In late August, 2007, Cerrejon and its shareholders announced the commissioning of an independent “social review” of the company’s past and current social engagement...The review panel held numerous meetings in Colombia, both in Bogota and in La Guajira, where it was privileged to meet with stakeholders...La Guajira region is one of the poorest of the country...Each of the shareholder companies which own Cerrejon [Cerrejon Coal is owned by Anglo American PLC, BHP Billiton, and Xstrata Coal] is a signatory to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative...To foster sustainable development and poverty reduction in La Guajira, Cerrejon should increase efforts to encourage and attract civil society organisations...it is clear to the panel that the Resettlement issue is central, and challenging...It is impossible to think of Resettlement and Cerrejon without thinking about Tabaco...the initial resettlement left the Tabaco community divided and bitter...It seems to us that Cerrejon can afford, and should afford, to address the situation all the Tabaco families find themselves in, whatever their stand on negotiation was in 2002...this kind of solution will only be sustainable if a fully participatory consultative process involving stakeholders supports it...