The UN-REDD Programme, in collaboration with the Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact, and with the support of UNDP’s Asia and Pacific Regional Indigenous Peoples Program and the UN-REDD Programme in Vietnam, hosted a three-day workshop in Hanoi, from 16-18 June, to begin elaborating how the principle of free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) should be applied to the activities of the Programme and in the context of readiness and REDD+ more broadly.

Group discussion at the UN-REDD Programme FPIC workshop mid-June in Hanoi, Viet Nam.

The purpose of the workshop in Hanoi was to initiate a three-step process to develop guidelines on FPIC and recourse for the UN-REDD Programme. The initial guidelines will be elaborated through a series of regional follow-up dialogues (in Latin America and Africa) and via a public comment and input process. The resulting guidelines will be added as an annex to the UN-REDD Programme Operational Guidance on the Engagement of Indigenous Peoples and other Forest Dependent Communities.

The UN-REDD Programme, a partnership of UN agencies, is responsible under the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2007, to support the application of its provisions, including the articles on the free, prior and informed consent of Indigenous Peoples to policies, programs, and measures that may impact their traditional territories, resources or livelihoods. This responsibility is articulated in the UN-REDD Programme Operational Guidance on the Engagement of Indigenous Peoples and other Forest Dependent Communities. The Programme has been called upon by its Policy Board and by other stakeholders, including the participants of the first Asia and Pacific Indigenous Peoples Consultation that took place in October 2009, to provide guidance on how FPIC, as well as adequate recourse, should be implemented within the context of the Programme.

This second gathering of Indigenous Peoples’ representatives from Asia and the Pacific region brought together over 60 participants from UN-REDD Programme pilot and partner countries, and international civil society organizations, including the Indigenous Peoples' International Centre for Policy Research and Education (Tebtebba Foundation), Forest Peoples Programme, the Center for International Environmental Law, and The Forests Dialogue, as well as civil society and Indigenous Peoples representatives to the UN-REDD Policy Board from Latin America.

Opening remarks by Charles McNeill of the UN-REDD Programme.

Participants and resource people shared information on the UN-REDD Programme, UNDRIP and FPIC, and approaches that have been taken to applying FPIC in other sectors. Participants also discussed the lessons that can be drawn from past experiences to inform how best FPIC and recourse should be applied to the readiness activities supported by the UN-REDD Programme.

Members of the UN-REDD Programme teams in Vietnam and Indonesia presented the efforts that are underway to implement FPIC in national-level activities. The UN-REDD Programme in Vietnam reported on the eight-step pilot FPIC process that was implemented in Lam Dong Province in the first half of this year. The presentation was followed by an overview of the initial findings of an independent verification and evaluation of the process conducted by The Center for People and Forests (RECOFTC).

Workshop participants then spent two days in working groups, tasked with offering specific guidance to a hypothetical UN-REDD country on how to ensure that the readiness activities implemented by the Programme receive the free, prior and informed consent of Indigenous Peoples where their resources, territories or livelihoods are impacted and how adequate recourse will be provided in cases where their decision is not respected, or FPIC is not properly implemented. The working group recommendations will be consolidated into an initial set of guidelines that will serve as an input to the next regional consultation for Latin America and the Caribbean that will take place in Panama in late September.

For more information on the consultation, please visit the UN-REDD Programme workspace and see the interview on FPIC with UN-REDD Programme team members on the UN-REDD website. A full report on the consultation, along with the initial draft guidelines, is forthcoming and will also be posted on the Programme’s website.