The Cali Roundtable Report – making biodiversity funding work for Indigenous peoples, local communities, women and youth

In October 2024, in the margins of COP16 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Cali, the Forest Peoples Programme and Synchronicity Earth convened a roundtable discussion exploring how to enhance biodiversity finance for Indigenous Peoples and local communities, women and youth. Since the Montreal roundtable held on the side of COP15 in 2022, these groups have seen both progress and persistent challenges in accessing critical funding for their work.  

This report analyses the experiences of Indigenous peoples, local communities, women and youth in accessing appropriate funding in three main areas: 

The achievements and positive developments in funding for biodiversity action

This includes increased levels of direct funding for indigenous-led organisations, more and better participation in decision-making and governance in some funding mechanisms, and a rise in research on how funding processes can better serve Indigenous Peoples, women’s organisations, and youth groups.  

The persistent challenges that continue to affect access to funding 

Without solid relationships of trust between funders and communities, Indigenous peoples and local communities, women and youth are often subject to shorter-term funding with high administrative burdens, which limits their ability to scale up their action and enact long-term change. 

Recommendations for donors and philanthropists 

This section takes the achievements and challenges analysed in the report and uses them to create a set of 10 recommendations that can act as a guide for funders and philanthropists to collaborate with Indigenous peoples, local communities, women and youth for effective, sustainable biodiversity conservation.   

Key among these is a call for all funders to align their funding to the self-determined priorities and needs of those they want to fund: giving funding should be an act of partnership and solidarity towards a shared outcome, not a transaction to achieve an externally defined purpose.   

Read the full report to go into more detail into these areas, as well as comments from community members on what the funding landscape looks like for them on the ground. 

“When we plant trees, do we only want to plant trees or see them grow? This takes time. Funding should be 3+ years, and the collaboration should be long-term for results to have time to unfold.” - Indigenous woman from Kenya 

The Cali Roundtable report could not have been written without the contributions of Indigenous peoples, local communities, women and youth shared during the round table. It is based on their real-life experiences of receiving and applying for funding, as well as the key initiatives, documents and resources they have developed to support and evidence their vital work in biodiversity conservation.  

With new financial mechanisms being set up, such as the Cali Fund and the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund, billions of dollars have been pledged to support biodiversity funding. This has the potential to effect transformative change, but only if it is done by and with Indigenous peoples, local communities, women and youth. This report contains the key information that funders need to be able to do this.