TOR147: Balancing The Scales For Local Communities With Flaviano Bianchini of Source International

Terms Of Reference Podcast

Let's say you woke up tomorrow to the sound of someone knocking at your door. And, when you answer, the person standing outside politely explained that they were a representative of a energy company that had recently acquired the rights to extract the natural gas in the area. Oh, and a great deal of that resource happens to be located under your house.

Or, what if you were able to track changes in the water your community uses for drinking, cooking, bathing and cleaning physically change over the past few years - from a pure, clean resource, to one that is smelly, polluted or fouled in some other way. And that those changes began when a mining operation started upstream.

Now here's the kicker - you are unable to bring a complaint against thees resource extraction companies simply because you lack the time, money or other resources. Or, an even more likely scenario, if and when you do bring your issues to your local or national authorities, you find that the scales are tipped against you simply because the companies have access to seemingly unlimited amounts of time, money and insider knowledge.

My guest for the 147th Terms of Reference Podcast, Flaviano Bianchini, is intimately familiar with stories similar to these from around the world. But rather than just listen, he has helped create a powerful solution that has helped communities to fight back and tip the scales in their favor. Flaviano's organization, Source International, helps communities that are adversely affected by resource extraction activities, like mining or well drilling, by providing them with scientific and legal resources. As you'll hear us discuss, the support provided by Source has created profound results - large scale monetary rewards, injunctions against extraction activities and, in one case, completely rewriting mining laws.