COMMUNITY PROTOCOLS TOOLBOX

The Community Protocols Toolbox is a comprehensive guide published by Natural Justice designed to assist NGOs, civil society groups, and community-based organizations in helping indigenous peoples and local communities develop community protocols. These protocols serve as frameworks for communities to document their identity, link customary laws with national and international legal frameworks, and engage effectively with external parties, particularly in the context of extractive industries and large-scale infrastructure projects.

• Community protocols are defined as both a process and an outcome used to collect and provide information about a community, enabling them to articulate their cultural heritage, customary laws, and procedures for engagement to external parties.
• The development of a community protocol is intended to be a community-led process that can serve either aspirational purposes, such as seeking equitable benefit-sharing, or defensive purposes, such as opposing projects that threaten territories and resources.
• Facilitators are encouraged to use a variety of participatory methodologies—categorized as textual, visual, verbal, and dramatic—to ensure inclusivity and accommodate different literacy levels and cultural expressions within a community.
• In the context of extractive industries, the document identifies several critical challenges for protocol development, including managing externally imposed timeframes, handling sensitive information, and conceptualizing the 'community' without creating internal friction.
• The guide emphasizes the importance of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) as a minimum international standard, defining it as a process where communities can seek more information, say 'no', or withdraw from negotiations at any stage.
• Community protocols can be used as evidence in legal or administrative processes to contest the legality of impact assessments, dispute claims that land is 'vacant', or prove that meaningful consultation did not occur according to community-defined processes.
• The document highlights a systemic gap in legal protections where national mining laws often reserve sub-soil resource ownership for the state, even in countries that recognize community land rights.
• The Toolbox provides a structured approach to legal empowerment, suggesting that protocols include customary laws, international instruments like the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and ILO Convention 169, and guidelines from financial institutions such as the IFC Performance Standards.

APA

Natural Justice (n.d.). COMMUNITY PROTOCOLS TOOLBOX. https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/toolbox_complete.pdf

Chicago

Natural Justice. COMMUNITY PROTOCOLS TOOLBOX. n.d. https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/toolbox_complete.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Natural Justice |title=COMMUNITY PROTOCOLS TOOLBOX |url=https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/toolbox_complete.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{naturaljusticendcommunity, author = {{Natural Justice}}, title = {{COMMUNITY PROTOCOLS TOOLBOX}}, institution = {Natural Justice}, url = {https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/toolbox_complete.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }