Tropical forest gathering carves out path for COP30
At the first-ever Global Congress of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities, the message was as clear as it was urgent: Climate action and forest conservation cannot succeed without Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities front and center.
INDIGENOUS: Indigenous representatives at the Global Congress of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities. Photo: Tukuma
By Rainforest Foundation Norway.
Held in Brazzaville, the capital of the The Republic of the Congo, the historic gathering brought together voices from the Amazon, Congo Basin, and Southeast Asian tropical forest basins to speak to colleagues, allies and donors and to forge a common agenda ahead of the pivotal COP30 climate summit in Brazil next year.
The event was organized by the Global Alliance of Territorial Communities (GATC) and was the first summit led by and for Indigenous Peoples of the major tropical forest basins. Rainforest Foundation Norway supported the congress and was present, together with partners across the tropics.
“We are here to make our voices heard as Indigenous Peoples,” said Prescilia Monireh from ANAPAC, one of Rainforest Foundation Norway’s partner organizations, during the congress.
REPRESENTATIVE: Prescilia Monireh from ANAPAC, an Indigenous and Local Communities' rights organization in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Photo: Private
A critical moment before COP30
As the world prepares for COP30, tropical forests have become a central concern in climate negotiations. The congress in Brazzaville was not just symbolic, it was strategic.
The congress provided a unique platform for coordination on shared demands and ambitions, including calls for land rights, direct climate financing, and formal inclusion in global climate governance, and as a venue for sharing experiences and best practices for rights-based forest protection across the three forest basins.
“As we look toward COP30 and beyond, we offer a shared vision for a future in harmony with nature—a vision where our contributions are recognized, our rights upheld, and our leadership embraced”, reads the Brazzaville Declaration, developed by the more than 300 Indigenous leaders gathered at the congress.
HISTORIC: The historic gathering brought together voices from the Amazon, Congo Basin, and Southeast Asian tropical forest basins to forge a common agenda ahead of the pivotal COP30 climate summit in Brazil next year. Photo: Tukuma
Local knowledge, global solutions
One groundbreaking approach to rights-based forest protection presented at the congress is the Community Fund for Forests. This innovative financial mechanism channels funds directly to Indigenous and local communities on the ground. Developed by Indigenous peoples and Local community organizations, with the technical support of the Rainforest Foundation Norway and Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), the fund will support protection rooted in traditional knowledge and governance systems.
“Indigenous Peoples and local community organizations are the foremost experts of rainforest protection. Respecting their solutions is key to effectively protecting and restoring the rainforests.,” said Toerris Jaeger, executive director of Rainforest Foundation Norway.
The evidence is clear: Indigenous territories remain intact
A recent Global Forest Watch report, published shortly before the congress kicked off, showed that tropical forests - once too wet to burn - are now catching fire at unprecedented rates. This is largely due to deforestation, climate change, and ecosystem degradation.
Yet scientific research and satellite imagery alike consistently shows a striking pattern: Territories managed by Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities remain green and intact, even as surrounding forests are fragmented and degraded.
That is good news. What we are missing is not knowledge, but commitment at the necessary scale. Indigenous Peoples already practice effective conservation on a large scale despite receiving a tiny fraction of international climate finance. In our report Falling Short, Rainforest Foundation Norway found that less than 1% of climate funds support Indigenous Peoples and their management of tropical forests.
“The division of resources is not only unjust, but it also directly interferes with our ability to protect tropical rainforests effectively. It is time for the international community to channel more funds to Indigenous and Local Communities,” says Toerris Jaeger, Director at Rainforest Foundation Norway.
The congress concluded with a powerful joint declaration:
“We can only save the tropical forests if we do it together.”
Brazzaville Declaration Our Commitment to Peoples, our Territories, Planet, and Partnership: A Unified Path to COP30 and beyond
The Brazzaville Declaration highlights five specific demands. Read the full declaration here.
1. Recognize, protect, and secure our Land Rights and Tenure. Securing our land and resource rights is fundamental to our environmental stewardship, sustainable livelihoods, and cultural survival. Recognizing our lands and territories is not only a matter of justice and law—it is a necessity for addressing the world's climate, biodiversity, and development challenges. Recognition and protection of our lands and territories must also be part of climate mitigation policy. When our rights are respected, nature and everyone and everything thrives.
2. Protect our Lands, Territories and Leaders: Stop Killing and Criminalization. We are on the frontlines of Mother Earth and climate action. Ensuring the lives, safety and well-being of our Indigenous Peoples and community leaders and preventing the rollback of land rights are essential to protecting biodiversity, advancing human rights, and achieving the goals of global commitments to combat climate change -including the Paris Agreement and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
3. Respect our Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC): Safeguard Indigenous Peoples’ rights for full and effective participation in decisions that affect our lives and ecosystems through respecting our rights to Free, Prior and Informed Consent. This builds trust, ensures transparency, and strengthens outcomes for people and the planet alike. Governments should make FPIC a universal and legally binding principle and a precondition of approval for any activities that may impact our lives.
4. Respect our Traditional Knowledge, Science, Practice and Innovations. Our knowledge systems are built on generations of living in harmony with nature. They offer invaluable insights into climate adaptation, resilience, and sustainability. Recognizing and integrating our knowledge alongside other sciences strengthens the world’s capacity to respond to the environmental crisis.
5. Access to Direct Finance, including climate and biodiversity finance. We are ready for direct finance. We now have our own global, regional, national and subnational finance mechanisms. All other finance mechanisms should be restructured and reimagined in partnership with us to reflect our realities, uphold our agency, and support our priorities. We are demanding a new global IP’s & LCs financing pledge at COP 30 to ensure our continued existence in our territories. It is time for new, direct and ambitious financing commitments.
For more information, contact:
Kristin Rødland Buick
Senior Adviser, International Communications
(+44) 776 858 2930
kristin@rainforest.no