Resources

Click here to read the report (in English only). 

Dear Friends,

The importance of ensuring respect for the rights of forest peoples’ to control their forests, lands and livelihoods, becomes ever clearer and yet more contested. As the articles in this edition of our newsletter starkly reveal, land and resource grabs are not just being imposed by commercial developers but are being actively promoted by governments, whose principle responsibility should be to protect the rights of citizens. Yet these same impositions are also being resisted, sometimes at great personal cost, by local communities and indigenous peoples.

An in-depth report by LAHURNIP, NGO-FONIN and Forest Peoples Programme into the development of the Arun III hydropower project and the challenges it, and projects like it, pose to the Nepali government commitments to protect the rights and interests of indigenous peoples. 

This paper is a comparative review of rights across a number of existing voluntary standards drawn from a technical workshop in Bangkok in October 2012 organised by Forest Peoples Programme with the support of RECOFTC – The Center for People and Forests, and the Rights and Resources Initiative.

The purpose of this background note is to identify some key issues and opportunities in the upcoming UNFCCC climate negotiations in Doha (26 November - 7 December 2012). The note will only focus on REDD+ and the Green Climate Fund (GCF).

Click here to read this conference paper, which was produced for the Medan Conference on Landgrabbing and Palm Oil Plantations in South East Asia. 

This briefing, launched on the occasion of the 10th Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RT10), draws together the key findings of fourteen studies on FPIC in RSPO member/certified plantations based on the RSPO Principles & Criteria (P&C) and related Indicators and Guidance, and makes recommendations for reforms in the way palm oil companies honour the principle of FPIC and respect customary rights to land.

This report by FPP partner Centre pour l’Environnement et le Développement (CED) on the Cameroon Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) presents a complete analysis of the commitments contained in the Agreement and provides recommendations to the key actors of the process.Click here to read the report (only available in French). 

Dear Friends,

To read the PDF version of this note click here.

Introduction

A submission into the World Bank Safeguard review process by Indigenous Peoples’ organisations and institutions. The submission remains open for further endorsements, please contact Robie Halip at AIPP for further information: robie@aippnet.org.

Read the draft policy statement in English or in French.

FPP made detailed comments to the World Bank's IEG review of safeguards in 2010. Many of our comments made then remain fully valid for the current World Bank review and update process.

Click here to view the FPP submission.

Proceedings of the Workshop at Bali, Indonesia, 28th November - 1st December 2011

Joint NGO letter to World Bank President raising concerns about the Bank's Investment Lending Review (ILR) process and related initiatives including the Bank-IFC public private partnership (PPP) reform plans. The letter calls on the Bank to link the ILR Process to its wider safeguard update efforts to ensure consistency and prevent dilution of safeguard standards [September 2012].

On the occasion of the first Board meeting of the Green Climate Fund (GCF), Forest Peoples Programme (FPP) and Jaringan Orang Asal Se-Malaysia (JOAS) are publishing a report titled: “Indigenous Peoples and the Green Climate Fund – A technical briefing for Indigenous Peoples, policymakers and support groups”.

Read the report in English or in Spanish. 

This report summarises some key issues relevant for indigenous peoples, building on statements and policy platforms adopted by Indigenous Peoples’ Caucuses. In particular the report draws attention to the need for the GCF to improve indigenous peoples’ participation in governance, adopt stronger safeguards and facilitate direct access to financing for climate change response actions developed and implemented by indigenous peoples.

This report provides an account of a short investigation carried out by the RSPO's Ad Hoc Working Group on High Conservation Values in Indonesia. It is being circulated to promote comprehension and discussion about the legal and procedural obstacles to securing such values in the oil palm sector in Indonesia with the view to promoting changes and legal reforms in order to secure these values more effectively. This version includes detailed comments on the report by Wilmar International.

Including Updates and Analysis from Rio+20

Dear Friends,

The African Development Bank is in the process of developing a new Integrated Safeguards System to guide its future lending in Africa. This paper argues that the measures to protect the rights of indigenous peoples in the proposed draft fall far below accepted international norms and standards and need substantial revision. The African Development Bank needs to adopt a standalone policy on Indigenous Peoples consistent with the rights of peoples and indigenous peoples as set out in the African Charter of Human and Peoples’ Rights and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The current draft text puts the AfDB itself, its borrowers and its clients all at risk of developing projects that are not only contrary to African and international standards, but which are likely to generate social conflict rather than promote sustainable development.

Read the sign-on letter in English or in French.