On February 25, IFIP joined the Swift and MacArthur Foundations and Global Greengrants Fund in presenting a briefing

on the role of technical professional independent scientific analysis in assisting and informing indigenous communities to strengthen free prior informed consent (FPIC) when facing extractive industries. Peter Kostishack of Global Greengrants opened the session, describing FPIC as a gate that outsiders need to pass through in order to gain access to a territory and undermine other human rights rights to home, livelihood, environment, and healtha gate with a latchthat can be and continues to be opened all the time, as evidenced by the rapid expansion of extractive industry and large scale infrastructure on indigenous peoples territories worldwide. Staff from New Mexico-based E-Tech International described their training, analysis and monitoring on behalf of indigenous communities and federations facing crude oil contamination in Loreto, Peru and new mining in the Cordillera del Condor of Ecuador. E-Tech scientists and engineers believe it is critical to level a complex environmental technical playing field controlled by industry so that communities can understand environmental hazards they face and make decisions on remediating pollution that endangers their lives and values. An oil company gets away with pouring dirt on top of crude oil and hazardous waste, said E-Techs Ricardo Segovia, the game changes when, before witnesses, you measure pollution levels with field equipment and lab analyses and measure the thickness of leaking pipe. Training communities and providing them with equipment gives tools to those who know where the problems lie and what resources need protection. Data gathered can provide a basis for activists and attorneys to take action.