Soils for the Future Tanzania
Frequently Asked Questions
FAQs: Understanding Community Consent in the Longido Monduli Rangelands Carbon project
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1. How does Soils for the Future Tanzania (SftFZ) make sure communities understand and agree to participating in the carbon project (LMRCP)?
SftFTZ follows a detailed process to ensure community members are fully informed before making any decisions related to the carbon project. Appropriate communication is at the core of all SftFTZ engagements. All SftFZ staff are from Tanzania and many live in the local villages. All meetings are held in local languages, primarily Swahili and Maa, as well as English if needed. When it comes to formally joining the LMRCP, communities are encouraged to seek an independent legal opinion to ensure they are satisfied with the contents of the agreements before signing. The discussion about whether to join the project and sign Agreements occurs at many different kinds of community meetings, but most importantly the formal decision to join or not is made during Annual General Meetings (AGMs) – the official way for villages to make collective decisions.
2. What is the Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) process?
The FPIC process means that communities are not forced or coerced (Free) to engage with the project, that they are given time in advance (Prior) and sufficient information (Informed) to consider before agreeing to make a commitment (Consent) to join the project, or any other significant decision during project development or implementation. To join the project, the process includes multiple meetings to discuss (among other issues) the overall concept of the project, the responsibilities of villages, how benefits will be shared, and the risks inherent in the project. Importantly, the contents of and an opportunity to review drafts of all documents (e.g, MOU, agreements) are discussed. No documents are signed until the community is comfortable with the terms and is willing to sign. This decision is made in public during Annual General Meetings as required by Tanzanian law.
3. Are agreements decided on without key elders present?
No. All agreements are discussed in village meetings that are open to all, and the final decision to sign any documents are made in an open public forum – the Annual General Meeting. These meeting include elders, and are conducted in a manner to ensure transparency and understanding. There are also many other meetings within communities where elders participate (e.g., grazing committee meetings) and SftFTZ thoroughly documents all meetings and engagement activities with lists of participants so that it is possible to check who attended.
4. How is information shared with communities?
All SftFTZ staff are from Tanzania. The vast majority of LMRCP staff are Maasai, and easily communicate in Maa, Swahili, and English. Although legal documents are in Swahili and English as required by law, they are explained in Maa. During formal and informal meetings, staff describe the project in ways that are relevant and appropriate to the community. For example, SftFTZ hires grazing coordinators from the villages that are trained in the work of the carbon project, and also operate as liaisons with the grazing committees and the herders on the development and implementation of rapid rotational grazing plans. Through local staff, meetings, and materials, SftFTZ ensures information is easily accessible and available through many different paths.
5. What measures does Soils for the Future Tanzania take to ensure that communities adequately understand the project?
A primary point of contact with the communities are the Grazing Coordinators and Grazing Coordinator Supervisors. Each village nominates Grazing Coordinators from which the most qualified are hired to join our staff. These local hires are trained in a variety of project activities, most notably how to record the outcomes of meetings to comply with FPIC principles, and how to track movements of livestock to meet with international carbon project standards. Collectively, SftFTZ staff attend hundreds of meetings a month, record discussions on tablets, and keep information open to all parties. Community members are also involved in other fieldwork, which includes supporting biodiversity and soil surveys. At meetings that SftFTZ initiates, we distribute consent forms and fact sheets in multiple languages, giving communities time to review details at their own pace.
6. Does the project’s rotational grazing plan affect customary grazing patterns and livestock mobility?
The Rapid Rotational Grazing (RRG) schedule is built on the traditional grazing systems of moving livestock between wet and dry season areas. These large seasonal livestock movements are then augmented by keeping livestock moving within grazing seasons in addition to among grazing seasons. The simple idea is that herders are to keep the livestock moving regularly (every 2-3 weeks) and not allow any area to be grazed too heavily (grass should not get shorter than the width of the palm). They accomplish this identifying and grazing smaller pastures (or “blocks”) within season grazing areas, and then not returning to the grazed area once the livestock leave giving grass time to recover. This approach is different from the more static grazing patterns many families have used in recent decades, but it echoes the traditional, nomadic Maasai system that allowed the land to rest between visits. Because carbon credits are awarded only for practices that are new and clearly measurable, the project must adopt this routine rather than continue business as usual. In normal years livestock will follow the usual seasonal rotations within community boundaries, yet herders remain free to drive their animals to traditional drought-refuge areas when forage runs low. The project area covers more than a million hectares so that most of those refuges lie inside the project’s borders, keeping customary seasonal mobility intact while still meeting soil carbon-project rules.
7. Does the project impose new restrictions or fees on grazing, or fence off any areas?
No. The land remains village-owned and is free of fees. In addition, the project openly encourages removing existing fences so herders can rotate their animals more easily. The new Rapid Rotational Grazing (RRG) schedule asks herders to keep livestock in one area for a short period and then move on, allowing grass to regrow. As a result, some patches sit unused at any given time, which could be termed a “restriction,” but it’s a mutually agreed upon decision, and one that grazing committees are familiar with making especially during drought times.
8. Does the carbon project require Maasai to give up control of their pastures to outside managers?
No. All grazing decisions stay in Maasai hands. Each community already has its own grazing committee in charge of local pastures. The project’s role is to support those committees by offering training, carbon-finance funding, and local grazing coordinators who help with record-keeping and data collection. The new grazing management scheme is wholly owned and implemented by the traditional system of grazing management – through the village grazing committees.
9. Are there measures in place to ensure that the project does not undermine the livelihoods of pastoralists, especially during drought or crises?
The grazing plan is steered by local people themselves: each village has a grazing committee that decides when and where animals move, while project staff only offer advice. If a drought occurs, SftFTZ will help to bring neighboring committees together so they can agree on a larger, shared pasture-use plan, which is something that has been done informally for years, all that is different now is that it can be supported by carbon-finance funding.
10. Do soil carbon projects impact land ownership rights?
No, they do not. There is no change in land ownership. However, we are aware that there is a common misconception being circulated that our soil carbon project will impact land ownership. This is false. To clarify: communities must retain their land rights and continue managing the land with their livestock. This is essential for generating carbon credits. In the absence of the livestock, there is no way to generate the soil carbon credits. The livestock management is what is new, and it creates the “additionality” that is necessary to create carbon credits in any carbon project.