Progress and possibility: Financial support to Indigenous Peoples and local communities

The Global Environment Facility has long recognized that while Indigenous Peoples and local communities have an essential role in addressing environmental challenges there are still insufficient resources and barriers to access for them. Work has been continuous to address this reality.

For years, GEF-provided financial support to Indigenous Peoples and local communities was mostly through national projects and the GEF Small Grants Program. This produced exemplary projects, such as supporting Brazil’s Indigenous Peoples policy and Indigenous territories and Indigenous Peoples' and Community Conserved Territories and Areas (ICCAs) in the Philippines. 

Following engagement with Indigenous Peoples and local communities and with the guidance of GEF’s Indigenous Peoples Advisory Group (IPAG), the $25 million Inclusive Conservation Initiative (ICI) was approved. This provides larger grants to Indigenous Peoples organizations and has helped organizations such as IUCN to catalyze additional resources and build the institutional infrastructure to bridge between large donors and community action.

This success has also been the basis for the mobilization of another $25 million that builds the capacity of Indigenous-led funds in the new Heart of Conservation Initiative.

Another way to mobilize additional funding has been to look outside the biodiversity realm. Indigenous Peoples’ worldviews are holistic and the GEF, as a funding mechanism to multiple conventions, supports projects in a similar way. Projects often address multiple issues, recognizing the interconnectedness of environmental challenges, e.g. on pollution, chemicals, land degradation and climate change. Support has also gone to Indigenous Peoples for projects such as: for mercury - supporting the development of Indigenous community life plans and implementation of identified activities to replace mercury-based gold mining; for land degradation, supporting pastoralist communities in the Sahel and Mongolia; for climate change mitigation, supporting Indigenous Peoples to access renewable energy. 

After COP15 of the Convention on Biological Diversity, the GEF worked to quickly create the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF). This fund includes engagement with Indigenous peoples and local communities as a project selection criteria, and also a target of 20 percent of resources to support actions by Indigenous Peoples and local communities. 

This target has been exceeded. As of now, 32 percent of project resources are devoted to support actions by Indigenous Peoples and local communities. The GEF is also collaborating with Indigenous organizations to draft guidelines for what can be included in this figure. 

Even with national projects, it is possible to follow many of the principles of direct finance that have been put forward by Indigenous leaders in other fora. For example, in two different projects in Brazil we have examples of self-determined Indigenous governance. From the GEF Trust Fund, a project on Access and Benefit Sharing is undertaking a transparent selection process to determine which territories will get to benefit. From the GBFF, the project is supporting communities to implement their own Territorial and Environmental Management Plans and there is provision in the project to support costs for activities, such as rituals, which are integral to achieving results.

The journey continues in partnership with Indigenous Peoples and local communities. “Supporting Indigenous Peoples in managing their territories means strengthening global biodiversity protection.” said Carlos Manuel Rodríguez, CEO and Chairperson of the GEF.

Download a factsheet showing the GEF's partnership with Indigenous Peoples and local communities

Click here for draft GBFF guidelines on actions by IPLCs for comments as of Oct. 3, 2025