3.2 Getting the right advice
The issues we are confronting are complicated. So too is all the information we need to help us understand the
project and the processes involved! The companies have technical experts and lawyers to help them — why
shouldn’t our community have them, too?
If we are recruiting help from outsiders, there are some important considerations we should first think about:
•
We need people we can trust;
•
The people we choose should have expertise, but they also need to respect our rights and the way our
community makes decisions;
•
We should take the time to explain to them our own point of view, what issues our community members
think are important, and what aspects we find confusing;
•
Just because they give us help, it does not mean that we have to do everything they suggest. We have to live
with the consequences of any decisions; they do not.
We should also use our own community experts to help us understand the plans being proposed and how they
could impact our territories. These people might be community members with a lot of knowledge about the
environment or the kind of business that is being proposed.
Sometimes getting advice is expensive. A large project will have major impacts, and our community may need
advice from experts on different subjects in order to be able to give our Free, Prior and Informed Consent. Some
experts will give their time for free. But given the large number of communities who need advice, free advice isn’t
always possible. For a large project, Indigenous Peoples should be able to require the company, a conservation
agency, or the government to provide us with money to hire experts. We might also decide to ask for money to train
community resource people. But remember:
•
We should freely choose the experts we want to give us advice, even if we take money from the company.
The people they suggest may not have our best interests in mind if they work for the company!
•
We might consider making a written agreement with the funder to make it clear that our community is not
consenting to the project by accepting the money. Instead, we could spell out that we will use the funds to
help us get informed, so that we can make a decision about whether or not we will consent.
Understanding the advice we are given. In order to make an informed decision, our community has to understand
information that can be very technical and complex. Most people find this kind of information hard to understand, so
we must not be intimidated. We should make sure we:
•
Take time to understand what we are being told. If things aren’t clear, we need to ask for them to be
explained again;
•
In the end, we should feel free to either accept or reject the advice given by the experts;
•
Outside experts may be trying to help, but only we know our own priorities. It is our community’s decision
to make!
3.3 Making sense of the information with our communities
Once we have all the available information and advice on a proposed project, we need to make sure it is widely
understood by community members. How we do this will depend on what the project is, what stage it is in, and what
institutions we have chosen to represent us.
A practical guide for Indigenous Peoples in Guyana
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