Community benefit agreements (CBAs) negotiated in Canada are legally binding through contract law and set out obligations for project developers and local communities.

Also referred to as impact and benefit agreements, CBAs are common resource governance tools that are negotiated across the globe between private project developers and local, often Indigenous, communities whose land must be accessed or disturbed for major extractive resource projects.

According to the literature, CBAs have the potential to help facilitate economic and social development of Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities by providing revenue benefits, employment and training opportunities, contracting opportunities for local businesses, new community infrastructure, and impact mitigation measures.

Although CBAs are only legally required in certain regions in northern Canada in accordance with lands claim agreements, CBAs are negotiated for virtually every major extractive resource project developed in Canada and are becoming increasingly common all around the world.

Some attribute the prevalence of CBAs to private developers recognizing the right of communities to free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) as affirmed by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) while others attribute the prevalence of CBAs to project developers managing social risk and attempting to satisfy consultation and accommodation requirements to obtain approval.

While this paper's case focus is on the Canadian North, the authors hope that the theoretically-informed study finds resonance with other jurisdictions host to CBAs.

Authors: Cameron Gunton, Eric Werker, Mark A. Moore and Sean Markey, Simon Fraser University, Canada

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Thanks for use of the photo by Jonny Rothwell 

Australia now has 18 and counting First Nations clean energy equity partnerships with developers.

Industry is learning that partnering with First Nations and gaining free prior and informed consent (FPIC) reduces risk, cost and delay.

Not doing so can lead First Nations people to hold decision-makers accountable for the consequences of their actions.

So how can we accelerate industry learning into practice?

This session looks at gaining free, prior and informed consent, the project approvals process, issues we're facing in negotiation, embedding First Nations outcomes in the Capacity Investment Scheme, and what needs to be in an ILUA and Agreements to deliver actual significant benefits to our people.

SPEAKERS: Jamie Woods, Shirley McPherson, Nick Llewellyn-Jones, Emily Gerrard, Lily O’Neill (Facilitator)

The paper explains the basic building blocks of how to develop an enduring relationship with First Nations people through ‘sharing the benefits’.

It is an invitation to renewable energy companies to embrace the opportunity of having strong, equitable, respectful and durable relationships with First Nations people.

The paper explains some of the key concepts and obligations, as well as setting out best practice guidelines for negotiating land access agreements with First Nations land holders. It also provides examples of the contents of both strong and weak land access and benefit sharing agreements.

The paper was prepared by The Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research at the ANU, produced for the ‘Zero-Carbon Energy for the Asia-Pacific’ ANU Grand Challenge Project. It includes a foreword by Original Power's Executive Director Karrina Nolan.

Authors: O’Neill, L., Riley, B., Hunt, J., & Maynard, G. (2021).  

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In the coming decades Australia is set to see a dramatic expansion in renewable energy projects. It is likely that many of these will occur on land subject to Indigenous rights and interests.

The paper concludes that while the guiding principles and the content of access and benefit sharing agreements may be quite similar between the extractive and renewable industries, there are a number of critical differences between these industries that may impact agreement content.

These are that renewable energy developments use a completely renewable resource; are usually not limited to specific geographic areas (although certain areas are more conducive to both wind and solar projects); generally require a much greater land area; have physical impacts that are almost completely reversible; affect visual amenity over greater distances (in the case of wind); are potentially in place for more than one generation; and may allow Traditional Owners continued land access.

Additionally, the use of native title land for renewable energy projects will raise different issues for native title holders and companies than the renewable energy industry’s experience to date with neighbouring communities in high population areas.

Renewable energy companies would be well advised to heed the changing attitudes and experience of the extractive industry over the past two decades in relation to best practice.

Authors: L O’Neill, K Thorburn and J Hunt

Read the paper here

O’Neill, L., Thorburn, K. and Hunt, J. (2019), Ensuring Indigenous benefit from large-scale renewable energy projects: Drawing on experience from extractive industry agreement making, Working Paper No. 127, Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, Australian National University, Canberra.

Thanks for use of the photo Anthony Ketland.