A Summer Internship Experience at Beverly Bowens Farm
By Briggs Oldham This summer, three North Carolina State University students participated in Nature For Justice’s pilot internship – Regenerative Farming with BIPOC Farmers. For ten weeks, they learned about how climate-smart, regenerative, and sustainable practices manifest on livestock and produce farms. Through tailored workshops, farm and market tours, and interactions with agricultural specialists, these […]
Insights from a Co-Creation Process
Cyril Lombard and Madumezulu Silinda (Biotrade Ventures) tell us about their recent project partnership with Nature For Justice in the beautiful Limpopo region, Southern Africa: For the proposed project we will be collaborating with community-based organizations that supervise the farmers responsible for planting. These farmers are classified as “emerging farmers,” who operate on a scale […]
Safeguards: The Importance of Robust Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) For Climate Justice
Nature For Justice (N4J) has expanded its offerings in pursuit of climate justice for frontline communities to include specialized training programs that encompass in-depth Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) training, mentoring, and support services for carbon offset project developers and implementers. A robust FPIC is a prerequisite and a key component of ethical carbon […]
Reflections on Terra Global Capital’s “Best Practices for Delivering a Just Transition through NbS Climate Finance”
Terra Global Capital’s paper Best Practices for Delivering a Just Transition through NbS Climate Finance describes the historical origins of the “Just Transition” and how, especially since COP28, Just Transition is being interpreted and applied to our global actions. Terra Global Capital asserts that while there is an impetus for the Private Sector to invest […]
The Nature-based Solution Ecosystem
The nature-based solution ecosystem for generating carbon credits is currently unbalanced and needs fixing. Investments to align various parts of the ecosystem, such as donor support for registries like Verra and addressing supply issues through the Core Carbon Principles developed by the ICVCM, follow a theory of change that assumes the market will self-correct to […]
Origination: The Importance of Designing Beyond Carbon
Bring the Focus Back to the People When creating a Nature-based Solution project, carbon should not be the first priority, but the last. That means a project must provide benefits for the communities involved, first and foremost, to enhance financial stability, improve quality of life, and promote dignity. Without those, forget about permanence. By restoring, […]
Carbon Investors: A Development Paradigm Optimizes Success
In the realm of Nature-Based Solutions (NbS) carbon projects, I’m still relatively green, having only started my journey in 2016. While I’ve successfully led and grown teams in implementing high-quality and globally-recognized carbon projects, particularly in Africa, this experience pales in comparison to my decades-long engagement across various sectors including renewable energy, human rights, democracy […]
Getting to “Shovel Ready” A Field Trip to Tanzania
This blog described a field visit by Nature for Justice’s Khulile Lamula to the project site led by Lima in Tanzania. It is an important part of the co-creation and FPIC documentation process as noted in our recent blog on What’s Needed for More Shovel Ready Carbon Projects. Pilot Project: Lima Kwanza Ltd, Tanzania This […]
What’s Needed for More “Shovel-Ready” Carbon Projects
Despite the recent press slamming certain types of carbon credit projects, demand for high quality Nature-based Solution (NbS) voluntary carbon credits continues to grow. Independent groups like the Integrity Council for Voluntary Carbon Markets (ICVCM) are defining integrity through their Core Carbon Principles (CCPs) and we strongly endorse them. As Nature For Justice (N4J) develops […]
Making History with Black Farmers
At N4J, we know that a monumental transformation is taking place in our nation that will change our agricultural landscape on a massive scale – and that this shift can also serve as a catalyst for reparation to the Black community. Our work isn’t just about supporting Black farmers, it’s about positioning them as leaders […]
7 Attributes of a Just Investor
Nature For Justice (N4J) is a social justice organization focused on supporting frontline communities experiencing the impacts of our changing climate. As our Annual Wrap-up for 2023 described, we have made progress in creating programs in Canada with First Nations, the USA with Black farmers, and across a variety of African countries with small-holder agriculturalists. […]
What Makes Nature for Justice Unique
Nature for Justice was created in 2020 to address what we perceived to be the asymmetry in power between on-the-ground groups most affected by climate change and the investors, carbon developers, and companies that were taking advantage of unregulated carbon markets to develop inequitable benefit-sharing agreements. Our first thought was “Wait a second, without the natural […]
