Indigenous peoples' right to give or withhold consent to development projects that affect their natural resources and ways of life has become stronger thanks to a new manual that guides development actors in designing and implementing such projects. The Manual on Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) outlines essential ways to ensure indigenous peoples, can give or withold their consent to interventions proposed in their lands and territories and do so free of coercion, prior to any decisions being made, and with the necessary information presented to them in a culturally appropriate way. Indigenous peoples make up 75 percent of the...

From October 3 to 5, more than 20 experts from UN Organizations and 8 indigenous representatives came together at FAO headquarters to attend the annual meeting of the Inter-Agency Support Group on Indigenous Issues (IASG). The role of the IASG is to mainstream the work on indigenous peoples inside the different UN organizations. Its most important work this year has been the mainstreaming of a UN System Wide Action Plan on the rights of indigenous peoples (UNSWAP).  The UNSWAP, originally requested by UN Member States during the 2014 World Conference on Indigenous Peoples, was officially launched on May this...

Indigenous peoples over the world face serious challenges in having their rights to land, territories and natural resources recognized. There are few countries in the world that have the institutional and legal mechanisms to enable indigenous peoples to secure their tenure rights – including access – to traditional land. In India since 2006 the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dweller's Act (commonly known as the Forest Rights Act or FRA) has recognized the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities to live off the forest and to use and govern forest resources, including the right to hold forest...

From May 17-20 the workshop "Introduction to the use of management tools for tenure rights on communal lands" was held in the Heart Ecological Park Forest, St. Lucia Utatlán, Solola, organized by the association Utz  Che ', the University of San Carlos of Guatemala and FAO, with support from the British Government (DIFID) and the Ford Foundation. This 4-day workshop had the objective to strengthen participants theoretical and practical knowledge and analysis capacities, building on the experience that indigenous communities and other stakeholders have regarding local governance for sustainable land management. An exchange on territorial management and local governance was also...

La experiencia de la construcción del Plan de Acción de Pueblos Indígenas (PANPI) en El Salvador fue presentada por los diferentes participantes en el proceso durante la XV sesión del Foro Permanente sobre Cuestiones Indígenas de las Naciones Unidas que se llevó a cabo en Nueva York este mes. “El Salvador es pionero en la creación de este Plan pues lo ha hecho desde un enfoque participativo gracias a las acciones del Grupo de Conducción integrado por representantes de los pueblos indígenas, instituciones de gobierno y organizaciones del Sistema de Naciones Unidas”, indicó el Representante Alan González, quien expuso el proceso...