Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) in Nature-Based Carbon Projects: Lessons from the Field

At Thryve, FPIC is not a compliance step - it's the foundation every project is built on. Before a single tree is planted, communities need to understand what they're agreeing to, feel genuinely heard, and have the ability to shape what happens on their land.

This means starting where trust already exists, working through the hard questions - land ownership, species selection, 40-year commitments, and staying in the conversation long after the formal consultation is done. In North Sulawesi, that process directly shaped the agroforestry models, farmers' knowledge of their land, local market realities, and species preferences all fed into the final design.

In this blog, we walk through the FPIC framework, what makes it difficult to get right, and what it looked like on the ground in our North Sulawesi agroforestry project. Explore more about this project here.

Read the PDF to learn more about how we approach Free, Prior, and Informed Consent in nature-based carbon projects.