The Resettlement process in the Lignite mining areas of Kosovo : [presentation given February 23, 2010]

The resettlement process for the purposes of exploiting natural resources often causes problems for governments and the people concerned. This is the case in most countries. In fact, the use of private agricultural land or the construction of industrial buildings for the purpose of exploiting natural resources can be relatively easily compensated with money or other benefits. Industrial buildings can be rebuilt at another location, and agricultural land can be exchanged for other land owned by the company. However, when it comes to the requirement to demolish and/or relocate houses, then the question is much more complex than just compensation of the property values. It is a question of what do you do with the people? And this question is in fact much more complex since it is mostly about social structures, employment, psychological factors, home ownership, and so forth. There is also the big question of health. With Kosovo’s previous centralized economy the question of resettlement was “solved” by moving the people to apartments somewhere in a city, but this approach is not acceptable in a Kosovo’s new democratic society. Private life and the social structures developed over a long period of time are very highly valued and are now given greater respect. In the case of Kosovo, the use of coal for power production has an enormous economic value. Having said that, it goes without saying that coal exploitation as a sole natural resource fuel for energy production is the backbone for overall development of the country. There is, however, a need to address the issue of resettlement given the fact that the experience from the past created problems that might disturb the operations in the future. The Capstone Project addresses the issue of resettlement by providing inputs from other countries in order to point out the most important steps for carrying out a sound and acceptable resettlement. It also provides with essential legal comparative analysis as well as financial implications accruing in this process. As such, the outputs of the report will portray the best practices of resettlement to be used by Kosovo institutions