COP30 nears: Do aid cuts threaten land-rights progress?
ByDr. Tim Sandle
SCIENCE EDITOR
DIGITAL JOURNAL
September 26, 2025
Land rights and environmental protection. — Image by © Tim Sandle.
International donor commitments made at the 2021 UN Climate Conference helped to substantially increased financial support for the communities on the frontlines of climate change. Yet what is the situation like in 2025?
Not so good,according to new data from Rainforest Foundation Norway and Rights and Resources Initiative. These figures show that, despite a 46% rise in annual disbursements since COP26, funding for Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and Afro-Descendant Peoples peaked in 2021. Since then, it has declined every year.
The report shows that the largest contributor to the COP26 pledge so far has been Germany, which has doubled its funding for IPs, LCs and ADPs in since 2021. Other leading nations are more hesistant.
Yet how reliable is the German funding? Current budget discussions in the German Parliament, however will decide whether it will continue to play this leading role.
The outlook elsewhere from the rich and powerful nations is somewha bleak. The prevailing trend sees several governments cutting aid or redirecting budgets toward security and defence; this decline risks accelerating. The irony is that this is occurring just as COP30 (Brazil, November 2025) is set to place tropical forests and community land rights at centre stage.
The report finds that while funding has increased, there has yet to be a fundamental shift in how resources are delivered. Direct funding is low, while funding through international organizations and multilateral institutions still dominates. Without new investment, current trajectories leave a $2.9 billion gap towards Path to Scale’s $10 billion target by 2030. Even at 2021’s peak disbursement rate, funding would still fall short by $2.1 billion, while a regression to the 2017-2020 funding rate would leave a shortfall of $4.7 billion.
Life – all life – is dependent upon nature and indigenous people are central for maintaining this essential state of equilibrium.
Indigenous Peoples steward vast carbon- and biodiversity-rich territories, yet receive less than 1% of climate-related funding and philanthropy. On current trajectories, there’s a $2.9 billion gap to 2030 to scale up tenure rights needed to deliver on the Glasgow declaration to end deforestation by 2030.
According to the Rainforest Foundation Norway, COP30 in Brazil represents an opportunity for donors to recommit and renew the funding momentum and progress on global climate and biodiversity targets.
Speaking on these trends, Solange Bandiaky-Badji, President and Coordinator of RRI says: “It is heartening to see the increase in donor attention and funding for Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and Afro-Descendant Peoples since 2021, but it also shows an alarming decline in that progress which means that communities are still not getting the funding levels necessary to achieve global climate and conservation targets.”
In terms of the findings, Bandiaky-Badji thinks: “This report should serve as an impetus for donors across all sectors to raise their investment in scaling up funding delivered directly to Indigenous Peoples and local communities’ own organizations and funding mechanisms, and to carry forward the remarkable political leadership displayed at COP26 even if they weren’t part of the original Pledge.”
Consequently, the Alliance is calling on donors, in particular the leading donor countries such as Germany, to step up and commit to a new Land Tenure Pledge at COP30 that speeds up the funding towards 2030.
Will the communities affected learn to know if the rich and powerful have their backs?
September 26, 2025
Land rights and environmental protection. — Image by © Tim Sandle.
International donor commitments made at the 2021 UN Climate Conference helped to substantially increased financial support for the communities on the frontlines of climate change. Yet what is the situation like in 2025?
Not so good,according to new data from Rainforest Foundation Norway and Rights and Resources Initiative. These figures show that, despite a 46% rise in annual disbursements since COP26, funding for Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and Afro-Descendant Peoples peaked in 2021. Since then, it has declined every year.
The report shows that the largest contributor to the COP26 pledge so far has been Germany, which has doubled its funding for IPs, LCs and ADPs in since 2021. Other leading nations are more hesistant.
Yet how reliable is the German funding? Current budget discussions in the German Parliament, however will decide whether it will continue to play this leading role.
The outlook elsewhere from the rich and powerful nations is somewha bleak. The prevailing trend sees several governments cutting aid or redirecting budgets toward security and defence; this decline risks accelerating. The irony is that this is occurring just as COP30 (Brazil, November 2025) is set to place tropical forests and community land rights at centre stage.
The report finds that while funding has increased, there has yet to be a fundamental shift in how resources are delivered. Direct funding is low, while funding through international organizations and multilateral institutions still dominates. Without new investment, current trajectories leave a $2.9 billion gap towards Path to Scale’s $10 billion target by 2030. Even at 2021’s peak disbursement rate, funding would still fall short by $2.1 billion, while a regression to the 2017-2020 funding rate would leave a shortfall of $4.7 billion.
Life – all life – is dependent upon nature and indigenous people are central for maintaining this essential state of equilibrium.
Indigenous Peoples steward vast carbon- and biodiversity-rich territories, yet receive less than 1% of climate-related funding and philanthropy. On current trajectories, there’s a $2.9 billion gap to 2030 to scale up tenure rights needed to deliver on the Glasgow declaration to end deforestation by 2030.
According to the Rainforest Foundation Norway, COP30 in Brazil represents an opportunity for donors to recommit and renew the funding momentum and progress on global climate and biodiversity targets.
Speaking on these trends, Solange Bandiaky-Badji, President and Coordinator of RRI says: “It is heartening to see the increase in donor attention and funding for Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and Afro-Descendant Peoples since 2021, but it also shows an alarming decline in that progress which means that communities are still not getting the funding levels necessary to achieve global climate and conservation targets.”
In terms of the findings, Bandiaky-Badji thinks: “This report should serve as an impetus for donors across all sectors to raise their investment in scaling up funding delivered directly to Indigenous Peoples and local communities’ own organizations and funding mechanisms, and to carry forward the remarkable political leadership displayed at COP26 even if they weren’t part of the original Pledge.”
Consequently, the Alliance is calling on donors, in particular the leading donor countries such as Germany, to step up and commit to a new Land Tenure Pledge at COP30 that speeds up the funding towards 2030.
Will the communities affected learn to know if the rich and powerful have their backs?
Road to COP30: What are the climate targets?
Environment
From the show
World leaders will convene at a climate summit hosted by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday in New York. Countries face mounting pressure to set more ambitious emission reduction targets for 2035 ahead of COP30 in Brazil. Governments were invited to submit their updated pledges by February 2025. Of the 195 Paris Agreement signatories, only 13 countries have met the deadline, while a total of 37 have submitted new plans. FRANCE 24’s Valérie Dekimpe explains.
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