Takeaways on free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) - a check on corrupt practices in the land sector

Speakers: Nitya Sunil, Director, Legal, ESG & Policy at West Africa Blue, Pranab R Choudhury, Director and Co-founder at Landstack, and Malih Ole Kaunga, Executive Director at Impact. Moderator: Sharon Kiburi, Multimedia data journalist, Independent.

• The key principles to ensure high integrity projects include: full disclosure, active partnership amongst community, government and project developer, clear indication of the type of benefits, direct flow of benefits, stress test benefit sharing mechanism, simple, equitable and fair benefit sharing agreement.

• Red flags in FPIC include: no prior consultation, improper consultation, inadequate or misleading information, forced consent, no reporting or nominal reporting

• Stewardship can be a better approach that takes into account: understanding the context, an ethic of care which emerges from an understanding of the relationships between social and ecological well-being, intrinsic knowledge and agency.

• FPIC is applied many times in a context of power asymmetries and detached from how communities relate to the land. Because carbon projects are long term deals and require a very technical knowledge, FPIC might need revision over time. FPIC should allow communities to say no.

The full recording of the presentation from the 3 July Land Corruption Working Group meeting is available here: