The Forum renews the recommendation made at its first session on the need to create a three-year working group on free, prior informed consent and participatory research guidelines, under the aegis of the Forum, with funding from the regular budget that includes a focus on how the guidelines relate to the protection of indigenous knowledge and natural resources.
The Forum expresses concern over development practices that do not take into account the particular characteristics of indigenous communities as groups, with their distinct cultural identities and often their own systems of representation, thus significantly undermining meaningful ways of participation in the assessment, preparation, execution and evaluation of development programmes of their concern.