Natural resources, risk-based due diligence, stakeholder engagement and public participation in decision-making: building comparative Arctic-Global South sustainability research

Abstract:

Natural resource exploitation generates social and environmental impacts that affect local communities both positively and negatively. International law and recent public regulation of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) have raised expectations of economic actors to prevent adverse impacts through risk-based due diligence (DD), a procedural approach to identify and manage societal impacts. Climate change opens new economic opportunities and sustainability challenges for Arctic areas through non-renewable (fossil fuels, minerals) and renewable resources (fisheries, forestry, animal husbandry, agriproducts, renewable energy). The complex legacy of the Global South in similar fields includes critique of inadequate stakeholder consultation. Most Arctic countries have strong public institutions and procedures for stakeholder consultation and public participation. Examining the comparative experiences of the Arctic and the Global South, how can risk-based DD help develop bottom-up governance in identifying and managing community risks and benefits? This defines the scientific focus of our project that brings together leading scholars from Brazil, South Africa, Canada, Finland, Greenland and Denmark to develop research collaboration, projects and publications spanning law, sociology, political science, organization/ management. Based at Copenhagen Business School (CBS)’s Centre for Social Responsibility, the project will benefit from CBS’ leading sustainability research environment and its Global South expertise, in turn enhancing CBS’ emergent Arctic sustainability research.