“Balancing the scales: Community Protocols and Extractive Industries. Lessons from Argentina, India, Kenya and Zimbabwe”, December 2016

 …The problems that arise when natural resources are discovered and exploited include environmental destruction, involuntary displacement [and] loss of livelihoods...The basic issues that give rise to…problems…[include] lack of inclusion of affected communities in planning, failure to obtain their timely and informed consent, including their right to say no to projects, [as well as] power imbalances…A “community protocol”…can help communities to mobilise and reach their own decisions about how development should take place...To build an understanding of the ways in which community protocols can be effective in the context of extractive industries, Natural Justice and the Heinrich Böll Foundation have partnered in an action research project with organisations and communities in Argentina, India, Kenya and Zimbabwe. The project…resulted in the creation of a Community Protocols Toolbox…This paper provides an overview of what has taken place over the last three years in each of the four community protocol processes and captures lessons that can be applied to future processes…