Challenging extractivism: Activism over the aftermath of the Fundão disaster

Highlights

• The disaster responses raised questions around victims safety over its consequences.

• Stakeholders investigated the reasons why the incident happened.

• Authorities were criticized due to their slow response in urgent actions.

• In 2015 the Brazilian society learned the harms associated with mining activities.

• Mining companies all over the world started reviewing their tailings dam management.

Abstract

Tailings dam failures represent one of the highest risks associated with the mining industry. When such a disaster happens, it usually has enormous social and environmental consequences. The literature commonly suggests that dam failure events happen after periods of increased mineral demand. During high demand peaks, more waste material is generated, and during recession, financial cutbacks can lead to unpredicted effects on safety, especially in operations where the domestic authorities have less capacity to monitor and reinforce the rule of law. Based on document analysis from data collected during the first 60 days after the Fundão dam failure in Brazil, results highlight the capacity of companies and authorities to deal with disaster remediation, which have enabled multilevel activism. It shows how collective actions are relevant to support local claims/campaigns connected to rights and the service of justice in the disaster aftermath.

Introduction

Between two and five major tailings dam failures happen per annum, according to estimates (Davies, 2001), and many of them remain under- or unreported, which has seriously hindered the development of appropriate safety regulations (Azam and Li, 2010; Rico et al., 2008). Moreover, scholars studying tailings dam failures have investigated the available data related to the number of failure events in terms of temporal and spatial distribution, cause, and impact (Azam and Li, 2010; ICOLD, 2001; Rico et al., 2008). The literature is scarce, though, when it comes to understanding the role of civil society and its capacity to respond when a disaster like this happens. However, mineral extraction and waste disposal structures stimulate debate in civil society about mining (non) acceptance and development-inclined agendas, and they are also gaining relevance and controversy in politics (Beer and Chaisson, 2019).

Interdisciplinarity plays a relevant role when experts work toward preventing or containing the effects of tailings dam failure (Kossoff et al., 2014). Mining disasters offer important opportunities to learn about the interconnections and adaptations between society, technology, and the environment when unexpected events occur (Mitchell, 1996).

Once local communities are contaminated they become stuck, suffering the impacts and consequences associated with a mining disaster. Apprehension and fear are recurrent, aggravated by disagreements over the definition of the situation, with multiple interpretations in the broader political context intensifying the conflict (Couch, 1996). Thus, activists must learn lessons from previous corporate and government responses in similar conflict cases (Kirsch, 2002). It is common for companies to use tactics to weaken activists’ coalition efforts (Kirsch, 2002; Kraemer et al., 2013; Arce, 2016). This is especially common in cases where victims have limited capacity to participate in the aftermath of the disaster and therefore need to fight for their rights, such as in countries where the rule of law is ‘weak’ and democracy is fragile in practice.

Mining disasters raise questions about how communities and other relevant stakeholders are learning to deal with the negative consequences of the extractive industry based on their and other people’s previous experiences. Some inputs are also related to how companies and the industry are responding to such disasters as they are happening. Although reports are being produced in order to educate mining companies on how to prevent new disasters from occurring, reality shows that tailing dam failures are increasing over time (Cf. Azam and Li, 2010). As a consequence, recent environmental disasters involving the extractive industry have led to increasing levels of suspicion and negative perceptions regarding the controversies that are always associated with mineral extraction.

Major environmental disasters and associated responses can be framed in terms of prompt reactions from locals (victims) and authorities; public participation and public participation mechanisms; access to information; and access to justice (Skanavis et al., 2005). When authorities cannot protect communities by rule of law, local people feel desperate and activists often go abroad seeking international actors who could potentially exert some influence over companies’ actions (Coumans and Kirsch, 2011; Keck & Sikkink, 1998). Concurrently, activists have seen mining conflicts and disaster situations as opportunities to influence policy and politics in Latin America, for example (Arce, 2014).

Given the recent rise in tailings dam failures and mining disasters (Azam and Li, 2010) and the record of poor actions linked to remedial and recovery efforts when a disaster happens in a developing country (WRI, 2018; Shrivastava, 1996), we ask whether local communities’ and activists’ efforts are capable of influencing the aftermath of a disaster. To answer this, this paper will analyze how local communities and activists have participated in the Fundão dam disaster aftermath vis-à-vis how the companies and authorities involved have performed in terms of remedial and recovery efforts in the first 60 days after the burst.