Resolving Conflicts between Communities and Mining Companies in Conakry Guinea

In Conakry, Guinea, the road towards strengthening the resilience of riparian populations against mining companies is long and littered with obstacles. The tensions between different actors of the country's riparian populations—representatives of the businesses, the state, community organizations, and the mining company in 2007 were still very alive as of 2016. They are characteristic of the reciprocal mistrust fostered by the absence of a coherent and useful framework for dialogue that could attempt to prevent and resolve these conflicts. This particular case study is about the tensions between mining businesses and riparian populations, and also about the tools developed by Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) for raising awareness—tools necessary for building resilience little by little. Starting from this realization, the elements of a strategy for resilience gradually form, and thereby counterbalance the network of opposing forces and overcome the inadequacies of a still-inefficient government and judiciary system.