ABSTRACT
This chapter examines changes that are occurring in the way in which local forest populations, particularly Pygmy hunter-gatherers, are consulted and involved in the management of forest concessions in the Congo Basin. Demand for timber certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is growing and some forest companies operating in the Congo Basin wish to achieve the high standards of FSC forest management to benefit from the market opportunities opened up to FSC-certified timber. Through this process, forest companies are becoming answerable not just to individual states’ code forestier, but to supra-national bodies with international standards of sustainable forest management (which generally encapsulate and surpass national ones). Principles 2 and 3 of the FSC standard demand the gaining of free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) for exploitation. Theoretically, FPIC means that communities living in the concessions should be fully informed about intended forestry activities and freely give their consent before any of these activities begin. The aim is to leave the local population room to refuse the company’s exploitation or to negotiate with it on the management of forest resources. While this may seem clear on paper, in practice a lot of problems may arise, many of which are specific to the local social context. How do you achieve equal participation and free consent from indigenous hunter-gatherers who are politically marginalized by their farmer neighbours? Can it be said that consent is freely given when for local populations agreeing to logging activities is their only means of obtaining education, healthcare and basic infrastructure? How do you ensure complete consultation among a mobile hunter-gatherer population? Moreover, can FSC auditors prove this has been achieved? This chapter summarizes preliminary results from a feasibility study conducted in five major forest concessions in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Republic of Congo and Gabon. By looking at the possibilities offered by FPIC and the difficulties surrounding its implementation, this chapter will evaluate if and under which conditions these FSC criteria could give local populations control over forest use and improve their living conditions. This chapter seeks to provoke debate on whether the universal theoretical concept of FPIC can respond to specific local human needs and situations.
