Indigenous Rights Risk Report (IRR) May Initiate Market-based Incentives for Respecting Indigenous Rights.

"“If you have bad credit you pay a higher interest rate,” Adamson said. “This is how the market works. So the idea behind the Risk Report is to quantify the risk companies encounter when they violate free prior informed consent and tie it to their cost of capital. That way a company that consistently violates Indigenous Rights will be rated riskier than one that upholds our rights, and therefore it will have to pay higher financing costs.”"

VRI values the indigenous right of free prior and informed consent and seeks to assist indigenous communities in asserting and protecting that right.

The Cultural Survival article below discusses the recently published "Indigenous Rights Risk Report" (IRRR). This is one of the first attempts to systematically calculate the market risk of doing business on indigenous people's territory. The idea is that the greater the legal protections in place for indigenous people, the more likely that a company will follow risk-reducing protocol when initiating projects in indigenous held territory. Thus, in theory, the market will favor companies that respect indigenous rights, and there will be an overall improvement in the respect for indigenous rights.

VRI not only is engaged in advocating for greater respect for indigenous rights, but also desires to facilitate the implementation of these rights. As corporations continue to expand into previously un-exploited territories, they will continue to encounter indigenous communities. It would seem that as mechanisms such as the IRRR become more common, there will be a greater demand for organization such as VRI, which understand indigenous rights and advocacy.