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Our Work
- Themes
  Themes
  
  Explore the key themes the Forest Peoples Programme addresses, including Human Rights, Climate Change and Biodiversity, Business, Trade and Finance, Deforestation, Community Governance, and Culture and Knowledge.
  
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  - Human Rights
    
    Human Rights
    
    In this section: Lands, Territories, and Resources; Self-Determination and FPIC; and Human Rights Defenders
    
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    Lands, Territories and Resources
    
    Lands, Territories and Resources
    
    Land, territories and resource rights refer to the legal or customary rights that communities have over land, territories and natural resources such as water, forests, minerals, and biodiversity.
    
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    Self Determination and FPIC
    
    Self Determination and FPIC
    
    FPIC and self-determination are essential for indigenous peoples and forest peoples as they uphold their rights, autonomy, and sovereignty over their lands, territories, and resources.
    
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    Human Rights Defenders
    
    Human Rights Defenders
    
    The term “human rights defender” (HRD) refers to people or groups who take peaceful actions to promote or protect human rights.
    
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  - Climate Change and Biodiversity
    
    Climate Change and Biodiversity
    
    In this section: Climate Change; and Biodiversity
    
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    Climate Change
    
    Climate Change
    
    Climate change refers to alterations in global or regional weather patterns, primarily driven by increased levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
    
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    Biodiversity
    
    Biodiversity
    
    Biodiversity refers to the variety and variability of life on Earth, encompassing all forms of flora and fauna. It is essential for the resilience and sustainability of natural systems and is vital for life on Earth.
    
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  - Business, Trade and Finance
    
    Business, Trade and Finance
    
    In this section: Palm Oil; Timber, Pulp and Paper; Carbon and Biodiversity Markets; Minerals and Energy; Infrastructure; Certification; and Regulation
    
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    Palm Oil
    
    Palm Oil
    
    The rapid growth in palm oil production to feed global demands for edible oils and biofuels is causing serious social and environmental problems yet plantations are set to double their extent in the next 20 years.
    
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    Timber, Pulp and Paper
    
    Timber, Pulp and Paper
    
    Driven by growing global demand, the pulp and paper sector is undergoing rapid expansion. Clearing forests and replacing them with plantations of Eucalyptus and Acacia, the  industry has taken over millions of hectares of indigenous peoples’ and forest peoples’ lands.
    
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    Carbon and Biodiversity Markets
    
    Carbon and Biodiversity Markets
    
    Questions about the role of carbon and biodiversity markets in addressing the climate and nature crises are subject to significant debate both inside and outside intergovernmental climate and biodiversity negotiations.
    
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    Minerals and Energy
    
    Minerals and Energy
    
    The current model of economic globalisation is driving unprecedented demand for the world’s remaining resources including oil, gas, coal and minerals.
    
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    Infrastructure
    
    Infrastructure
    
    In recent decades there has been a major expansion of large-scale infrastructure projects into indigenous peoples’ and forest peoples’ lands and territories in tropically forested countries.
    
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    Certification
    
    Certification
    
    In the past 30 years, a number of certification schemes have been developed in response to the environmental and social challenges posed by expanding industrial agriculture and natural resource extraction.
    
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    Regulation
    
    Regulation
    
    Regulation focuses on the legal regulation of corporate behaviour across a range of industry sectors. Such regulation is often in its infancy, having been recently adopted or in the process of being developed.
    
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  - Deforestation
    
    Deforestation
    
    Tropical forests continue to be cleared at an alarming rate to make way for industrial agriculture, extractive industries, and infrastructure development. These direct drivers of deforestation are often fuelled by laws and policies that fail to respect rightsholders.
    
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    Focus on the Frontline
  - Community Governance
    
    Community Governance
    
    Community governance refers to the systems, structures, and practices that indigenous communities use to make decisions and manage their communities, territories and relationships with their neighbours.
    
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  - Culture and Knowledge
    
    Culture and Knowledge
    
    Culture and knowledge in the context of indigenous peoples and forest peoples is the body of knowledge, practices, and beliefs passed down through generations, integral to their cultural identities and survival.
    
