Presentation short abstract

This paper analyses the negotiation of free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) in Pará’s J-REDD+ system, focusing on how consultation processes can reproduce power asymmetries and territorial inequalities, and on how Indigenous and traditional communities contest and reshape the terms of consent.

Presentation long abstract

Despite growing criticism, forest carbon offsetting remains positioned as a key nature-based solution for mitigating climate change, and it is re-emerging in new institutional forms. The current shift towards jurisdictional REDD+ (J-REDD+), as seen in the development of a state-level system in the state of Pará, Brazil, shows how offsetting mechanisms persist by mobilising new governance structures, actors’ alliances, and legitimising narratives. In this context, the requirement of free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) has become central to the governmental and corporate discourse, as well as to the demands of Indigenous peoples and traditional communities. While state and corporate actors present FPIC as evidence of procedural integrity and inclusion, initial consultation processes reveal imbalances in representation, access to information, and decision-making authority. This raises a critical question: to what extent do consultation processes challenge or reproduce existing power relations, knowledge hierarchies, and territorial inequalities?

Drawing on empirical research conducted in Pará in 2025, this paper examines how FPIC is operationalised, negotiated and contested in the development of Pará's J-REDD+ system. It analyses how procedural and informational asymmetries shape participation, how uneven territorial and political capacities generate intersectional exclusions, and how communities and civil society actors contest or strategically reinterpret FPIC. While centred on Pará, the analysis situates FPIC practices within broader multi-scalar climate governance, showing how actors mobilise national legal frameworks, international norms, and arenas such as the COP30 (held in Belém) to contest the terms of consent and to make visible forms of injustice embedded in carbon offsetting initiatives.