Towards a Community of Practice advancing Indigenous Peoples’ forest monitoring and climate finance

In October 2025, a regional exchange workshop was held in Lima, bringing together 40 representatives of Indigenous Peoples and forest community organizations from nine countries across Latin America and the Caribbean— including Ecuador, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, and Peru.  

Participants shared experiences on accessing and participating in climate finance mechanisms, discussed the role of forest monitoring as an enabling condition for climate finance and good governance, and explored opportunities to consolidate a regional platform for collaboration and peer-to-peer learning to strengthen technical and institutional capacities for forest monitoring. 

The event was convened by the Indigenous Peoples Group of Peru, composed of ANECAP, AIDESEP, and CONAP, together with the Ministry of Environment of Peru, with support from FAO through the AIM4Forests programme, and the UN-REDD programme.

Climate finance for Indigenous Peoples 

The first day focused on analyzing the challenges and opportunities faced by Indigenous Peoples in accessing and participating in climate finance mechanisms. Juan Carlos Jintiach, from the Global Alliance of Territorial Communities, reminded participants that “Indigenous Peoples receive only one percent of global climate finance. It is essential to create mechanisms that respect our structures and ways of life.” 

Discussions highlighted how direct access to climate funds requires trust and mechanisms that recognize Indigenous Peoples as full partners in climate action, not merely as beneficiaries. Among the financing mechanisms offering opportunities to channel resources at scale towards locally-led initiatives, participants emphasized jurisdictional REDD+ under the ART-TREES standard, and the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF). 

During group sessions, Indigenous and community representatives shared experiences in the design and implementation of REDD+ in their territories, highlighting achievements in building technical capacities and fostering multi-stakeholder dialogue in countries such as Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Panama. 

They also identified ongoing challenges related to participation, political continuity, and benefit-sharing in Colombia, Brazil and Mexico. The Jurisdictional Indigenous REDD+ Programme in Peru was presented as an innovative approach with great potential to channel significant climate finance directly to Indigenous territories.  

Forest Monitoring: a foundation for finance and good governance 

The second day focused on the role of forest monitoring in meeting safeguards, demonstrating emission reduction results, measuring impacts, and fair benefit-sharing. A practical session was held on the MRV requirements of the TREES standard, followed by a discussion on the development of the Beyond Carbon Benefits certification of the ART program, carried out in collaboration with a Committee of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities. 

Throughout the day, participants reflected on how robust and transparent monitoring can foster accountability, rights protection, and trust among governments and donors — essential elements for accessing finance. Likewise, good governance and sustainable financing create enabling conditions for effective and lasting monitoring. 

Participants also agreed that forest monitoring goes beyond collecting data on forest cover, land use, or deforestation. For Indigenous Peoples, it represents a cornerstone of territorial governance that provides key information for planning, decision-making, and legal recognition of their rights. 

They also underscored the importance of culturally grounded forest monitoring that integrates traditional and technical knowledge and aligns with local priorities. Achieving this requires strong partnerships, institutional recognition, harmonization between local and national systems, and long-term investment to sustain technical capacities. 

“Monitoring is more than a technical activity; it is political. It is an integral practice and a collective exercise of territorial control — a way of exercising self-determination,” said Fermin Chimatani of ANECAP (Peru). 

Toward a Community of Practice on forest monitoring and climate finance for Indigenous Peoples 

The first two days of the workshop reaffirmed the call from Indigenous Peoples to ensure that the design and implementation of climate finance mechanisms reflect their realities, priorities, and governance systems - grounded in rights, trust, and equity. 

Participants highlighted the need to promote inclusive and transparent governance models with simplified and culturally appropriate mechanisms, where data, decisions, and benefits flow directly to communities. They emphasized that forest monitoring is key to achieving more credible, equitable, and sustainable outcomes, emphasizing the need to strengthen local technical and organizational autonomy, promote the institutionalization of monitoring through Indigenous training centers, integrate traditional knowledge, and ensure the participation of youth, women, and environmental defenders. 

These discussions provided a foundation for collective action planning and for exploring technical training opportunities with FAO’s Open Foris solutions, as well as potential funding sources under the EnABLE Programme. 

Gracinha Manchineri, from the Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB), highlighted “through collaboration, unity, and the strengthening of our capacities, we will build strategies for dialogue and credibility in our work.” 

The workshop’s outcomes will inform the AIM4Forests Community of Practice on Forest Monitoring — a permanent space for technical and policy collaboration among Indigenous and forest community members globally. As a next step, participants agreed to continue this regional exchange in Mexico in 2026.  

 “This workshop has planted the seed for a community of exchange and learning among different countries and organizations. In this horizontal scheme, everyone can both learn and teach,” concluded Gustavo Sánchez, from the Mexican Network of Forest Farming Organizations.