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- Our Programmes
  Our Programmes
  
  Our work programmes and projects are shaped by the priorities of the communities with whom we work, in collaboration with civil society partners, networks and other allies. That work is organised via three core programmes: Environmental Governance Programme, Responsible Finance Programme, and Legal and Human Rights Programme; and a cross-cutting Gender Justice Programme.
  
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  - Environmental Governance
    
    Environmental Governance
    
    The Environmental Governance programme seeks to ensure that indigenous peoples and forest peoples have full access to and control over their lands and territories in accordance with their cultures and spirituality, practices and innovations, and care for their environment.
    
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    Territorial Governance
    
    Territorial Governance
    
    Through our work on Territorial Governance, we seek to innovate and implement mapping, monitoring and management tools.
    
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    Culture and Knowledge
    
    Culture and Knowledge
    
    Our work on Culture and Knowledge aims to ensure that the communities we work with can live according to their traditional practices, using their languages and on their ancestral lands.
    
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    Conservation and Human Rights
    
    Conservation and Human Rights
    
    Our Conservation and Human Rights work supports indigenous peoples and forest peoples to assert their rights to own, occupy, protect, and conserve their ancestral land and territories according to their knowledge and skills.
    
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    Conservation Pathways
  - Responsible Finance
    
    Responsible Finance
    
    The Responsible Finance Programme works in solidarity with indigenous peoples and forest peoples towards a global economic system that enables them to thrive and enjoy their internationally recognised human rights, to practice their chosen livelihoods and to maintain their own economies.
    
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    Supply Chains and Trade
    
    Supply Chains and Trade
    
    FPP works with indigenous peoples and forest peoples to reform commodity production and associated supply chains and trade through engagement with voluntary certification schemes and multi-stakeholder initiatives.
    
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    Global Finance
    
    Global Finance
    
    FPP accompanies indigenous peoples and forest peoples in their efforts to identify and challenge public and private financial actors enabling activities that harm their lands, territories and resources.
    
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    Climate and Forest Policy and Finance
    
    Climate and Forest Policy and Finance
    
    FPP supports indigenous peoples and forest peoples to be recognised as rights-holders, knowledge-holders and agents of positive change in national and international climate and forest policy.
    
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  - Legal and Human Rights
    
    Legal and Human Rights
    
    The Legal and Human Rights Programme seeks to ensure respect for and protection of indigenous peoples and forest peoples’ rights, including their rights to self-determination, lands, territories, and resources, and free prior and informed consent (FPIC).
    
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    Legal Empowerment
    
    Legal Empowerment
    
    Our legal empowerment work ensures that resilient and self-governing indigenous peoples and forest peoples are aware of their rights can effectively use customary, national and international legal systems to defend those rights.
    
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    Access to Justice
    
    Access to Justice
    
    We support indigenous peoples' and forest peoples’ access to justice through facilitating their strategic use a wide range of judicial and non-judicial mechanisms when their collective rights are violated.
    
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    Law and Policy Reform
    
    Law and Policy Reform
    
    We facilitate people-led, research-driven, human rights-based law and policy reform at national and international levels through collaborating with indigenous peoples and forest peoples.
    
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  - Gender Justice
    
    Gender Justice
    
    Gender justice is integral in all the work the Forest Peoples Programme does to support indigenous peoples and forest peoples in their efforts to secure collective land tenure and practice self-determination.
    
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    Advancing Legal Protections
    
    Advancing Legal Protections
    
    Imagine a world in which laws concerning Indigenous women and forest women were developed with their full and effective participation and consent.
    
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    Partner-led Actions
    
    Partner-led Actions
    
    FPP supports partner-led actions that strengthen Indigenous women’s and forest women’s leadership and meaningful participation in local, national, regional and global decision-making spaces.
    
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    Communications and Resources
    
    Communications and Resources
    
    Understanding the gender/ing of people, places, and dynamics is essential to how we tell stories.
    
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- Priority Initiatives
  Priority Initiatives
  
  FPP has organisation-wide initiatives that respond to cross-cutting and commonly expressed needs across all our partnerships. These are the Strategic Legal Response Centre and Forest Visions.
  
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  - Strategic Legal Response Centre
    
    Strategic Legal Response Centre
    
    The Strategic Legal Response Centre (SLRC) is one of FPP’s priority initiatives and was established in 2021 to magnify FPP’s legal support to indigenous peoples and forest peoples.
    
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  - Forest Visions
    
    Forest Visions
    
    Forest Visions is a sub-granting vehicle established by Forest Peoples Programme to respond to a key gap in the funding ecosystem, by directly supporting indigenous peoples and forest peoples to realise their visions for their lands and territories.
    
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- Priority Collaborations
  Priority Collaborations
  
  FPP is part of a wider movement towards social justice and securing the rights of indigenous peoples and forest peoples to their lands, territories, and resources. As part of our commitment to movement building and understanding that collaborative approaches have scale and reach that no individual organisation can provide, we seek to make the most of opportunities for collaboration with partners and allies
  
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  - Indigenous Led Education (ILED)
    
    Indigenous Led Education (ILED)
    
    The Indigenous-Led Education Network (ILED) is a collaboration established in 2020 to support indigenous peoples to continue passing on their knowledge systems, cultures, and languages.
    
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  - Indigenous Navigator
    
    Indigenous Navigator
    
    Founded in 2014, the Indigenous Navigator is a framework and set of tools for and by indigenous peoples to systematically monitor the level of recognition and implementation of their rights.
    
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  - Local Biodiversity Outlooks (LBO)
    
    Local Biodiversity Outlooks (LBO)
    
    The Local Biodiversity Outlooks presents the perspectives and experiences of indigenous peoples and local communities in the implementation of the CBD.
    
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  - The Accountability Framework initiative (AFi)
    
    The Accountability Framework initiative (AFi)
    
    The Accountability Framework initiative (AFi) is a collective effort of diverse organisations dedicated to protecting forests, natural ecosystems, and human rights.
    
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  - Transformative Pathways
    
    Transformative Pathways
    
    Transformative Pathways is a joint initiative led by indigenous organisations in four countries across Asia, Africa, and the Americas, and supported by a network of global partners.
    
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  - Whakatane Mechanism
    
    Whakatane Mechanism
    
    The aim of the Whakatane Mechanism is to assess the situation in different protected areas around the world and, where people are negatively affected, to propose solutions and implement them.
    
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  - Zero Tolerance Initiative (ZTI)
    
    Zero Tolerance Initiative (ZTI)
    
    The Zero Tolerance Initiative (ZTI) is led by indigenous peoples, community representatives, and supportive NGOs working collectively to address the root causes of killings and violence against human rights defenders linked to global supply chains.
    
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Community Voices
Partners & Countries
- Partners
- Countries
Latest News
Publications & Resources
Publications & Resources

Explore our resource section for insightful reports, publications and training materials.

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Publications & Resources

Parc National Kahuzi Biega - DRC. Credit: Dominique Linel: https://www.flickr.com/photos/37853591@N05/49892976343

Threat of death penalty for ecoguards who killed indigenous men in DRC national park

21 December 2020

Territorial Governance Culture and Knowledge Conservation and Human Rights Self-determination Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC)

“Donde no hay jueces ni policías. Administración de justicia indígena en el Perú”

New tool: "Where there are no judges or police: The administration of indigenous justice in Peru"

21 December 2020

Conservation and Human Rights Culture and Knowledge Law and Policy Reform Supply Chains and Trade Territorial Governance Regulation Deforestation Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC)Self-determination

Spanish English

Spiritual invocations led by the group Kobo - Cameroon

Developing self-esteem: A cultural awareness workshop seeks to inspire a new generation of Baka leaders

17 December 2020

Culture and Knowledge Territorial Governance Self-determination Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC)English

Community member from Bangladesh's Sundarbans mangrove forest

Bangladesh case study: Sundarbans mangrove forest communities further marginalised by COVID-19 measures as super cyclone devastates livelihoods

17 December 2020

Culture and Knowledge Territorial Governance Conservation and Human Rights Supply Chains and Trade Self-determination

Spanish French English

Aisha Nyiransenga

Uganda case study: The COVID-19 pandemic sees hunger and poverty on the rise among the dispossessed Batwa

17 December 2020

Culture and Knowledge Territorial Governance Conservation and Human Rights Self-determination

Spanish French English

Indigenous food drive organised by IMPECT

Thailand case study: Highland indigenous communities on self-sufficiency, food security and land tenure during COVID-19

17 December 2020

Culture and Knowledge Territorial Governance Conservation and Human Rights Self-determination

Spanish French English

Children of Casipora are home-schooled in community hall during pandemic

Suriname case study: Indigenous village leader becomes teacher during pandemic

17 December 2020

Culture and Knowledge Conservation and Human Rights Self-determination

Spanish French English

Indigenous Dumagat woman, nanay Amy, from sitio Quiborosa--ground zero of the Kaliwa Dam-- preparing her rice grains

Philippines case study: The Dumagat’s fight against the Kaliwa dam amid the COVID-19 pandemic

17 December 2020

Culture and Knowledge Supply Chains and Trade Law and Policy Reform Territorial Governance Conservation and Human Rights Infrastructure Self-determination Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC)

Spanish French English

Aristides, Kichwa of the Tupac Amaru community in San Martin receiving a cleaning kit to avoid COVID19

Peru case study: A Kichwa family, hungry and exposed to COVID-19, in eternal exodus

17 December 2020

Spanish French English

A young girl who had gone to fetch maize flour for her family found her house had been burned down.

Kenya case study: Forced evictions in the middle of COVID-19 pandemic leaves Sengwer community with no homes

16 December 2020

Global Finance Access to Justice Conservation and Human Rights Culture and Knowledge Territorial Governance Self-determination Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC)

Spanish French English

The Community Forest Group (HKM Talago Bawah Gunuang) practices physical distancing while continuing to save the forest in the Tree Seed Cutting programme

Indonesia case study: Minangkabau community observes lockdown by restoring their forest in West Sumatra

16 December 2020

Culture and Knowledge Territorial Governance Conservation and Human Rights Self-determination

Spanish French English

Anita Williams, chairperson of the Shea Village Women’s group, sewing masks. They did the job voluntarily.

Guyana case study: Wapichan nao (people) stand strong and resilient through the COVID-19 pandemic

16 December 2020

Culture and Knowledge Territorial Governance Conservation and Human Rights Supply Chains and Trade Gender Justice Self-determination Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC)

Spanish French English

Ms. Katarina Badu, the elected chairwoman of Subah Dayak Bekati’ indigenous women group

Transmigration townships and the Dayak Bekati': indigenous peoples' rights in an industrialised palm oil landscape in Indonesia

16 December 2020

Conservation and Human Rights Law and Policy Reform Supply Chains and Trade Deforestation Certification Regulation Palm Oil Self-determination Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC)

Indonesian English

Disinfections of vehicles at check points set up by the Guardia Cimarrona

Colombia case study: Rays of hope and a ‘March of Dignity’ during the COVID-19 pandemic

16 December 2020

Culture and Knowledge Conservation and Human Rights Self-determination

Spanish French English

Bagyeli community members of Bela village (Ocean division)

Cameroon case study: Indigenous peoples draw on spirit of solidarity to cope with COVID-19 and the measures to contain it

16 December 2020

Territorial Governance Culture and Knowledge Self-determination

Spanish French English

Ogiek Peoples Development Programme front

Press release: Ogiek peoples place hope on court case to stop Kenyan Government’s titling scheme in Eastern Mau

14 December 2020

Self-determination Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC)English

COVID-19 report cover

New FPP report analyses impacts and underlying inequalities around COVID-19 for indigenous and tribal peoples

08 December 2020

Territorial Governance Culture and Knowledge Conservation and Human Rights Gender Justice Self-determination Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC)

Spanish French English

Borneo boat on river

REPORT: The Plan to Plunder Borneo’s Final Frontier

08 December 2020

Supply Chains and Trade Palm Oil Regulation Certification Deforestation Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC)English

Establishing a birth certificate in Cameroon

Legal guide for establishing a birth certificate in Cameroon

05 December 2020

Conservation and Human Rights Self-determination

Santa Clara de Uchunya - Oxfam

Shipibo community secures major victory: Peruvian government suspends operations of palm oil company and issues multi-million dollar fine

04 December 2020

Culture and Knowledge Territorial Governance Access to Justice Supply Chains and Trade Conservation and Human Rights Certification Regulation Lands, Territories and Resources Palm Oil Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC)Self-determination English

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