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Community Engagement
What is Community Engagement?
Community engagement involves interactions between identified groups of people. It can cover a wide range of activities including provision of information, consultation, education, communication and relationship building.
A community is a group of people who live in a particular geographical area or region, including urban, regional or remote groups of people. A community also includes people who associate with, share the values, interests and concerns of or have a common background.
Why is Community Engagement useful?
Effective community engagement helps to:
- Provide an early warning sign of emerging issues; allowing them to be dealt with proactively
- Build a broader understanding of common issues affecting industry and communities
- Allow exploration of a wider range of solutions and possibilities
- Build positive relationships
- Support effective communication
- Support a shared problem-solving approach to decision making
- Keep government, industry and communities informed about projects
- Provide the opportunity to use local knowledge to enhance project outcomes
DPI and Community Engagement
DPIs community engagement (CE) vision is about community, industry and government working together to achieve the sustainable development of Victoria’s earth resources in an informed, transparent and fair manner. We recognise that sound community engagement is a vital part of resource development.
Our approach to community engagement uses concepts developed by International Association of Public Participation (IAP2) and represented in its Public Participation Spectrum. The spectrum identifies five levels of community engagement as follows: Inform, Consult, Involve, Collaborate and Empower. Using the spectrum can help to manage expectations of the engagement process. It makes clear what is on the table for negotiation and what is not.
Mining and Exploration
In 2006 Community Engagement provisions were introduced to the Mineral Resources (Sustainable Development) Act 1990. The provisions state that licensees have a duty to consult with community by sharing information and providing community members with reasonable opportunity to express their views in relation to activities associated with the licence.
Furthermore, the legislation states that mining licensees must develop a community engagement plan. This legislation applies to all work plans approved from 1 October 2007, and any variation to a work plan since that date. CE plans can also be submitted voluntarily.
In 2008, DPI published Community Engagement Guidelines for Mining and Mineral Exploration (PDF 1.3MB). These guidelines were developed to assist industry to meet their obligations.
The Earth Resource Division's Community Engagement Strategy (PDF 478KB) is a four year strategy aimed to integrate community engagement into the core responsibilities of the Division.
The booklet is supplied in PDF format. To view the PDF document you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader. A free copy can be downloaded from the Adobe Acrobat (external link).
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