The Time is Now to Connect Indigenous-led Environmental Protection with Climate Policy

As countries strive to cut emissions, protect the environment, and manage resources, they cannot overlook the ways that achieving meaningful climate outcomes is dependent on ensuring equal access to justice for all.

Globally, 5.1 billion people lack meaningful access to justice—undermining climate resilience and forest protection. Within this global justice gap, 2.3 billion people lack documentation of housing or land tenure, while 1.1 billion lack legal identity—leaving them vulnerable to land grabs and environmental harm. Exclusion from the protections that the law provides particularly among marginalized groups—including Indigenous peoples—puts them at risk for exploitation and abuse.

Indigenous peoples manage over 25 percent of the world’s lands and steward 80 percent of its biodiversity, including over 25 percent of carbon stored in tropical forests. However, they remain largely excluded from national and global climate decision-making processes and receive less than 1 percent of climate finance to support their efforts. Despite delivering conservation outcomes equal or better than those of governments, Indigenous communities face systemic barriers when trying to protect the environment.

Read the full blog here.