Imagine our delight at seeing a pledge of $1.7bn directly to Indigenous peoples to help reverse forest loss and degradation. Hopefully, this is the beginning of a major global movement to recognize the role Indigenous players have in Climate Change (CC) mitigation and adaptation. So good to see big players singing out of our favourite songbook – raising communities can sink a lot of carbon!
“We have been wedded to technical, market-based solutions, and have ignored the communities right in front of us who are key to solving the challenge.”
So says John Walker, president of the Ford Foundation, one of the founding partners in this $1.7bn pledge. He’s quoted in an excellent piece in The Guardian.
Indigenous leader Tuntiak Katan, from Ecuador, is cautiously optimistic that this time the wealthy will come through, enabling communities to do the hard work of saving or rebuilding their forests: “This Cop is interesting and unprecedented. After attending these climate events for years, this one is different. The UK has put tremendous effort into raising our profile at this Cop.”
