All of the guidebook phases have resources and tools to help the community translate best practices to the specific needs, risks and opportunities of the agricultural investment project.
Community Supporting Materials
All Supporting Materials
Click on any link to access a resource
Phase 1
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Community Governance Assessment
This resource provides detailed steps on how community leaders can work with a local CSO to assess the community’s existing community governance structures and land governance rules. The purpose of this assessment is to evaluate the strengths of current systems and safeguards in place to support responsible investment.
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Leveraging Land Investment Committees
This resource outlines steps for establishing the roles and responsibilities of the Land Investment Committee and electing/selecting its members. In the RIPL Model Guidebook for Communities, it's recommended that the community designate an existing body or establish a new body (the Land Investment Committee) to be in charge of helping the community prepare for prospective investment and engage with companies when the community receives an investment proposal.
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Land Rights Awareness Training Curriculum
Rights awareness is an important starting point for communities to position themselves for more beneficial investment deals. This supplemental resource provides an example framework of some of the topics and sessions that could help promote land rights awareness within a community. Topics covered include: civic awareness; land and property rights basics; land governance; women’s land rights; and land rights in the context of prospective investment.
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Developing Community By-Laws for Responsible Investment
This resource accompanies the RIPL Model Guidebook for Communities, providing detail on how a community can develop local rules governing land investment that support responsible, sustainable, and equitable investments. These rules, or by-laws, will establish how the community will make decisions about its land, who will represent the community in negotiations with prospective investors, and how compensation will be shared and used.
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Holding a By-Law Adoption Ceremony
This resource explains how a community can coordinate and hold a ceremony to adopt local by-laws governing land investment. These by-laws will establish how the community will make decisions about its land, who will represent the community in negotiations with prospective investors, and how compensation will be shared and used.
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Gender Sensitive Community Mapping
This resource outlines how a community can identify and map land users, rights and livelihoods in the community. The resource outlines different mapping methodologies, including best practices for each approach.
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Boundary Harmonization
This resource outlines how a community can harmonize boundaries during community mapping processes. Boundary harmonization is the process through which people agree on the land boundaries between neighboring individuals and communities.
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Documenting Boundaries
This resource outlines how a community can document the results of the community’s mapping and boundary harmonization efforts.
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Developing a Land Use Plan
This resource explains how a community can assess current uses of land and natural resources, and evaluate alternative options to select and adopt the best land use options within a community, including planning for potential investment.
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Land Valuation
This resource explains an activity a community can perform to better understand how much value community lands bring to the community.
Phase 2
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Consultation Meeting Notes Template
This resource can be used to document conversations with stakeholder groups. It accompanies Phase 2, Task 1, Step 3 of the RIPL Model Guidebook for Communities.
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Community Consultation Meetings Checklist
This resource can help in preparing for community engagement meetings conducted by the Land Investment Committee, either within the community or between the community and a business. It is intended to accompany the RIPL Model Guidebook for Communities Phase 2, Task 1, Step 3
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Outgrower Best Practices Literature Review
This document summarizes some of the available external resources that provide guidance and discuss best practices for establishing outgrower arrangements as a method of compensation or alternative to outright land purchase or lease.
Phase 3
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Key Contract Elements
This resource provides guidance on the terms and elements that should be contained within the MOU and final contract between the business and community, as well as the lease agreements that memorialize land investments.
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Template for LOI/MOU
This resource provides a sample LOI/MOU between a community and an investor that could be used during the negotiation and contracting process.
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Final Contract Checklist
This checklist is designed for communities to use when preparing a contract for a land investment. This checklist accompanies Phase 3, Task 1, Step 7 of the Model Guidebook for Communities.
Phase 4
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Designing a Stakeholder Engagement Plan
This resource provides a template for designing a strategy for ongoing community engagement during the implementation of an investment, and two checklists for evaluating the community engagement plan based on established standards for stakeholder communication.