A/HRC/48/54 environmental impacts on indigenous territories. 15 In response, indigenous groups have created campaigns to raise awareness and demand that prospectors be removed from their territory. 14. Governments are prioritizing mega-projects, the extractive industries, and agricultural development on the ancestral lands of indigenous peoples as a method of economic recovery. By framing coal and other extractive industries as vehicles to promote economic recovery, States have commercialized the coal mining sector and expanded coal mines to deal with the short-term economic fallout from the pandemic without obtaining mandatory legal clearances or considering long-term environment and climate change impacts.16 15. The expansion of industrial agriculture has also been prioritized in some States as a method for economic recovery. Palm oil operations are rapidly expanding, forests are being cleared and the lands of indigenous peoples encroached on along the way. 17 Untitled indigenous lands designated as “idle” are being targeted for industrial agriculture to increase food production. Consultation impediments 16. The pandemic has been used as an opportunity to approve projects and policies,18 despite a lack of good faith consultations and the free, prior and informed consent of indigenous peoples. In instances where indigenous peoples have been invited to participate in consultations, they have been restricted by lockdowns or limited by COVID-19 measures prohibiting large gatherings. 19 Consultations have at times been cancelled or prematurely concluded and communities have little recourse when courts are closed and judicial procedures suspended. In other cases, indigenous peoples have not received complete information in their language or had enough time to understand the environmental impact of projects on their traditional lands.20 17. Some States are authorizing virtual consultations in place of in-person meetings to fulfil the duty to consult. However, online formats generally do not align with the cultural protocols or traditional forms of decision-making of indigenous peoples. Moreover, participation in consultation processes carried out in a virtual format is undermined by the limited connectivity and Internet access in the vast majority of indigenous territories. At the same time, requiring indigenous peoples to gather for in-person meetings to make collective decisions during the pandemic is contrary to the recommendation issued in the Special Rapporteur’s report to the General Assembly in 2020.21 18. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has also urged States to: “Refrain from introducing legislation and/or moving forward to carry out production and/or extractive projects in the territories of indigenous peoples during the period the pandemic may last, given the impossibility of conducting prior informed and free consent processes (due to the recommendation of the World Health Organization (WHO) that social distancing measures 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 6 See communication addressed to Peru (PER 3/2021, available fromhttps://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=263 49) and www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=27225&LangID=E. See also submissions by Alianza de Organizaciones de Derechos Humanos Ecuador and Confederación de Nacionalidades Indígenas de la Amazonía Ecuatoriana. See www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=26311&LangID=E and National Campaign against Torture and the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs, “Bearing the brunt: the impact of government responses to COVID-19 on indigenous peoples in India” (September 2020). See Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact and Rights and Resources Initiative “Under the cover of Covid”, p. 22, and Forest Peoples Programme, Rolling Back Social and Environmental Safeguards in the Time of COVID-19, p. 37. See International Indian Treaty Council, “Covid-19 and indigenous peoples in North America”. See communication addressed to Mexico (MEX 11/2020) and submission by Amazon Cooperation Network. See submission by Centro Mexicano de Derecho Ambiental, A.C. CEMDA. A/75/185, para. 107.