Indigenous Peoples (IPs) are among the world’s most effective forest stewards. Yet, climate finance often fails to reach them or fails to support IP rights and self-determination to deliver lasting impact. A new UNDP information note, Climate Finance & Indigenous Peoples: Lessons from the UNDP-GCF portfolio in the forest & land sector, captures practical experience from six GCF-supported national programmes to show how this gap can be bridged.
Drawing on REDD+ and broader forest and land-use programmes in Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Ghana, and Indonesia, the paper documents how climate finance—when grounded in Indigenous rights and participatory governance—can strengthen territorial management, secure land tenure, and channel resources directly to Indigenous communities.
What enables meaningful engagement?
The paper highlights that effective partnerships with Indigenous Peoples are built on strong policy foundations. These include international human rights frameworks such as the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and the UNFCCC Cancun Safeguards, alongside institutional policies like the GCF Indigenous Peoples Policy and UNDP’s Social and Environmental Standards.
Country experiences have built on the basis set by national REDD+ readiness processes. They have created multi-stakeholder platforms and safeguards systems that embed Indigenous participation starting from planning to implementation and then moving to results-based payments. Together, these mechanisms form an enabling environment for inclusive climate finance.
Key impacts and lessons
Across countries and contexts, UNDP’s experience shows that REDD+ finance can deliver far more than mitigation outcomes. The main lessons include:
- Strong territorial governance mechanisms: Participatory and culturally grounded planning has reinforced Indigenous governance systems, enabled Indigenous-led decision-making, and aligned climate action with Indigenous worldviews. Instruments such as Costa Rica’s Forest and Territorial Environmental Plans (PAFT) and Ecuador’s Indigenous Life Plans (ILP) are exemplary. In Ghana, community resource management area governance and management are being strengthened to enable investments that unlock income and sustainable access to land and forest resources.
- Embedded safeguards instruments: FPIC, when treated as an ongoing process rather than a one-off requirement, has improved legitimacy, benefit-sharing, and accountability. Countries have institutionalized FPIC through national guidelines, community protocols, and safeguards information systems that go beyond REDD+ to influence broader land-use and conservation policies.
- Progress on land tenure: Climate finance has acted as a catalyst for resolving long-standing tenure challenges. In Ecuador, the programme helped secure land titles for over 18,000 hectares of Shuar ancestral territory, while Indonesia’s Social Forestry Programme designated millions of hectares for community and Indigenous management, formalizing collective tenure rights .
- Pathways to direct access to finance: Although international climate finance architecture remains complex for Indigenous Peoples, national incentive mechanisms adapted for collective land ownership have proven effective. Examples include Brazil’s Floresta+ “Communities Modality,” Costa Rica’s PES scheme for Indigenous territories, and Ecuador’s rights-based “Socio Bosque” model.
- Gender-responsive approaches: When designed with cultural and gender sensitivity, programmes have gone beyond participation quotas to direct finance toward Indigenous women’s priorities, leadership, and livelihoods—particularly in value chains, restoration, and community enterprises.
These findings are especially relevant in light of renewed global commitments on forest and land tenure rights, including pledges to protect Indigenous lands and scale up finance through 2030. They demonstrate that climate finance can simultaneously deliver climate results, advance Indigenous rights, and strengthen governance—provided it is co-designed, safeguard-driven, and rooted in Indigenous-led institutions.
Indigenous Peoples should not be treated as beneficiaries at the margins of climate finance, but as leaders and partners essential to achieving these shared climate goals. The lessons from the UNDP-GCF portfolio offer practical guidance to help make that shift a reality.
Read the full paper to explore detailed country experiences and recommendations.
