Inclusion
Indigenous Peoples: Call-to-action for global leaders to increase finance access to Indigenous Peoples
Context and challenges
Indigenous Peoples play a crucial role in protecting land, climate and biodiversity.
So far, the climate finance architecture has not adequately acknowledged nor supported these communities’ crucial role in protecting the environment. The gap in biodiversity funding is estimated at USD 700 Bn. Less than 1% of total annual climate finance investments are dedicated to forest protection and only 0.04% are directed to Indigenous Peoples.
Initiative Description
The Indigenous Peoples (IPs) initiative has been proposed by the COP28 Presidency to increase direct finance access to Indigenous Peoples and Organizations. Its objective is to support IPs in their stewardship and leadership on climate, nature, biodiversity and planetary health.
Global business leaders and philanthropists are invited to commit to the Indigenous people-led fund as well as to join the Peoples Forests Partnership, created to mobilize at least USD 20 Bn per year in long-term, private contractual financial flows to community-based forest conservation projects.
Specific goals include:
- Safeguard and grow bio-economies that sustain the livelihoods of over 50 Mn people in forest communities
- Safeguard irrecoverable carbon stocks and reduce CO2 emissions from deforestation by 2 Bn tons each year
- Protect 200 Mn hectares of forests with high carbon and low to medium deforestation from outside threats
- Protect globally at least 500 Mn hectares of threatened tropical forest and related biodiversity
Commitments from Business & Philanthropy
For Philanthropies:
- Join the Indigenous people-led funds
- Join the Peoples Forests Partnership
For Businesses:
- Sign up to Nature Finance to stay updated on events, projects and findings
How to get involved?
- Reach out to the climate champions lead team to express your interest in the initiative
Source: FAO and FILAC (2021) | Forest governance by indigenous and tribal peoples: An opportunity for climate action in Latin America and the Caribbean | Stevens et al. (2014) | Securing Rights, Combatting Climate Change. World Resources Institute