Takeaways: IIPWG May 2025
Items excerpted from the May 2025 Investors & Indigenous Peoples Working Group (IIPWG) Newsletter. IIPWG strategy calls take place the third Thursday of the month. Learn more.
Investor Letter: Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
The Gwich’in Steering Committee (GSC) and allied partners call upon investors to urge banks to protect Iizhik Gwats’an Gwandaii Goodlit, “The Sacred Place Where Life Begins.” This area, the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, is central to the culture of the Gwich’in and “is where the Porcupine Caribou Herd returns each year to calve, to bring new life into the world.”
To protect the Arctic Refuge, investors may sign an investor letter that urges banks to maintain policies excluding projects in the Arctic Refuge from lending and finance. The letter outlines financial and reputational risks to banks, as well as human rights and biodiversity impacts. It follows previous investor letters sent in 2018 and 2020 calling on banks to adopt prudent policies. This letter will be sent privately to individual banks.
In March, Kristen Moreland, the Executive Director of the GSC, presented to IIPWG. Investors may review presentation takeaways or request a recording. Investors may also watch a recent interview with the Gwich’in delegation during the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.
Takeaways: Investor Workshop on Advancing Indigenous Peoples’ Rights in the CMSI
On April 25, Tallgrass Institute and the Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility convened Indigenous leaders and experts to discuss advancing Indigenous Peoples’ rights within the Consolidated Mining Standard Initiative (CMSI) as a parallel event to the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.
Takeaways from the discussion include:
Indigenous communities globally demonstrate long standing on-the-ground expertise in responsible business conduct and development driven via self-determined priorities and protocols (see a Declaration by Indigenous communities affected by lithium mining and a Declaration by Indigenous Peoples on certification bodies);
Corporate respect for Indigenous Peoples’ right to free, prior and informed consent is a minimum benchmark for a credible and effective responsible mining standard, which the CMSI falls short of;
Conducting due diligence to understand the local cultural and environmental context is critical for companies to ensure full protection of Indigenous Peoples’ rights; and,
Voluntary standards have limited effectiveness in low-trust and militarized environments since companies and governments undertake coercive tactics.
Participants discussed strategies to forward Indigenous Peoples’ rights in CMSI, which included engaging trade associations, drafting an investor letter, and submitting written comments during CMSI’s second public consultation. Additional resources discussed in the workshop include Tallgrass Institute’s CMSI investor brief, a third-party summary report of CMSI’s first public consultation, and A Civil Society Briefing for Automakers and Other Downstream Purchasers.
Highlights from the 24th Session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
From April 21 - May 2, Indigenous leaders discussed the most pressing issues facing Indigenous Peoples globally at the Twenty-Fourth Session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Tallgrass Institute will publish an investor brief in the next month highlighting takeaways. In the meantime, investors may explore Cultural Survival’s resource compilation and the following items.
Official Event Recordings:
Indigenous Media Zone Recordings:
Financing the Energy Transition at What Cost? Ensuring Financiers Protect Indigenous Rights & Nature from Harmful Investments | SIRGE Coalition
Compilation of Treaty Bodies and Jurisprudence on Indigenous Rights | Indigenous Peoples Rights International
A conversation about financing Indigenous Peoples' work | International Funders for Indigenous Peoples, Ereto Solidarity Fund, and FIMI
News Articles:
Indigenous leaders at UNPFII underscore the need for genuine consent | Indigenous News Alliance
Indigenous delegates at the U.N. raise alarm on isolated peoples in the Amazon | Mongabay
Consultation doesn’t always equal consent | ICT News
‘We Are Nature’: Indigenous Women Come Together at the United Nations | Inside Climate News
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres: Clean energy era must power progress on Indigenous Peoples’ rights | Daily Tribune
IIPWG Canada Takeaways
On the May IIPWG Canada call, the Shareholder Association for Research & Education (SHARE) provided updates on the shareholder proposals filed at EQB Bank [TSX: EQB] and Scotiabank [TSX: BNS]. EQB Bank and SHARE reached a withdrawal agreement before the bank’s AGM and the racial equity audit at Scotiabank received 37% of shareholder support.
Partners also presented available resources and tools, which include:
The Pehta Framework | Pehta Foundation
The Indigenous Bond Framework | Addenda Capital, First Nations Financial Management Board, and First Nations Major Projects Coalition
Securing Indigenous Peoples' Right to Self-Determination: A Guide on Free, Prior and Informed Consent | SIRGE Coalition
All Hands On Deck: Opportunities for Investment Management Firms to Advance Reconciliation | National Aboriginal Trust Officers Association, Reconciliation and Responsible Investment Initiative, and SHARE
Indigenous Peoples Considerations: A Reference Guide for Asset Managers (available upon request) | National Bank of Canada