In the Forest Gate operation of 2006, when a man was shot but later released without charge, community leaders expressed frustration over how little people were being told.
But Operation Sustainable Forest, as the resultant campaign is known, does stand out from its many predecessors in one respect: it appears to be yielding some results.
Vale also highlights its support for an extensive monitoring operation in the forest run by the Brazilian Government's conservation agency ICMBio - so we checked with the agency to get their perspective.
The agency said Nant y Bryn brook in the Crychan forest was polluted during a "tree thinning operation" and contractors working for the commission were responsible.
An ambitious forest engineer who had executed a turnaround at a state-owned coal operation, his biggest challenge was to rid SQM of its inefficient state-owned mentality.