A growing number of Free Prior & Informed Consent manuals and guides out there (which is a good thing) — but this one from CI takes a fresh approach and starts moving beyond the “consent” framing of IPLCs as passive participants or gatekeepers (even when the hold a veto power), embedding them more accurately as central deal-makers and operational players in any conservation strategy.

Just as interesting, CI has put this out along with a fascinating set of five case studies, looking at the Crocodile Jaws Dam in Kenya, the Kalahari San in Botswana, and more. The case studies do not appear to be elaborations of work by CI using Negotiations Guide, but rather difficult historical situations that readers might chew on in light of strategies in the Negotiations Guide. Like other tools (ahem, TNC’s elaborate Wenland hypothetical attached to its Human Rights Guide) it helps folks working on how to operationalize FPIC move from a world of endless idealized “shoulds” to the real world of complications, missing information, and good faith dilemmas at every turn. We need both rooted thinking and creative solutions, and it is the real world that demands it, not another how-to manual.