Pitfalls and Pipelines - Philippine Indigenous Peoples Links

314 Pitfalls and Pipelines: Indigenous Peoples and Extractive Industries
context of extractive industry projects. FPIC is central to indigenous
peoples’ exercise of their right of self-determination,
with respect to developments affecting their lands, territories
and natural resources. A short summary of the concept is that
it is the right of indigenous peoples to give or withhold their
free, prior and informed consent in non-coercive negotiations
prior to operations being established and developed on their
customary lands.
This evolving human rights norm is essentially the starting
point for all potential impacts on indigenous peoples.
Although this book reviews many of the contexts it appears in,
the fundamental reference point is in the 2007 UN Declaration
on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). One of the
sessions of the 2009 Manila Conference was dedicated to the
issue, but FPIC permeated every session and workshop, featuring
heavily in the final conference statement, the Manila
Declaration.
Reviewing the publication, the issue of FPIC arose in
Chapter 2.1, in the discussion of communities creating their
own protocols for implementing FPIC, and in the various ways
that communities have sought to implement their own versions
of FPIC, including referenda and within the context of
No Go Zones. In Chapter 2.2, FPIC was raised in the context
of where it is present, or not in national legislations, and how
it can still be undermined in those circumstances. Chapter
2.3 reviewed the implementation of FPIC by the World Bank
and other international financial institutions, as well as how
some companies were avoiding fully implementing FPIC in
practice.
Chapter 2.4 concentrated on the issue of power imbalances
when implementing FPIC, between indigenous communities
on one side, and companies and governments on the other. In
terms of good practice, it emphasized how an interpretation of
best practice from a community perspective is understanding
how to create a true and fair process of FPIC. There was also a
detailed study of how FPIC can be undermined by both states
and companies, even where it exists as part of the national
legal framework. It also gave advice on how good negotiations
could take place, which—although set in a context of already