At the COP26 U.N. climate conference in Glasgow, 141 countries committed to ending and reversing deforestation by 2030. A key signal was the $1.7 billion pledge from the Forest Tenure Funders Group, a group of governments and philanthropies aimed at advancing tenure rights of Indigenous Peoples (IPs), local communities and Afro-descendent Peoples (LCs) by increasing direct support. This is crucial for many reasons. One of them being: 17% of all forest carbon and 39% of global lands in good ecological condition are managed or governed by Indigenous Peoples. While global disbursements, in general, have risen, which we find encouraging, reforms to the multilateral financing system — the second largest source of relevant financing after bilateral governments — have yet to deliver on their promise to unlock greater access for nature stewards. Two key problems persist: First, funding is woefully insufficient. Global disbursements for Indigenous Peoples and local communities’ tenure rights from all sources average to an equivalent of just 0.5% of the $96 billion in climate finance flows from multilateral funds. Second, funding is not adequately reaching communities. Over the past thirteen years, just 3% of funding projects accounted for over half of disbursements, mostly channeled through third parties. Few rights-holder organizations received grants exceeding $1 million. To meet global biodiversity and climate goals, funding in support of Indigenous, and local community tenure rights and forest guardianship must accelerate and increase significantly from current levels. A deep transformation in partnerships — in the way multilateral funders work alongside Indigenous Peoples…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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South Africa Today – Environment
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