A Senior Lecturer of the De­partment of Environmen­tal Management, School of Natural Resources, University of Energy and Natural Resources, Dr Abdulai Darimani, has called for the establishment of a state institution to coordinate the United Nations (UN) Free Participation and Informed Consent (FPIC) on the extraction of the country's natural resources.

The body on FPIC had also be­come necessary to oversee citizen's participation and engagement as well as their interest in the allocation of concessions for companies for the exploitation of natural resources.

FPIC, a UN instrument, was approved in 2007 to protect lo­cal and indigenous communities.

The instrument enjoins member countries to seek the consent of indigenous or local communities in the extraction of natural resources located there.