Holding the Line on Funding Climate and Conservation Initiatives by Indigenous, Afro-descendant Peoples and Local Communities

In moments of crisis, history has shown us that the first rights to be sacrificed are often those of the communities least protected by power. 

We saw it during the COVID-19 pandemic, when emergency relief bypassed many Indigenous and local communities while extractive industries continued their operations, deepening environmental degradation on ancestral lands. We saw it during the recent climate-change driven floods in Pakistan, which displaced millions of rural communities. And we’ve witnessed it (in horror) during the wildfires in the Amazon, where environmental protections were dismantled, and Indigenous territories were left vulnerable to illegal logging and land grabbing. 

These repeated injustices of history have become all too familiar, as climate-induced displacement continues to force communities worldwide to abandon their ancestral lands and homes, often without the rights to reclaim them.

As global economic instability grows and climate financing begins to shrink, the hard-won progress that Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendant Peoples and local communities have fought for are all at risk of being quietly and shamefully rolled back. 

If you remember one thing from this message, let it be this: the crisis is too urgent, our contribution is too great, and our progress too impressive, for us to let it be erased in quiet inaction.   

Indigenous Peoples, local communities and Afro-descendant Peoples are not just on the frontlines of climate change, we are among its most vital defenders. Our lands contain at least 36 percent of the world’s Key Biodiversity Areas and store more than 25 percent of the carbon in tropical forests, as confirmed in recent research from Rainforest Foundation Norway and the Rights and Resources Initiative. Our rights are inextricably linked to the preservation of the planet’s remaining healthy ecosystems and when our territories are secure, forests remain standing. When our leadership is recognized, climate solutions are stronger and more sustainable.  

While more work remains to ensure direct funding reaches communities on the ground to enable this important work to be done, we acknowledge that important progress has been made. Between 2020 and 2023, global commitments to Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendant Peoples, and local communities averaged $517 million per year, representing a 36 percent increase compared to previous years. 

But recent abrupt pauses in global funding have revealed just how precarious progress on climate and conservation efforts truly is. In the Amazon, community-led climate and conservation programs were frozen without notice—deprived of critical information, timelines, and a clear path forward. Key initiatives to prevent illegal deforestation, monitor environmental crimes, and protect environmental defenders came to a standstill overnight. 

As we prepare for New York Climate Week 2025, we must reflect on the critical importance of the world’s great basins and the vital role they play in regulating our planet’s climate, biodiversity, and water systems (and how essential direct funding is to sustain them). 

With global instability deepening and promises of support beginning to fade, we call on our allies to stand with us in holding the line to not let short-term crises erase the long-term progress we’ve fought so hard to achieve. This may not be a moment of great leaps forward, and while that is difficult for us to accept, we have held the line before. We have placed our bodies between bulldozers and forests, between extractive industries and the rivers that sustain us. This is what our elders did before us, what our youth are doing now, and what we will continue to do both physically and metaphorically to protect what we’ve already safeguarded even as the world around us becomes more unstable.   

To do this effectively however, we need long-term funders, partners, allies, and friends who are prepared to lock arms with us during periods of uncertainty, not just when the momentum is high or the spotlight is on. This kind of consistent support is what allows our communities to stay focused on solutions, not mere survival. 

Our ask is not just for more funding, but funding that is just, equitable, sustainable and most importantly, our collective mission is to request that pledging reaches communities directly.  With the historic IPLC Pledge made at CoP26 by the Forest Tenure Funders Group expiring in 2025, and promises for a renewed Pledge to be launched at this year’s CoP30 in Brazil, we invite you to join our call for action via the “Pledge We Want” campaign, which is a commitment to scale up funding for collective rights, climate justice, and community-led conservation. 

We also need to broaden our networks of support. In regions like Asia and the Middle East, there is growing interest in funding global leadership on climate and development issues. Building meaningful partnerships in these regions can open new channels of funding, collaboration, and visibility that help strengthen the global response. We ask new funders like the governments of Korea, for example, or governments in the Middle East, to get engaged. Established supporters and new, prospective funders, from all corners of the globe, must act in unison, breaking silos to build a truly collaborative and global response. 

There is immense value in deepening cross-sector collaboration. Movements in health, education, and sustainable development are also striving to safeguard funding gains in the face of growing pressure. By aligning with these efforts, we can develop shared strategies, maximize the impact of limited resources, and strengthen the broader case for sustained investment in community-led initiatives. We are asking for a more integrated and holistic approach; one that fosters stronger cross-sector alliances to ensure resources are used more effectively and equitably.

Ultimately, we insist on just and equitable funding that reaches all regions and ecosystems. The threshold is constantly shifting, but the stakes are too high for us to falter now. We must hold the line, and we invite you to hold it in solidarity with us.