required to balance between environmental degradation and community participation. A polycentric adjudicative problem (Fuller 1978, p. 401) arises when different interest groups emphasise promotion of either of those valid goals at the expense of the other. At one extreme, liberal market proponents argue that government-ownership of minerals discourages entrepreneurship, private investment and production. However, environmentalists insist that private ownership rights must be subordinated to potential environmental harms by property. At another extreme, the mining industry may require use of private land in order to gain access to minerals. Yet, third generation human rights proponents increasingly recognise rights of local communities to participate in decision-making regarding development projects affecting them. While balancing between these extreme positions, the government, in exercise of its sovereign right of eminent domain conferring police powers over natural resources, is expected to stimulate investment in order to raise capital to facilitate sustainable economic development.
