Photo: Khanh Tran-Thanh
l FPIC and beyond: safeguards for power-equalising research that protects biodiversity, rights and culture 49
tives on every issue and insists on the need
for extended peer review. This ‘extended
peer community’ validates knowledge and
can include scientists as well as members of
indigenous and local communities – both
men and women of different age groups,
classes, castes, ethnic groups etc. All these
actors have incomplete and partial knowledge – scientists included. Under
conditions of open-ended uncertainties
and rapid change all these different knowledge holders (e.g. farmers, healers,
livestock holders, forest dwellers, scientists)
have a legitimate and useful role to play in
deciding what constitutes valid knowledge
in a particular context.
The more academic and narrow disciplinary-based peer review system alone –
with its privileged power to decide what is
‘true science’ – is no longer seen as legitimate and relevant for dealing with the
challenges of the 21st Century such as
climate change and risk assessments.
Photo: Khanh Tran-Thanh
Following the International Forum on Food Sovereignty, IIED project partners from India, Indonesia, Iran and
Peru participated in a workshop to share in a process of mutual learning (Selingue, Mali).
Citizens’ jury on the Governance of Agricutural
Research in West Africa (Selingue, Mali), a process
designed to strengthen the voices of small-scale
producers and other citizens.