1.5 Pulling it all together – Case study
Read the following case study and answer the questions to test your understanding of applying legal empowerment to a carbon project. We will keep referring back to this case study throughout the course, so take some time to read it closely.
The community of Banta located in Treeland (fictitious location) has been living in and using their forest land for generations. A few men from BigCompany came to the community of Banta a few years ago saying that they wanted to use the forest land for a carbon project and promised a new health clinic and a better road. A few male elders signed a contract with BigCompany, but they did not have the ability to fully read the contract because it used Treeland’s official language, which is different from the Banta language. A verification and validation body, Checkers, came to the community and met with the elders who signed the contract. Checkers did not speak with anyone else in the community and only had an interpreter who knew some the official language.
Problems arose quickly. The community did not have good information about the extent of their land that would be part of the project, and as a result, who should have say in the decision making. Land in Banta is communally owned and there is an elected council that was not consulted for the agreement. Some of those council members accused the elders of side-stepping the procedures for community decision making. Because the elders did not fully understand the agreement, they could not report how much money the community was likely to receive or what the community must do with the forest to receive that money. Women community leaders expressed concern about the overall project signing process, and that they will have to stop growing their crops inside the forest.
Some of the community members approached a local legal empowerment organization, WeStand, and asked them for help understanding the carbon project. WeStand supported community paralegals to hold several discussions with the community members that explained carbon projects and the community rights to land tenure and Free Prior and Informed Consent. The paralegals had separate discussions with men and women in multiple languages to ensure they heard from people throughout the community.
The community members organized themselves after the sessions and wrote a letter to BigCompany asking to see a copy of the agreement and to renegotiate. Though BigCompany initially ignored the letter, they released the project agreement and agreed to a meeting with the community after WeStand forwarded the letter to the carbon standard, Proof, and a journalist. Before the meeting with BigCompany, WeStand held a discussion with the community to go over the contents of the agreement and decide together about their priorities for negotiating with BigCompany. After several rounds of discussions, the community of Banta and BigCompany agreed to a new contract that included information about where the project would take place, 50% gross revenue to the community, job opportunities for the community (not part of the revenue share), and clarity of the types of land use within the forest (and some areas for continued farming). The community also required that any buyer of the credits must show that they have tried to reduce their emissions before buying the credit.
Checkers came to verify a new batch of credits. This time, the community knew the importance of Checkers report and reached out to make sure multiple people in the community, especially women, were interviewed. When Checkers submitted their report to Proof, the council and WeStand wrote letters in the public comment explaining some of the challenges that happened and how they were resolved.
After the negotiations, WeStand told the people of Banta that the government of Treeland was debating a new carbon law. The people of Banta went to testify at parliament about their experience and asked that FPIC be clearly included in the new carbon law. They also argued that all communities should have access to legal and technical support, like WeStand, before signing a contract.