A/67/301 73. Indigenous peoples have also raised, and continue to raise, a number of substantive and procedural concerns about these processes. Among their principal concerns, indigenous peoples have emphasized the need to ensure that any rights they have over lands where activities to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation are to take place, are secured; that indigenous peoples share equitably in the distribution of benefits related to those activities; and that broader structural issues driving deforestation be addressed concurrently with such initiatives. 8. World Bank Group 74. A significant number of World Bank projects affect indigenous peoples, including projects involving agriculture and rural development, energy and mining, environment, education and health. The Forest Carbon Partnership Facility and the Forest Investment Programme mentioned above also clearly have potential effects on the rights of indigenous peoples. The World Bank was the first multilateral development bank to establish a policy on indigenous peoples in 1982 in its operational manual statement No. 2.34 on tribal people in projects financed by the Bank. A new and revised policy on indigenous peoples was adopted in 1991, which recognized the importance of protecting the ancestral lands of indigenous peoples. That policy also referred to the need to ensure the informed participation of indigenous peoples in decision-making regarding development projects, as well as the need to prepare a development plan for any project affecting indigenous peoples. 75. The current operational policy on indigenous peoples, which was endorsed by the Board of Executive Directors of the World Bank in 2005, builds on the previous policy, adding the requirement that the broad community support of indigenous peoples be sought through a process of free, prior and informed consultation before a project affecting indigenous peoples may be carried out. This standard has been met with criticism by indigenous peoples for years, who consider it to be a lesser standard than the standard on free, prior and informed consent contained in the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. It is worth noting, however, that the Declaration was adopted after the World Bank had already adopted its current operational policy. 76. In 2011, the World Bank issued an internal learning review of implementation of its operational policy on indigenous peoples. 3 The review found that between July 2005 and June 2008, 132 projects triggered the policy, i.e., about 12 per cent of the total number of all projects approved by the World Bank during that period. The report highlighted as principal concerns the weak compliance regarding the protection or promotion of rights to lands and resources and the establishment of a grievance mechanism. It contained several recommendations for improvements in implementation of the operational policy on indigenous peoples, including the need for bank staff to improve their knowledge of the policy; increased attention to be paid to the land and resource rights of indigenous peoples; better operationalization of the free, prior and informed consultation standards; and a need for improvement in the preparation of social assessments and action plans in relation to specific projects. __________________ 3 12-46087 World Bank Operational Policy and Country Services, Implementation of the World Bank’s Indigenous Peoples Policy: a Learning Review (Washington, D.C., August 2011). 19