This form is designed to allow you to report a grievance or complaint regarding The Green Branch and its activities.

A grievance is a formal expression of dissatisfaction, concern, or complaint made by an individual or group, typically within an organizational or institutional setting. It often pertains to perceived unfair treatment, rights violations, or dissatisfaction with policies, practices, or actions.

Please select one of the forms below to file a grievance. We will receive your grievance and address it following our redress procedure.

• Form in English
• Form in Portuguese 

The process for receiving, assessing, and resolving stakeholder grievance by the Project Proponent is as follows: 

1. Receive grievance 

Upon receiving the grievances, the operational managers are filling in the grievance form or checking the completeness of the submitted grievance form and they are forwarding the grievances to the Grievance Officer in the Netherlands. Grievances submitted in the Netherlands, by phone or via email or the website are directly processed by the Grievance Officer.  

2. Record 

The Grievance Officer is responsible for maintaining a detailed record of grievance investigation and interaction with affected internal and external stakeholders. The grievances will be recorded in the internal database (“Grievance tracking form” from the Green Branch) and will be made available to all parties involved.  

3. Screening

The grievance is screened and, depending on the level of severity, categorized into one of the 3 stages of grievance: 

Stage 1: Internal attempt of resolution 

An answer to the grievance can be provided internally by the grievance officer without the need of external consultation. The Grievance Officer will give a written response to the grievances. 

Stage 2: Mediation by a neutral third party 

A third-party mediation is necessary to solve the conflict. If needed, a legal advisor will be involved in the mediation process, collecting all necessary documentation from the Project Proponent to present to the mediator and communicating on behalf of the Project Proponent the preferred solution for the grievance case. 

Stage 3: Arbitration or Court 

In case the grievance is not resolved through mediation, the grievance case will be taken to court. Again, a legal counsel will represent the interests of the Project Proponent. 

If a grievance is submitted anonymously, it will be solved without contacting the filing person, stopping at Stage 1.

4. Acknowledge 

A grievance officer will contact the stakeholder within 15 business days after receiving the grievance by providing a formal acknowledgement, a summary of the case as well as an outline of the process, including an expected timeline. Contact will preferably be established by email, if that is not possible the stakeholder will be reached out to via phone. This will only be done if the grievance was not submitted anonymously.

5. Investigation & Act 

The grievance officer is responsible for extensive investigation of the grievance, including consulting involved employees and/or external stakeholders, site visits and other potentially necessary actions to gain holistic understanding of the case. A detailed record of activities is essential to allow for in-depth analysis and subsequent planning of steps to resolve the case. The grievance officer is responsible for transparently communicating the developed plan to all affected parties, monitoring the actions taken, and meeting deadlines. When all steps have been completed and a resolution has been reached that is satisfactory to both the grievance filing person/organization and The Green Branch, the case will be closed with written documentation of the resolution signed by both parties. 

Possible Outcomes of step 5: 

• Successful resolution 
• Appeal (following another round of Investigation & Acting) 

6. Follow up and close out 

The Grievance Officer will contact the parties involved 3-6 weeks after the case has been closed and ask for feedback on the process, which will be reflected upon internally by the grievance officer to improve future handling of grievance procedures. All documentation of the grievance case will be stored for at least 3 years.