2011-2012 Salvadoran Strategic Environmental Assessment and Mesa Nacional's response

In the Spring of 2011, the Salvadoran government carried out a Strategic Environmental Assessment in relation to proposed legislative ban on mining (for details about this assessment, see Bebbington 2012: 1155). In March 2012, the National Roundtable Against Metallic Mining in El Salvador (Mesa Nacional) released a response to this assessment demanding an immediate debate and approval of the proposed law banning metallic mining. Mesa Nacional opposed the conclusions of the Government's strategic assessment on the basis of, among other things, that insufficient information had been provided to allow for meaningful public consultation, there had been a lack of transparency regarding the decision to proceed with a strategic assessment and the methods for carrying it out, and the appearance that the assessment served as a means to support procedural formalities that favoured the interests of mining companies over substantive legislative changes.