Pitfalls and Pipelines - Philippine Indigenous Peoples Links

316 Pitfalls and Pipelines: Indigenous Peoples and Extractive Industries
of indigenous peoples’ traditional knowledge and intellectual
property. The 2011 Convention on Biological Diversity
Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing includes the
requirement for “prior and informed consent” and seeks to
ensure that states give consideration to, and raise awareness
of, community protocols. 2
The UN International Fund for Agricultural Development’s
2009 “Engagement with Indigenous Peoples” policy includes
FPIC as one of the fundamental principles for its engagement
with indigenous peoples. Under the policy, the Fund commits
to consider as a criterion for the approval of proposed
projects, whether any potentially affected indigenous peoples
have given their consent. 3
Donor governments are also increasingly recognizing the
requirement for FPIC in their development strategies. To date
Denmark, Spain, Germany, and the European Commission
have incorporated the requirement to obtain FPIC within
their development cooperation strategies. Given the increasing
number of deals being done between donor states and
home-country companies, it is always worth considering
whether there is development aid money supporting any part
of a proposed project. 4
A review of the extractive sector in relation to other industries
shows that the extractive industries are lagging behind
others in recognizing FPIC for indigenous peoples. 5 FPIC
has been endorsed by various voluntary multi-stakeholder
processes in other sectors. The Roundtable on Sustainable
Palm Oil (RSPO) has it as a key principle in its 2007 Principles
and Criteria for Sustainable Palm Oil Production. The RSPO
sponsored training programs, partly organized by indigenous
organizations, to understand and implement the principle. 6
Retrospective application of this standard to resolve land disputes
has even led oil palm companies (which are owned by
the Wilmar Group, that is a member of the RSPO), to return
disputed land to communities and compensate them for damages
caused. 7 The Round Table for Responsible Soy and the
Round Table of Sustainable Biofuels also make reference to it. 8