Free Prior Informed Consent - Mere Politics or Meaningful Change?

This chapter develops the Policy Risk Analysis approach to particularly address water and other natural resource policy failures focuses on three categories of risk: political risk, instrument and implementation risk, and the risk of spill overs. International politics has a principle that embeds confusion between individual rights, procedural requirements, and State sovereignty. The chapter concerns only with free, free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) in relation to access to biological resources and related cultural products. The boundaries of the application of the Indigenous Peoples' FPIC will be formed by political and economic dynamics and advances in knowledge, but ultimately will be defined through its embodiment in statute and other law and policy instruments, and through interpretation and contestation. The existence of risks, and the extent of harm that can arise if potential adverse contingencies do arise, indicate that systematic management of this policy risk should be a priority.