Farmer Registration, FPIC and Consent Records

Updated 2026-11-02 · 4 min read · By the akar.earth specialist team

How to run FPIC for a carbon project with smallholders in Indonesia: registration steps, what consent records must show, and mistakes that fail verification.

FPIC in a carbon project means farmers and communities freely agree to take part, before activities start, after receiving clear information about benefits, risks, obligations and their right to refuse. In practice you need a registration process that links each farmer and plot to a documented consent trail that a validator can audit.

In Indonesia this matters more after Permenhut 6/2026. The Ministry of Forestry presented the regulation as “carbon for the people”, naming social forestry groups, customary forests and communities as legitimate, equal participants. A ministry official also said projects seeking international market access must meet additionality, benefit-sharing and FPIC principles.

The two layers: community consent and individual registration

Consent works at two levels:

• Community level: the village, customary community or social forestry group agrees to the project in principle, through its own decision-making processes.
• Individual level: each farmer decides whether to enrol specific plots and signs an agreement covering their obligations and benefits.

Both are needed. Community consent without individual agreements leaves rights unclear. Individual sign-up without community consent can split villages and invite later disputes.

Step-by-step: registration and consent

1. Map stakeholders. Identify village leaders, customary institutions, farmer groups, women’s groups, landless users and anyone with rights over the land.
2. Prepare materials in local language. Explain carbon simply: what a credit is, how long the commitment lasts, what farmers must do, how much money is expected and when, and what can go wrong.
3. Hold open meetings. Announce them in advance, hold them at accessible times and places, and record attendance, questions and answers.
4. Give time to decide. Communities need time to discuss internally. Record the period given.
5. Record the community decision in the form the community uses, such as a village meeting record, plus any written agreement.
6. Register farmers individually. Capture identity, contact, plots, tenure evidence and a signed or thumb-printed agreement. Photograph documents with consent.
7. Map each plot with a polygon linked to the farmer ID. See one field dataset for carbon and EUDR.
8. Explain the grievance mechanism and record that it was explained.
9. Re-confirm consent when the project changes materially, such as new buyers, revised payments or a new standard.

What a consent record should contain

Benefit sharing must be in the consent

Consent is only informed if people know what they will receive. State the benefit-sharing formula, payment timing and who decides on community funds. Indonesian rules on benefit sharing may set expectations, and standards such as Plan Vivo state that at least 60% of certificate sale revenue goes back to communities. Be honest about uncertainty in credit volumes and prices.

Indonesia specifics

• Social forestry permit holders (see social forestry carbon) have rights tied to the permit, and the permit-holding group must be part of the decision.
• Customary forest communities decide through adat institutions, which may differ from village government.
• Reports on Permenhut 6/2026 say community projects must work with registered partners, so check partner status early.
• Women often manage farms but are absent from land records. Make sure they are informed and registered where they hold use rights.

Digital registration in practice

Paper forms get lost, damaged or separated from the plot data they refer to. Many projects now register farmers on mobile apps that work offline and sync when a signal is available. A good setup:

• assigns each farmer and plot a unique ID at the first visit,
• captures photos of documents and the signed agreement,
• records GPS location and time for each entry, giving an audit trail,
• stores consent status as a field that can be updated, with history kept,
• lets enumerators record which language the explanation was given in.

Keep a paper copy for the farmer. Digital records serve the project and auditors; the farmer needs something they can hold and show.

Common mistakes

• Treating a socialisation meeting as consent.
• Signing up farmers before the community has decided.
• Promising payment amounts that depend on credit prices you cannot guarantee.
• Using registration forms only in Indonesian where people mainly use a local language.
• Losing the link between a consent form and the plot polygon.
• Never re-confirming consent when a project changes.

For the wider process see community engagement that survives verification and the agroforestry hub. Our training service prepares field teams to run registration properly.