THE NEED
Territorially enabling the Nueva Unión mining project in Alto del Carmen, in the Huasco province.
THE GOAL
Building a vision of the Province, generating a shared view of the future of both Huasco and Alto del Carmen and therefore of the project.
OUR RESPONSE
We designed a participative territorial investigation process through interviews and data collection, in search of a comprehensive story that that aligned the presence of Nueva Unión with the territory’s history and interests. That narrative, which also recognized the concerns of the Province’s inhabitants, became the basis of the Roadmap.
For preparing the document we summoned 120 representatives from different areas, including: the Regional and Provincial Governments, the province’s four municipalities, councils, public organizations, NGOs, neighborhood associations, educational and health establishments, cultural and artistic institutions.
Thus, the Roadmap represents the collaborative work of the Civil Society Council, The First Nations Community Dialogues, and technical teams from the municipalities of Alto del Carmen, Vallenar, Freirina and Huasco.
THE RESULT
After a year’s work, the Roadmap yielded an effective diagnosis that identified provincial and communal development axes, and allowed Nueva Unión to focus on the strategic objectives for enabling the process by developing a shared vision with the community. The document was presented in a massive event attended by about 400 people in the city of Vallenar, and generated a 92% acceptability of the project.
Then-mayor of Atacama, Patricio Urquieta, commented: “This initiative is a reflection of systematic work of a company together with civil society. The needs of the province of Huasco have been captured in this document, delivered today to the public sector”.
