Context
In response to the growing need for tools and support to document the negative impacts of development projects, the Community Resource Exchange (CRE) of the Coalition for Human Rights in Development, together with FIDH, Oxfam, Source International, FAIME and Terrae, organized a series of webinars focused on methodologies and platforms that support communities in generating evidence to defend their territories and rights.
The objective of this space was to strengthen documentation capacities from a community-centered perspective, facilitate exchange between those who develop these methodologies and the communities that could use them, and promote connections that foster collective strategies to stop harmful projects.
The series included two thematic sessions that explored various pathways for documenting environmental and human rights impacts:
Session 1: Technical support and impact assessment
Platforms were presented that offer specialized support to help communities access independent technical information and advice.
FAIME shared its platform that connects communities with mining experts and explained how communities can request support to strengthen processes of Free, Prior and Informed Consent.
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FIDHÂ presented a study on lithium and human rights in the high Andean salt flats of Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile.
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COBHRA (FIDH, Oxfam and PODER)Â presented its approach and tools for human rights impact analysis.
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Session 2: Citizen science and community-based environmental monitoring
Participants shared methodologies that enable communities themselves to generate environmental data useful for advocacy.
- Terrae presented experiences in Community Environmental Monitoring that combine ancestral, popular, and scientific knowledge to defend territories from extractive projects.
- Source International presented its model of citizen science and technical support to produce credible and useful environmental evidence for complaints and accountability processes.
These sessions highlighted the importance of documentation processes led by communities, avoiding extractivist practices, and demonstrated that the data generated can strengthen territorial defense campaigns, legal processes, and advocacy strategies at the local, national, and international levels.