Connecting people to drive local decisions about natural resource development.
The food, fuel, and materials that sustain our way of life come from local communities. How communities are involved in decisions about resource development impacts our global capacity to responsibly produce, access and value them.
Since 2022
countries
14+
practitioners
200+
participated and contributed in The Resource Exchange
Hosted
exchange activities
in Canada, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, Guyana and Côte d'Ivoire.
50+
Our Mission
Our mission is to build, share and scale the tools, knowledge, resources and relationships needed for inclusive and community-led decisions about land and natural resources. We also co-create initiatives and resources across the globe.
Our Vision
Our vision is that Indigenous and local communities are included in decisions about natural resource development and that resources can be managed in resilient and sustainable ways between communities, governments, and businesses.
Our Community
The Resource Exchange (TRE) is made up of a large but niche group of people across the value chain. Though they may have different objectives and experiences, they all share a commitment to inclusive, locally led resource governance.
Our Members
Our members come from across the globe and include community and Indigenous leaders, civil society organizations, government representatives, industry practitioners, and other partners committed to strengthening inclusive, local governance in the context of natural resource development.
Through The Resource Exchange, members share practical experience, build trusted relationships, and learn from one another across regions, sectors, and perspectives.
Explore the network and discover how TRE could be the right fit for you.
Our Approach
We are a multi-channel network that strengthens local governance through collaboration, capacity, and access to resources.
Our approach is dynamic, participant-led, and experiential to build practical solutions for local governance at a global scale, guided by three interconnected pathways.
Pathway #1
Learning & Dialogue
TRE is a space for peer learning, reflection, and creative collaboration. Through exchanges, summits, calls, the Virtual Hub, and more, members connect, share ideas, and learn together.
Pathway #2
Services & Support
We connect expertise directly to members’ needs through trusted practitioners in the network. These services respond to local requests and ensure that technical expertise is accessible where it is most needed.
Pathway #3
Resources
Our resourcing approach supports member-led initiatives and activities with financial and in-kind resources. A pooled fund can be established to support local participation, enable experimentation, and pilot activities.
Our Framework
The Resource Exchange is guided by 7 elements that underpin inclusive, Indigenous and local governance.
Active, inclusive traditional governance systems
1
Traditional governance systems offer a local approach to decision-making. They often have deep roots in a community, although they may have been influenced by other forms of governance, including centralized government systems. There can be an opportunity to involve more inclusive processes that consider perspectives from a broad range of community members.
Information for DecisionMaking
4
Information from and for local groups is essential for decision-making and planning. However, most data and information shared about changes that come from natural resource development is inadequate. It is often static, not longer relevant, does not consider localized politics, economies or social dynamics and/or is not accessible or trusted. Trusted data that showcases the various changes experienced in a region can provide a strong foundation for communities and other stakeholders to make decisions. Local design, access and control of data can reinforce community ownership of information and support decision-making and trust between stakeholder groups. At the same time, traditional knowledge needs to be protected. Traditional knowledge is often sacred and an asset to local groups. It can’t always be shared widely.
Leadership capacity both personal and collective
7
Leadership from all stakeholder groups is required to navigate the changes, decisions and often historical significance of natural resource development. Effective leaders are able to manage complex relationships, understand and address trauma and conflict and rally people together around a vision.
Community Visioning and Planning
2
A community vision and plan can set a strong foundation for proactive community decisions. A vision is a starting point for future action and helps set expectations. A clear shared vision and plan helps a community contextualize changes, and enables stakeholders to guide a clear shared vision and plan helps a community contextualize changes, and enables stakeholders to guide those changes in a way that meets their objectives. A clear vision encourages communities, companies, and governments to consider shorter-term benefits (e.g., jobs and social investments) and impacts, as well as longterm collective benefits and cumulative impacts. It can also encourage creativity and leadership. Some version of planning happens in most contexts, but processes, levels of formality, levels of participation, and ultimate aims vary. The process of developing or revisiting a community vision and planning can be an opportunity to clarify rights and resolve disputes, articulate values and safeguards, identify community needs, establish a baseline, build or strengthen community relationships, and create a broader strategy to recognize cumulative impacts.
Multi-stakeholder Engagement, Collaboration and Partnerships
5
Responsible natural resource development requires collaboration, coordination and partnerships – no one stakeholder group can achieve it alone. Multi-stakeholder platforms provide a space for people from various groups and perspectives to build relationships and communicate with each other. This leads to improved co-ordination and alignment for environmental and social planning, and in many cases partnerships and collaboration.
A landscape approach and understanding cumulative impacts
3
Decisions about natural resource developments tend to focus on specific natural resource assets (or projects), but communities experience the cumulative changes that come with natural resource development. This can lead to distrust, poor planning and ineffective impact management and benefit sharing. A landscape approach considers all land and natural resource activity, impacts, stakeholders and other socio-economic and policy influences in a specific region. Centering a landscape approach in planning and decision making helps us consider cumulative impacts from a range of sources including natural resource development, climate, socio-economic factors, and geopolitical changes. It can also be an opportunity to connect with a more diverse range of stakeholders and rightsholders.
Responsible Benefit Sharing
6
Transparent and sustainable methods for managing the local benefits from natural resource development create a sense of fairness and balance with negative impacts. Benefits can include financial benefits, job opportunities and other economic drivers. Benefits from natural resource development can also strengthen local governance systems and opportunities.
Each of these themes are applicable across different regions and experiences, but to be effective have to be context specific.
