EP Carbon’s Impact on Local Communities: Real Stories from the Field

Alirio is an indigenous leader from a reservation deep in the Colombian Amazon, situated between the Caquetá and Putumayo rivers. He is part of a group of community representatives seeking to fully understand the risks and opportunities that REDD+ projects may pose to their community, as he has heard that these projects might help them receive financial compensation for forest conservation, a practice they have maintained for generations.  

In Colombia, a country that has faced an internal armed conflict for more than 60 years, the annual average of deforested areas in the last 10 years is the highest on record, affecting even protected areas. One such example is the La Macarena Special Management Area, which includes Tinigua National Park. Created in 1989, this park could soon become the first national park to lose over 50% of its forest cover due to deforestation driven by illegal livestock expansion in the northwest Colombian Amazon¹. 

Consistent data now suggests that indigenous and Afro-descendent territories have effectively protected the Amazon rainforest even more successfully than surrounding areas, including state-managed protected areas. A recently published study by WRI² conclude that the forests managed by Indigenous people in the Amazon Biome were strong net carbon sinks from 2001 to 2021, removing 340 million tons of CO₂ annually equivalent to the U.K.’s yearly fossil fuel emissions. In contrast, forests outside these Indigenous lands became net carbon sources due to extensive deforestation. The findings emphasize the critical need to support Indigenous and local communities in protecting their forest homes and preserving the Amazon’s remaining carbon sinks.  

This is unsurprising: a Colombian observatory estimates that the resources available for the management of natural parks amount to 1.15 USD per hectare, a minimum figure if one considers the need to finance management costs per hectare that would range between USD 5 and 8 per hectare³, and the government has only one forest ranger per 34,000 hectares when the global average is 6250⁴.  

Alirio lives near Puerto Leguízamo, a town on the Colombian Putumayo in border with Peru. He emphasizes that a century ago, this area played a central role in the Colombia-Peru border war, where the extraction of rubber for the automotive industry contributed to the tragic genocide of indigenous peoples. Subsequently, other extractive industries followed, negatively impacting both biodiversity and native cultures. These included the trade in animal skins and 50 years of coca cultivation for illegal production of cocaine. He mentions that at least five companies promoting REDD+ projects have arrived here, reflecting the increasing interest in such projects in the region.  

This growing interest has sparked concern among indigenous communities and organizations, who fear a new wave of extractivism —not for rubber or oil, but for carbon credits, a concept that few fully understand. Most indigenous leaders we interviewed expressed uncertainty about REDD+ projects. Basic questions persist: “What exactly is a carbon credit (or carbon bond as it is locally known)? What is being sold, and how is it sold? Can local governments, like municipal offices, provide guidance on this matter?” 

Another challenge is that there is little clarity about the role of the national government in REDD+ Projects regulations and in the indigenous communities’ legal rights. Leaders also voiced uncertainty about the future of their territories and traditional governance structures if they were to sign contracts with these companies. In short, they lack a clear understanding of how this climate financing mechanism works, along with the rights and obligations it entails. They report receiving only brief informational sessions on the subject, typically lasting just a few hours. 

Learning New Languages 

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At EP Carbon, we start from a fundamental principle: no project, however beneficial it may seem, should proceed without the fully informed consent of the local authorities and communities. Obtaining this consent requires more than a brief presentation to a handful of leaders, even if some of them hold legal authority. What is required, then? One way to understand this process is to compare it to learning a new language. Initially, humans communicate through gestures and sounds, eventually forming words that we associate with people, objects, or feelings. We then progress to short phrases for basic needs until we gain the ability to construct full sentences, which allows us to describe the world coherently to ourselves and others. 

Our REDD+ project experiences in Latin America demonstrate that GHG mitigation initiatives are not much different from this process. The absence of a common language with local communities hampers intercultural dialogue around these projects. This is not simply a lack of shared vision  —  it is the inability to articulate it in a mutually understood language. We cannot translate a highly technical language into the worldview of a culture and language unfamiliar to us, nor should we expect other communities to do so. Many indigenous members, particularly elders, neither speak, nor need, to speak Spanish. 

Climate change terminology is complex, often redundant, and confusing. Furthermore, it is not always available in Spanish; many terms are acronyms for English phrases or anglicisms (whether out of necessity or fashion). However, this technical language is the medium of negotiation. Those who do not understand it fluently face serious disadvantages in such spaces. 

In this sense, relationships with indigenous communities are quite similar. We may partially understand each other in Spanish, but without mutual mastery of the technical and legal language of mitigation projects, any dialogue will be limited at best or misleading and invalid at worst. 

In recent years, EP Carbon has been building a strategy to ensure that in the regions where we work there is a better understanding of carbon projects, their risks, opportunities and benefits for the community. We have worked together with indigenous leaders, farmers and landowners on educational strategies tailored to each case that allow them to gradually approach each legal or technical aspect of carbon projects, with special emphasis on safeguards. This strategy extends beyond securing FPIC (Free, Prior and Informed Consent), it is essential for improving community well-being, strengthening governance, and conserving ecosystems. 

The Benefits of REDD+ Projects Beyond Carbon    

Funding conservation actions has always posed a significant challenge for forest-owning indigenous communities. In Latin America, biodiversity conservation projects traditionally rely on international funding, but this has been shifting in recent years. Territories increasingly need to generate their own income to sustain these efforts, often facing more complex management challenges. When safeguards are respected and built with the community, REDD+ projects can positively impact the environment and local economies, promoting activities that generate income without harming forests and substantially improving employment, gender equity, and women’s leadership within communities. 

A review of the BIOREDD+ projects implemented in Colombia´s Pacific Coast with the valuable technical and finance support provided by USAID and Chemonics, and other companies as EP Carbon (formed known as Ecopartners), highlights positive outcomes in enhancing the quality of life in participating territories. Seven Afro-descendant and Indigenous communities have used carbon credit revenues from voluntary markets not only to fund forest conservation efforts but also to improve health and education infrastructure. 

Without specialized support and financing, communities in potential REDD+ project areas could not undertake these efforts. While REDD+ emphasizes technical rigor, economic viability, legal diligence, and safeguards, high costs and complex processes risk hindering its scalability and benefits for marginalized communities who depend on their land, forests, and biodiversity. In Colombia, where REDD+ aligns closely with Afro-Colombian and Indigenous goals of territorial control, resource conservation, and better livelihoods, it presents a unique opportunity. Participatory REDD+ initiatives can empower communities by transferring knowledge, building skills, and fostering positive environmental impacts, aligning seamlessly with their worldview⁵.

Safeguards in High-Integrity Carbon Projects 

Safeguards are essential rules for REDD+ and other climate change mitigation projects, ensuring that actions on the ground are conducted responsibly, maximizing benefits, and minimizing social and environmental risks. In other words, safeguards are a set of principles that protect community rights in REDD+ and similar projects. They may seem simple, but scrutiny by civil society organizations and journalists across Latin America and Africa reveal that many projects overlook these principles⁶. The most important safeguard involves open dialogue that allows communities to fully understand the objectives and operations of REDD+ projects, ensuring they do not compromise local values and worldviews. This also enables community leaders to explain project implications, benefits, risks, and opportunities to all community members. 

A high-integrity carbon credit represents a certified reduction or removal of one ton of CO₂ from the atmosphere, following internationally recognized standards.  The core purpose of REDD+ projects must remain clear: their success hinges on unwavering respect for social and environmental safeguards, tailored to the unique context of each territory. This principle is the essential foundation of the entire mechanism. 

EP Carbon not only strives for technical rigor in project quantification, reporting, and monitoring, we lead or participate in active collaboration with local and global organizations to work with indigenous and other local communities’ leaders and representatives. This collaboration aims to deepen the understanding of climate change mitigation projects’ benefits, challenges, and opportunities. This process and approach strengthen our ability to connect effectively with local communities through their organizations and allows us to create a space to listen closely to their needs and concerns to provide more appropriate solutions. 

Projects with high integrity, designed to protect community rights, lead not only to better-preserved forests and reduced emissions, but also to increased economic impacts to the local population and improved territorial governance and resource management capabilities. 

    

 

As a technical service provider with expertise in forest carbon project development, we offer comprehensive support in scoping early-stage projects and conducting due diligence for both project developers and investors. Our advanced remote sensing capabilities ensure that potential project areas are thoroughly assessed, providing critical data to inform decision-making and mitigate risks. If you are looking to enhance the viability of your carbon project or need assistance navigating early-stage evaluations, reach out to us at projects@epcarbon.com to learn how we can help.