Summary
Standard-setting organisations that certify mineral, forest and agriculture and biomass-based resources adjacent to or overlapping with Indigenous Peoples claims to customary land and resource rights have identified the need to include Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) in their Standards' requirements. There is a growing body of knowledge, experience, case studies and guidance on how FPIC can and should be implemented. There are limited resources however, that define how assurance providers can verify whether FPIC has been achieved. This report presents the methodology and results of a project that was jointly facilitated by Equitable Origin (EO) and the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB), the aim of which was to draft a tool that will aid assurance providers to monitor and verify that the process is being implemented responsibly. By developing this tool in collaboration with representatives from Indigenous Peoples' communities who have experience with community consultation and FPIC processes, it establishes a framework that integrates best practice management requirements with indicators, procedures and protocols that have been constructed with and by Indigenous Peoples. The research uses Colombia, Ecuador and Peru as case study countries although the application of the tool can be widened to the Amazon as a whole. This project comprises three key activities: a literature review, desktop research, and three field workshops. This study has also been guided by and benefited from the knowledge of a Working Group comprised of Indigenous Peoples rights experts, lawyers, academics and representatives of Standard-setting organisations.