MOSCOW, November 3. /TASS/. The Norilsk Nickel Company (Nornickel) attracted international experts, including the UN experts, to structure new approaches to cooperation with the North's low-numbered indigenous peoples, the company's Vice President on Federal and Regional Programs Andrey Grachev told the Public-Private Partnership in the Sphere of Sustainable Development of Indigenous Peoples international forum.

"We have been working on a new version of the policies regarding the indigenous peoples," he said. "We have invited international experts, the UN experts, who have offered new expertise."

"We are not shy to learn in this area, and we realize how important it is," he continued. "The new policy, the new methods include the latest achievements in this sphere."

The company has attracted to the work Navin Rai (Nepal), an international expert on indigenous issues and the author of the current IFC and World Bank standards on indigenous peoples, Alexey Tsykarev, an ex-member of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, and Antonina Gorbunova, deputy chairman of the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

The new policy includes Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) procedures that the company has applied when determining a new location for the village of Tukhard in the Krasnoyarsk Region's north, as well as the expanding of direct dialogue with the indigenous peoples, Nornickel's representative said.

About forum

The Public-Private Partnership in the Sphere of Sustainable Development of Indigenous Peoples international forum runs in Moscow on November 2-3.