New publication: Securing rights through commodity roundtables? A comparative review

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 Technical Workshop to Review Commodity Roundtables Standards on Free, Prior and Informed Consent, Customary Land, Conflict Resolution and High Conservation Values brought together the representatives of six commodity roundtable standards (the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, the Forest Stewardship Council, the Roundtable on Responsible Soy, the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels, BonSucro and the Shrimp Aquaculture Dialogue) as well as NGOs with long-standing experience working with, and knowledge of, various voluntary commodity standards (Sawit Watch, WWF, Oxfam and ProForest).

The workshop focused on four issues: 1) the right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) 2) recognition of legal and customary rights (particularly in regards to land and natural resources) 3) conflict resolution mechanisms and 4) protection and management of areas containing high conservation values including areas crucial for environmental services, livelihoods and cultural identity. The purpose of the workshop was to compare, benchmark and stimulate review and discussion of the various commodity systems and operational procedures to identify their strengths and weaknesses with the aim of drawing out the key lessons from them all.

Click here to read the review paper.