Ask the experts webinar: Upholding Indigenous rights in supply chains
22 October 2025
Practical feedback from the AFi Coalition and partners on the questions and challenges companies are facing as they implement their commitments.
Many companies have pledged to respect the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IP and LC) in their commodity supply chains. Yet turning these commitments into practice often proves challenging, especially at scale.
This interactive AFi ‘ask the experts’ webinar created space for companies, multi-stakeholder initiatives, service providers, and other participants to receive practical feedback on the questions and challenges they are facing. It explored what it means for companies to respect IP and LC rights, and offered perspectives from peoples and groups whose cultures, lands, livelihoods, and resources are directly affected by business actions.
Speakers took questions on topics including:
- Identifying rightsholders and their rights
- Conducting free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) processes
- Turning company policies into supplier action
- Moving beyond audits to monitor for performance and compliance
- Remedying human rights harms
- Taking collaborative action to address systemic issues
Moderator
Oda Almås Smith, Responsible Finance Programme Coordinator, Forest Peoples Programme
Speakers
- Tim Derr, Rights & Livelihoods Senior Associate, Rights and Resources Initiative
- Justin Dupre-Harbord, Deputy Director, Responsible Sourcing and IP and LC Rights, Proforest
- Pramasti Ayu Kusdinar ‘Dinar’, Akar Global Initiative, Indonesia
- Barbara Wettstein, Human Rights Manager, Nestlé
Resources
- Accountability Framework Operational Guidance on Respecting the rights of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities
- AFi Self-assessment Tool
- Forest Peoples Programme: Stepping up: Protecting collective land rights through corporate due diligence
- Nestlé: Indigenous peoples' and local communities' land rights
- Proforest: Engaging voices: stakeholder consultations on IP&LC rights in the Colombian palm oil industry. A case study.
- Proforest: Respecting Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities in Landscape Initiatives
- Proforest: Social Safeguarding Process for Landscape and Jurisdictional Initiatives
- Proforest: Taking a Smart-Mix Approach to Action on Human Rights
- Rights and Resources Initiative: Interlaken Group Community Monitoring Resources