The Keystone Center – an independent, non-profit organization specializing in facilitating public discourse about contentious environmental and scientific issues – has agreed to work with the Pebble Partnership to assess options for fostering a productive and collaborative stakeholder dialogue about the Pebble Project.
The goal of the Keystone assessment process is to gather information from a diverse set of stakeholders in Alaska about topics that could be considered within a dialogue process, to determine whether and how such a process should operate, and assess its overall feasibility.
The objective of dialogue processes like that envisioned for Pebble is to address a wide range of environmental, cultural, and socio-economic issues associated with proposed developments, and ensure that stakeholder issues and priorities are understood and addressed.
The Keystone Center, with headquarters in Keystone, Colorado, has a 36-year history of conducting independent and objective stakeholder assessment and dialogue processes in the areas of environment, energy and public health policy.
Important aspects of the Keystone stakeholder dialogue assessment process include:
- Keystone’s work will be separate and distinct from stakeholder outreach activities undertaken by the Pebble Partnership, although the Keystone team may take advantage of opportunities where stakeholders are gathered together;
- the Keystone Center team will work with independent Alaska-based facilitators to design and carry out the assessment process;
- Keystone Center professionals will operate with complete independence, although the Pebble Partnership is sponsoring the work;
- the Keystone team welcomes information, feedback, and advice from stakeholders at any point in the assessment process.
Keystone is particularly adept at managing public dialogue processes involving scientific complexity, uncertainty, and controversy. Keystone’s international reputation hinges on its ability to integrate science into the dialogue process in ways that inform sound decision making.