EUDR: How companies can ensure Indigenous rights are protected

EUDR Indigenous rights summary Indigenous rights must be respected for EUDR complianceFree, prior and informed consent (FPIC) must be integrated into risk assessmentsOperators may need to adapt to meet Indigenous conceptions of land use rightsDifferent Indigenous groups may have different conceptions of such things Critics say EUDR relies to heavily on national, rather than international, rights, thus meaning some are unprotectedThe European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) may be delayed again. EU Commissioner Jessika Roswall recently announced that the Commission is seeking another postponement of the regulation.

This may set the deadline back again. Yet the regulation is still going ahead, and manufacturers must still get prepared.

Obligations around Indigenous rightsSustainability is about more than just the environment. The EUDR is no exception.

Interaction with Indigenous people must take place under the principle of free, prior and informed consent (FPIC), meaning that those interacting with them must ensure they have their consent to any legislation or projects that may affect them or their rights to land, territory or resources.

Operators must conform to FPIC when it is part of the law in the country in which they’re operating.

When conducting risk assessments, operators must take into account the presence of Indigenous people within the country in which they’re operating.

They must cooperate “in good faith” with the Indigenous people, the EUDR states, and respect their claims of ownership on the land in which the company is operating, “based on objective and verifiable information”.

Consultation with Indigenous people should be part of due diligence reporting, the regulation states.

How companies can comply To protect Indigenous rights, “all land-use decisions must be guided by Free, Prior, and Informed Consent process ensuring that consent of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities are obtained where relevant,” explains a spokesperson for the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).

In order to do this, companies must make an effort to understand the Indigenous communities living in the area in which they are operating, specifically how land ownership is decided within a given community and adjust decision-making processes to accommodate this.

Such agreements may be different to what operators are used to.

“Some communities in different regions understand verbal agreements to be binding, while a unit of certification and/or government may only accept written agreements and signatures as formal and binding,” explains the RSPO spokesperson.

“This is particularly so when some Indigenous Peoples do not wish to sign any formal document for fear that someone in their community might sell their rights as evidenced in the document. Therefore, meaningful and regular communication is important between companies and communities.”

Criticisms of the EUDR’s approach to Indigenous rightsSome have suggested that the EUDR doesn’t go far enough in protecting Indigenous rights.

The regulation has been criticised by the United Nations University Institute on Comparative Regional Integration Studies (UNU-CRIS), which points out it does not contain any way in which Indigenous people can seek financial remedy for harms done to them.

Some NGOs, such as Fern, have also suggested that the legislation relies too heavily on rights afforded to Indigenous people by the states in which they live, as FPIC, while included in the EUDR, is only done so on the basis of its inclusion within national legislation.

This criticism is backed up by NGO Earthsight, who have stated that the regulation “missed the opportunity to sufficiently protect Indigenous peoples rights“.

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