For years, indigenous communities have demanded the opportunity to grant or withhold permission for projects that affect their traditional lands and culture. Private companies, however, have been much slower to acknowledge the importance of “free, prior, and informed consent” (FPIC). But that may be changing. As a new report commissioned by...Talisman indicates, companies can learn how to transform past mistakes into a corporate culture of responsibility...The report...concludes that “in the long-term, the benefits for oil and gas companies of obtaining community agreement based on FPIC principles, and thereby both supporting their social license to operate and reducing legal and reputational risks, are likely to outweigh the substantial challenges of securing consent.”