Benefit sharing and community contracting: from legal design to full operation

The document examines the gap between legal design and operational reality regarding how logging companies share benefits with forest communities in four West and Central African nations. It highlights that while laws may exist, a lack of implementing regulations, low payment amounts, and limited community negotiation capacity often lead to poor outcomes. ClientEarth has responded by developing guidance tools, templates, and training to empower communities to negotiate more effective and enforceable agreements.

• In the Republic of Congo, the Forest Law n°33-2020 of 8 July 2020 improved the legal framework by requiring that contractual specifications be negotiated directly with affected local communities and indigenous peoples (LCIPs) before logging begins, and by making local development funds mandatory for all concession holders.
• Gabon's benefit-sharing framework, established by Law n°16/01 and Order n°105, has struggled with implementation due to a lack of enforcement measures and sanctions for non-compliant companies, as evidenced by a 2019 court case where companies were ordered to pay arrears from 2014-2018 but faced no penalties for the delay.
• Liberia's Community Rights Law 2009 allows communities to own forests and lease them via Commercial Use Contracts (CUCs), but communities often lack the capacity to draft these complex documents, leading them to sign terms provided by logging companies that are heavily biased in the companies' favor.
• In Ghana, the Timber Resources Management and Legality Licensing Regulation 2017 (L.I. 2254) legally mandates all logging companies with a timber right to negotiate Social Responsibility Agreements (SRAs) with local communities.

APA

ClientEarth (2021). Benefit sharing and community contracting: from legal design to full operation. https://www.clientearth.org/media/bk3lhzkj/benefit-sharing-memo.pdf

Chicago

ClientEarth. Benefit sharing and community contracting: from legal design to full operation. 2021. https://www.clientearth.org/media/bk3lhzkj/benefit-sharing-memo.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=ClientEarth |title=Benefit sharing and community contracting: from legal design to full operation |date=May 2021 |url=https://www.clientearth.org/media/bk3lhzkj/benefit-sharing-memo.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{clientearth2021benefit, author = {{ClientEarth}}, title = {{Benefit sharing and community contracting: from legal design to full operation}}, institution = {ClientEarth}, year = {2021}, month = may, url = {https://www.clientearth.org/media/bk3lhzkj/benefit-sharing-memo.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }