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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

Michel Forst meets human rights defenders

UN expert to Peru: guarantee Indigenous Peoples’ rights, title their lands and end criminalisation to protect Human Rights Defenders

07 February 2020

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

Residents of a Humanitarian Zone remember their loved ones and leaders

UN-CERD publishes its Concluding Observations on Colombia

28 January 2020

Supply Chains and Trade Legal Empowerment Access to Justice Law and Policy Reform Human Rights Deforestation Self Determination and FPIC Regulation Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC)Self-determination

Spanish English

Residents of a Humanitarian Zone remember their loved ones and leaders

ONU-CERD publica sus Observaciones Finales sobre Colombia

28 January 2020

Supply Chains and Trade Legal Empowerment Access to Justice Law and Policy Reform Human Rights Deforestation Self Determination and FPIC Regulation Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC)Self-determination

English Spanish

Members of the community of Long Isun celebrate their annual Hudoq festivities

Press release: Indigenous community files FSC Policy of Association complaint against Roda Mas Group in Indonesia

27 January 2020

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

Wampis woman walking the territory, which covers over 1.3 million hectares of old growth forest in northern Peru

Indigenous communities secure multi-million dollar fines for Petroperu’s contamination of their Amazonian territories

17 January 2020

Supply Chains and Trade Law and Policy Reform Territorial Governance Culture and Knowledge Conservation and Human Rights Deforestation Regulation Minerals and Energy English

Oil spill in the Cuninico River

Amazon communities’ court victory forces Peru Government to respond to oil spill health crisis

16 January 2020

Supply Chains and Trade Law and Policy Reform Territorial Governance Culture and Knowledge Conservation and Human Rights Deforestation Regulation Minerals and Energy English

Zero Tolerance Initiative front

Time to act: Protect defenders who speak up against business impact on people and planet

12 January 2020

Conservation and Human Rights Access to Justice Law and Policy Reform Supply Chains and Trade Regulation Deforestation Human Rights Human Rights Defenders Self-determination English

Batwa woman in front of her burning home in Rubuguri, Uganda

Loss of land is not the only challenge faced by Uganda’s Batwa women

10 January 2020

Legal Empowerment Culture and Knowledge Conservation and Human Rights Lands, Territories and Resources Self Determination and FPIC Gender Justice English

Hufat Biseh explaining the use of plants for medicine

New paper: Legal obstacles to territorial rights recognition, sustainable production and conservation on forest peoples’ lands

09 January 2020

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

Mapping exercise - Wampis territory, October 2019

Community lands in community hands: The potential of new mapping tools

07 January 2020

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

ZTI defender

“A war against us and our brothers and sisters defending their lands and the environment”: The stories behind the Zero Tolerance Initiative

09 December 2019

Supply Chains and Trade Access to Justice Global Finance Human Rights Defenders Human Rights Deforestation Self-determination Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC)English

Deforestation, Lampung, Sumatra, Indonesia

Land conflicts and rights violations spoil Indonesia’s efforts to curb deforestation

29 November 2019

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

Berta Caceres protest, Honduras

Enough! Pledging zero tolerance to attacks against environmental and human rights defenders

26 November 2019

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

A man walks down a muddy path in an area which has recently been deforested in preparation to expand the Duta Palma palm oil plantation, Riau Province, Indonesia

"Our communities are risking their lives to defend our world": A global call to action to stop violence and killings in supply chains

26 November 2019

Culture and Knowledge Territorial Governance Access to Justice Supply Chains and Trade Conservation and Human Rights Human Rights Human Rights Defenders Deforestation Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC)Self-determination English

Rice paddies - SwedBio image (Pernilla Malmer)

FPP with SwedBio at the 11th meeting of the Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group on Article 8(j) and Related Provisions of the Convention on Biological Diversity

19 November 2019

Culture and Knowledge Environmental Governance Conservation and Human Rights Biodiversity Business, Trade and Finance Self-determination Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC)English

Government investigator surveys the oil palm plantation in Ucayali

“We trust that the Constitutional Court will resolve this case in our favour” say leaders of the community of Santa Clara de Uchunya

14 November 2019

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

9th SE Asian Business & Human Rights Conference

The chilling effect of threats, violence and criminalisation: a key message from the 2019 Southeast Asian Conference on Human Rights and Business

05 November 2019

Supply Chains and Trade Law and Policy Reform Territorial Governance Culture and Knowledge Conservation and Human Rights Palm Oil Business, Trade and Finance Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC)English

Oil palms, Indonesia

New NGO reports question track record of palm oil certification scheme

04 November 2019

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

Buah kelapa sawit, Indonesia

Press release: Report shows widespread human rights violations in Wilmar’s palm oil operations in West Sumatra

04 November 2019

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

Indonesian English

Buah kelapa sawit, Indonesia

Laporan tentang Luasnya Pelanggaran Hak Asasi Manusia di Operasi Kelapa Sawit Wilmar di Sumatra Barat

04 November 2019

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

Indonesian English

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