Creating partnerships for research and testing impact verification frameworks in Indigenous and traditional communities

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Project Overview
Key learnings
Impact
Download project outputs

Introduction

Project Details

Project Lead: Forest Stewardship Council

Duration: January 2025 – December 2025

Sector focus: Forestry

Geographical focus: Global, North America, South America

Contact: Laurence Portal (l.portal@fsc.org) and Natalia Gagini (n.gagini@fsc.org)

A small hut is positioned at the end of a wooden walkway, surrounded by forest

Image Caption

Bailique. © FSC

Project Overview

Indigenous and traditional communities play a vital role in protecting the environment through their cultural values and practices. However, the lack of standardised impact verification methods and indicators poses a significant challenge in measuring their impact on landscapes.

Through this project, FSC conducted desk-based research, discussions with experts, and field research to identify the most effective methods for assessing the socio-cultural impact of Indigenous and traditional communities on landscapes. The project gathered insights on the importance of addressing these issues, as well as providing valuable lessons and feedback grounded in Indigenous and traditional perspectives.

Insights from this project have informed and will continue to guide the FSC Ecosystem Services Procedure and create a knowledge-sharing environment, ensuring better ways to verify and demonstrate socio-environmental impact in diverse cultural and local contexts.

A small boat is driven through a muddy river, surrounded by lush foliage.

Image Caption

Macacuari. © FSC

Key learnings

Recognition that culture is cross-cutting and embedded in most community activities is crucial when engaging Indigenous and traditional communities, to ensure that appropriate adaptations are factored in from the outset.
Successful implementation requires auditors to have strong cultural knowledge and soft skills for engaging Indigenous and traditional communities to ensure context-specific adaptations are maintained.
Participatory methods including Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) empowered the communities involved and helped with identifying appropriate, context-specific adaptation. These measures fostered a sense of trust and shared decision-making throughout the project.
Field activities require dedicated time from community members, resulting in an opportunity cost. Meaningful community involvement is especially important to ensure that Indigenous and traditional communities benefit from impact verification activities.

A wide shot of a river and forested bank beneath a bright blue sky.

Image Caption

Rio de Predreira. © FSC

Impact

The project provided the FSC with valuable insights for the development of a Cultural Ecosystem Services category within their Ecosystem Services Procedure (ES PRO). This provides a framework to recognise and validate the contribution that the cultural values and practices of Indigenous and traditional peoples make to sustainable forest management.

Overall, the project engaged with over 400 Indigenous and traditional peoples across Canada and Brazil. Building on the project’s learnings and with the support of a working group of experts, including Indigenous leaders, auditors, and anthropologists, with experience in ecosystem services and forest systems, FSC is currently revising its Ecosystem Services Procedure (ES PRO). The revision aims to integrate Cultural Ecosystem Services through a simplified, accessible, and context-adapted methodology for Indigenous and traditional peoples.

In addition, the project was also supported by organisations with global reach including certification bodies, standards systems and project developers. These groups will help to carry the project learnings forward and scale into new geographies.

Download project outputs

FSC Learning brief

Challenges and pathways for measuring and recognising the cultural impact of indigenous and traditional peoples in forests

This learning brief was produced by FSC as part of their Creating partnerships for research and testing impact verification frameworks in Indigenous and traditional communities project, supported by the ISEAL Innovations Fund, Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and UK International Development from the UK Government.

Challenges and pathways learning brief

This learning brief was produced by FSC as part of their Creating partnerships for research and testing impact verification frameworks in Indigenous and traditional communities project, supported by

Learning brief

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Supported by

The ISEAL Innovations Fund is supported by Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and UK International Development from the UK Government.