FPIC: Free, Prior, and Informed Consent in Sexy Trees project design

Effective free, prior, and informed consent (+ongoing which we really like!)

Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) is not an optional step, but a mandatory one.

For certifiers and buyers of any climate project involving grassroots communities, it's also a compliance and legal risk issue. In short, do it. Do it right. And get someone to double-check that you did it properly privately, because it will definitely happen publicly at some point.

We would be remiss not to address FPIC, but equally remiss to present ourselves as defining its requirements when there are far more authoritative sources. What follows are operational answers from a working organization, not conceptual contributions to the literature or policy. We have added some practice recommendations we adhere to, refer externally to definitive sources, and strongly recommend our place-based peer-nominated FPIC validation service for your jurisdiction.

It cannot be emphasized enough that FPIC, like any type of consent, is ongoing. Projects must make provisions early in their design for what happens if consent is revoked and how data will be handled in that scenario.

Authoritative sources on FPIC

Some guides for effective FPIC we recommend include, but are not limited to:

• Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) FPIC Guide
• First People's Worldwide FPIC Due-diligence questionnaire
• Forest People's Program Good faith negotiation guide
• Sirge Coalition FPIC guide
• Convention on Biological Diversity Mo’ otz Kuxtal Guidelines