manual for social impact assessment of land-based ... - Forest Trends

• Access to essential services (water, health, education, access to facilities, etc.): this indicator
is measured by the number of additional people gaining access compared with the baseline
(access must be directly related to the project service).
• Access to affordable clean energy services: security of energy supply should be taken into
account when assessing this indicator.
Human Capacity: this indicator is used to assess the project’s contribution to raising the capacity of
local people and/or communities to participate actively in social and economic development. It
comprises three indicative sub-indicators:
• Empowerment: used to evaluate the project’s contribution to improving the access of local
people to, and their participation in, community institutions and decision-making processes.
• Education/skills: used to assess how the project activity enhances and/or requires improved
and more widespread education and skills in the community.
• Gender equality: used to assess how the project activity requires or enhances improvement
of the empowerment, education/skills and livelihoods of women in the community.
Source: Gold Standard Version 2.1: http://www.cdmgoldstandard.org/Current-GS-Rules.102.0.html
EnCoFor Social and Institutional Impact Assessment Indicators
The EnCoFor Manual (Robledo, 2007), which was designed to assess the social and institutional
impacts of CDM Projects, does not use a conventional system of indicators, but some indicators can
be identified from the discussion of ‘Social and Institutional Principles and Criteria’:
• monitoring of alliances and conflicts between social groups;
• immigration rate/level;
• changes in food sources;
• access to timber and NTFPs (for different social groups);
• improved access to capacity-building;
• access to technology;
• changes in land tenure or use rights;
• ownership of carbon pools and Certified Emission Reduction units (CERs);
• access to cultural or religious sites;
• access to information:
• participation and decision-making mechanisms;
• monitoring of inequalities;
• effects on social groups’ internal organizations.
The Social and Institutional Principles are presented below. The approach is primarily one of
identifying risks of negative impact and minimizing or mitigating them.
Social Impact Assessment of Land-Based Carbon Projects (1.0) – Part II | 120