Why we put indigenous communities at the heart of everything we do

Co-authored by Nyma Haqqani, Head of Sustainablity and Methodology

It is telling of Western civilisation that a social technology intended to help preserve and protect the natural world has frequently ended up disenfranchising and exploiting the very people who have lived in harmony with it for generations.

Indigenous people need only to keep remaining in place to provide incalculable value for the health and resilience of our planet. Indigenous people steward 80% of the world’s biodiversity and yet receive less than 1% of climate finance. A further study in the Amazon revealed that indigenous lands account for 25% of the Amazon, but less than 1% of deforestation - most of which occurred before their land rights were recognised.

And yet far from prioritizing indigenous communities’ interests, carbon offset projects in indigenous regions have increasingly been criticized for injustices to local communities. Many carbon offset projects appropriate land, forests and rivers used by indigenous communities for their sustenance, medicine, spiritual and cultural traditions. The voluntary carbon market has become notorious for enabling carbon-grabbing, where governments or corporations take carbon rights from indigenous people, excluding them from selling carbon credits to fund their own conservation work.

Worse, there have been multiple reports of indigenous people being forced from their lands because their millenias old symbiotic relationship with the habitats they live in are suddenly considered to be at odds with the preservation and protection of the forest, simply because a few more tonnes of carbon could be absorbed in the short term if they weren’t there. This further speaks to the myopia of focussing on carbon as the only metric that matters.

Even where indigenous communities are consulted, carbon projects and contracts are written by and for large corporates, and indigenous people are expected to align and adapt, rather than the other way around.

As Marciely Ayap Tupari, secretary coordinator of Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB) explains, “companies often end up coming to us with a proposal, wanting to finance, wanting to supposedly protect nature, but in their own way. When we explain our vision as indigenous peoples, many do not understand.”

Often this is a case of mistranslation and misunderstanding. Elsewhere it can be more nefarious:

“Information on jurisdictional REDD+ and carbon markets is often presented in very technical or legal language, and not necessarily in indigenous peoples’ first language,” said Marcio Halla, Director of the Territorial Governance Facility and Economic Initiatives Lead at Forest Trends. “More concerningly, we have sometimes seen information on risks de-emphasized in proposals to communities or hidden in the fine print.”

Then there’s the issue of fairness. If they receive anything at all, indigenous communities typically receive between 14-60% of the sale price, once brokers have taken their cut.

Our approach puts indigenous communities’ at the heart of everything we do rather than the neo-colonialist approach emerging in carbon markets at present, often working hand in hand to bring their nature-based solutions (NbS) to market equitably.

We recognize their rights to the NbS squares generated on their territories and as such, 80-90% of the primary sale price goes to communities, along with a 5% royalty on secondary market trades. This supports their ability to self-govern, preserves their ways of life, and empowers them to continue protecting the biodiversity and carbon stocks of their lands.

We work closely with local NGOs, local and national government and employ participatory approaches to plan short-, medium- and long-term outcomes with the communities, to deploy funds to maximize financial and cultural autonomy including learning hubs, rangers, scholarships, medical centers, boats etc. We trust their indigenous knowledge and innovation knows best how to protect the ecosystems it has already been protecting for generations.

We understand that each indigenous community is unique, with its own cultural context, values and needs. An inclusive and culturally sensitive approach is essential to accurately measure social impact and promote sustainable long-term outcomes.

What other carbon project developers see as “co-benefits”, we prefer to agree with indigenous people themselves who view them as “core-benefits”, because not only are these benefits central to our indigenous community partners, they are also essential to advancing a holistic sustainability approach. By maintaining as much emphasis on these core-benefits as we do on providing high quality NbS, Native offers forward-thinking solutions that go beyond carbon and address multiple SDGs alongside SDG13.

This isn’t just a matter of principle - it’s a matter of efficacy. The studies are pretty clear: when indigenous land stewards are legally and financially autonomous and empowered, forests and mangroves remain intact.

But every community needs running water, medical centers and schools. And if the only way to achieve that is by exploiting natural resources then communities are left with a stark choice - chop down the forest or live in poverty.

Native exists so communities don’t have to make that choice.

To find out more email contact@nativeearth.io