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FPIC and beyond:
safeguards for powerequalising research that
protects biodiversity,
rights and culture
2
by MICHEL PIMBERT
This special issue of Participatory Learning and Action rightly emphasises the
importance of community designed and
controlled participatory processes of free,
prior informed consent (FPIC) and of developing community protocols for research on
biocultural diversity. In this article, I offer
some reflections on how to give nonresearchers (e.g. men and women in
indigenous and local communities) more
significant roles than before in the production and validation of knowledge for the
equitable and sustainable use of biological
and cultural diversity. I suggest that there
is a need to go beyond the valuable concept
of FPIC for research involving indigenous
and local communities. Whilst an essential
tool, FPIC needs to be part of a wider set of
tactics and safeguards to enable local and
indigenous communities to defend their
rights and determine their own destinies
(Colchester and Ferrari, 2007).
FPIC potentially allows communities
to decide if they want to develop a
1 See Glossary, p.10.
2 See Overview, p.25-40.
community protocol to assert their rights
to biodiversity in different local contexts.1
These biocultural protocols can be used
by communities to set the rules of engagement in research and other initiatives (e.g.
access and benefit-sharing under the
Nagoya Protocol).2 Experience suggests
that participatory processes are key for
the design of effective community protocols (Swiderska, this issue). To date
however, there has been more documentation of the content of existing
biocultural community protocols and
FPIC than the actual processes required
to develop them. This article aims to fill
this knowledge gap by emphasising the
processes and safeguards needed to
ensure a truly participatory approach to
research and development (R&D) for
biodiversity, culture and rights.
I use the term ‘participation’ in an
emancipatory and democratic sense. The
values and normative framework which are
at the heart of my own understanding of