International pledge to fund forest rights exceeds target, but direct funding remains low

The Forest Tenure Funders Group reports delivering $2.35 billion between 2021 and 2025 toward Indigenous and local community land rights, beating its original $1.7 billion pledge by 35 percent, with $486 million disbursed in 2025 alone. But only 7.2 percent of 2025 funding went directly to Indigenous and local community organizations, with the rest routed through NGOs, consultancies and development banks.

Direct funding has bounced between 2.1 and 10.6 percent over the five years without a clear upward trend, and funding focused on gender equality fell from 15 percent of the total in 2024 to 4 percent in 2025, while youth-focused funding stayed under 1 percent. Latin America took 71 percent of all funding, with Africa's share partly explained by USAID's closure and its absence from 2025 reporting.

Indigenous leaders quoted in the report, including Pawanka Fund's Myrna Cunningham Kain and AMPB's Giuseppe Olo Villalaz, warn that intermediaries sometimes recruit token Indigenous board members to qualify as 'Indigenous funds' without surrendering control of the money. A new $1.8 billion pledge for 2026-2030 promises more direct, flexible financing, following the same path as the pledge it replaces.

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