Despite of a requirement of public consultations at a planning stage of environmentally hazardous in-vestments, social conflicts related to mining projects are not exceptional cases at present.
Based on different sources of information, the author has identified several dozens of such conflicts observed on a different scale in many areas of Poland in the period 2004–2009. They concern mining of various minerals, diversified in respect of exploitation methods or quantity of output. Local communities, non-governmental (mainly ecological) organizations and other groups of interest can be act as intervenients. Local governments, as decision bodies, become a specific side of conflict.
Intervenients usually undertake common actions aiming at, in their view, environmental protection. However, the term is understood in different ways, as the “natural environment” (environmentalists) on the one hand, and as widely interpreted “human environment” (local communities) on the other. Moreover, various companies or public institutions are guided by their own standpoints on directions of spatial development of an area under consideration.
In the paper, human environment was defined as the natural and anthropogenic surroundings in which people exist aiming at fulfilling all their needs. The human environment is composed of both material and non-material components, their features and relations. Moreover, the term also includes a man himself and different aspects of his life (among others health, social and economic issues).
According to the author, essential reasons that the mining-related conflicts are provoked by are as follows:(1) lack of knowledge and false opinions on the subject of the mining, economy and enironment, (2) NIMBY syndrome, (3) difficulties in the process of undertaking the objective and well-balanced decision by local authorities. Therefore, there is an urgent need to improve the public image of mining industry by means of appropriate information-educational policy of the state and individual mining firms. It also seems essential to work out methods of complex evaluation of mining projects in the spirit of sustainable (economically, socially and environmentally) development, e.g. like those based on multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA). Moreover, the author suggests to enrich the environmental impact assessment reports (EIAR) concerning mining projects by (1) introducting the touristic-recreational valorisation of an area under consideration and (2) analysing of hazards related to the transport of mineral products beyond mining plants
