Guest Article: Securing indigenous peoples' free, prior and informed consent in forests

The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) has just agreed to establish a Permanent Indigenous Peoples Committee (PIPC) in its governing structure. The Sami is a traditional reindeer-herding people. Below, Anders Blom - of the Protect Sapmi Foundation, an indigenous peoples’ organisation that works with the Sami - sets out his vision of how FSC should now help to realise indigenous peoples’ rights.

Every effective organisation must have a vision guiding their way. A vision must be strong, reachable and visible for everyone within the organisation. It reminds me of the story of when Michelangelo was making his sculpture of David and one of his disciples asked him: “Master, how can you create such beauty out of a solid rock?” Michelangelo answered, “But isn’t it obvious? I see David in the rock all the time. All I have to do is to remove the parts that obscure him.”

Within the Permanent Indigenous Peoples’ Committee (PIPC) of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), we have made a value-driven vision statement that says that we shall:

‘Champion the enhancement of strong, resilient, sustainable and successful indigenous peoples’ communities, whose rights and interests are recognised, respected, protected and provided for in the use and management of their ancestral lands, forests and natural resources.’

In order to reach that vision, in order to see David in our stone, we have to work with tools that help us to remove the obscuring parts.

Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) is presently the most important tool for PIPC to reach our vision. It has a top priority.

There have historically been a lot of discussions concerning the definitions of FPIC. FPIC is already mentioned in the present FSC standard, as it is a part of civil rights, international law and corporate social responsibility programmes. As we see it, there is no longer a need for that discussion. There might however still be some questions to clarify.

• The issue today is not discussing definitions but how we can implement FPIC. FSC has produced a comprehensive guideline for the implementation of FPIC  – read it! It shows that consultation is not equal to consent. The guideline is a good example of how FSC works proactively on this issue.
• Since 2012, FPIC as a concept has been clearly integrated into the FSC’s Principles & Criteria. It will be a compulsory element of International Generic Indicators and of the national standards that derive from them. For all companies working in the indigenous landscape this will be a mandatory part of their work.
• Many have asked if FPIC is an absolute veto – we would say it is not.
• We believe that FPIC brings a responsibility to both the indigenous communities and to the certified companies. A serious dialogue-based process should result in a written agreement.

What of the hopes, fears, challenges and opportunities concerning FPIC? These are all relevant questions for many of you as well as for us in PIPC. Let’s start with the hope.

We see FPIC as the most important tool to recognise and respect indigenous rights. FSC is hopeful that it is taking the lead in this issue. No other market-driven, third party-controlled certification system has reached this far.

So how about fears? Yes we also experience fears in relation to FPIC. For example, will the companies/the certificate holders realise their responsibility to provide indigenous communities with the capacity needed to fully participate in the FPIC process? Here we are talking about financial contributions, access to independent advisers, training etc. Without that contribution I fear that the whole idea of FPIC will fail.

Are there any challenges connected to FPIC? Yes, there will be challenges on all sides in this process. For FSC it will be a challenge to balance the interests of the different chambers without losing focus. For the certificate holders, it will involve a paradigmatic change in attitudes toward indigenous people. They will need to build internal capacity and knowledge for this change. For the indigenous communities one of the big challenges will be to build trust in their relations with the certified companies and the Certification Bodies (CBs) to overcome all historical wrongdoings. In the name of good faith and cooperation this can be done.

What then are the opportunities? For FSC it will be the opportunity to become the preferred standard for indigenous peoples all over the world. For the certificate holders this will bring the satisfaction of being a part of the solution and not risking being a part of the problem.

For indigenous peoples this might bring a true opportunity to safeguard and protect important parts of our landscape. By building relations, they can spread the good words of true sustainability and resilience.

Finally we are facing a period of hard work. The first step will be the planned FPIC implementation projects. I am convinced that with good will and hard work we will meet at the General Assembly in three years and pronounce our satisfaction of being an even stronger organisation in a better world.

(Editor's note: This guest article is an edited version of the speech made by Anders Blom to a side meeting on ‘Free, Prior and Informed Consent in FSC-certified forest management: hopes, fears, challenges and opportunities’, presented at the FSC General Assembly in Sevilla, Spain, 10th September 2014.)