Community Relations and Development Programs
. In its western and eastern fields, PCV has permanent teams (including community liaison and labor relations officers) to deal with both community development and labor relations issues. Both complaints or informational queries can be channeled through these representatives and dealt with promptly. Meetings with communities are held on a weekly basis.

. By law, at least 60% of the workers for any oil operation must come from local communities. When work is needed, lists are supplied by officially-sanctioned unemployment committees in each community that assure every unemployed person a fair shot at new job offerings.

. PCV has socioeconomic development efforts since its arrival to the area. These include programs in education, health, agricultural technical assistance, environmental education and monitoring, capacity building, and job training. PCV is now implementing a series of longer-term social development programs together with the NGO SOCSAL. These programs were developed based on social-baseline analysis and consultation with local communities.

Project Land Use Acquisition and Compensation
. Community life in both fields have largely developed together with the oil and gas fields discovered here in the first decades of the 20th century. Most of the land is used for extensive grazing of goats or cattle with limited agriculture, primarily for local use. The main source of income continues to be employment and production associated with the oil industry.

. The majority of the land in both fields is owned by government institutions (local, municipal, or federal). Most residents in the area are not title holders but rather long-term residents (known locally a pisatarios) who have occupied land-claims often for several decades. Use rights can be established after 1 year of residency and average claims range from 67 hectares in the western field to between 397 to 653 hectares in the eastern fields.

. Detailed cadasters of local land tenure have been developed and coupled with a sophisticated GIS system, PCV is able to choose land use alternatives so that the fewest number of properties are affected. PCV land use generally affects only 0.36% to 2.3% of any given claim and does not appear to result in economic displacement. PCV has carried out all of its negotiations for land use on a “willing buyer” “willing seller” basis using accepted market value rates to negotiate compensation rates. PDVSA establishes and updates local market value guidelines for all crops and improvements made on land claims. The guidelines are used and accepted by all parties as a fair basis for determining compensation rates. Once a payment is agreed for use rights, a independently notarized document is legally-required to document that the beneficiaries have satisfactorily received and accepted agreed-upon payments.