At the world’s first global congress of Indigenous peoples and local communities from forest basins, representatives began preparations to increase direct finance to community forest conservation — especially in the run-up to the upcoming U.N. climate conference, COP30. The participants, from the Amazon, Congo and Borneo-Mekong basins, gathered May 26-30 in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, and proposed that new financing pledges at the global climate conference should direct at least 40% of funds directly to Indigenous and local community organizations. This, they said, should go through their own funding mechanisms — instruments that organizations are currently in the works of scaling up. An estimated 80% of the world’s tropical forests and two-thirds of its biodiversity lie within the Amazon, Congo and Borneo-Mekong-Southeast Asia basins, with about 36% of the world’s intact forests on Indigenous lands. Countries within these basins are experiencing record-high rates of forest loss, and some estimate the management and restoration of forests could cost $203 billion per year by 2050. “As we [Indigenous leaders] looked into the minimum funds that went directly to Indigenous peoples and local communities, this congress needed to initiate talks on advancing mechanisms that could channel direct funds to community organizations,” said Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, president of the Association for Indigenous Women and Peoples of Chad. Ivindo River in the Congo Basin in Gabon. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay. Pathways to direct funding While the congress focused on the roles of Indigenous peoples and local communities in forest conservation, improved access to direct funds to…This article was originally published on Mongabay