Reflect – the social value solution

By commissioning “REFLECT for Nature”, a social impact evaluation, Carbon Tanzania is pioneering an approach that enables project developers to deeply understand the lived experiences of local community partners and improve how carbon finance delivers on the ground. The REFLECT for Nature process, which prioritises listening intently to the lived experiences of the local community, has provided welcome insights and afforded us significant learning opportunities. The results have revealed surprising insights into the positive, sometimes unintended consequences of revenues earned from carbon projects, while also highlighting gaps that allow us to make course corrections in the early, and ongoing, stages of project operations. Deploying REFLECT for Nature has enabled us to work toward mutual improvement – enhancements that elevate project integrity and evidences the livelihood improvements felt by local community members. This approach allows Carbon Tanzania to go beyond the community monitoring requirements of the carbon standards that ask developers to track the outputs of project activities, but not the impacts on people or the felt outcomes of the financial flows. To date we have commissioned REFLECT for Nature to be deployed in the Yaeda Valley, Eyasi region and Makame WMA with diverse and varied insights arising from each study. Learn about what we discovered from the first REFLECT for Nature study on the Yaeda Valley here. Download the REFLECT for Nature report on the Eyasi region here. Read the results from the REFLECT for Nature study on the Makame WMA here.