Forest Communities
Forest stewards are active partners in shaping local benefit use
Empowering Forest Stewards Through Trust & Partnership
Indigenous Peoples, Local Communities and Afrodescendants (IP, LC & ADs) play a vital role in safeguarding tropical forests. For forest protection and restoration programs to be effective, they must support the meaningful involvement of IP, LC & ADs by respecting their voices, upholding their rights, and enabling fair and equitable sharing of benefits.
Why Engagement Matters
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IP, LC & ADs manage vast swathes of the world’s remaining tropical forests and bring essential knowledge, values, and stewardship practices to forest conservation.
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Recognizing the roles of these communities, ensuring inclusive participation, and establishing transparent, equitable benefit-sharing systems are fundamental to meeting the social and environmental requirements of both the ART TREES and World Banks's FCPF standards.
Without evidence of engagement and the presence of robust and transparent benefits sharing arrangements, credits cannot be issued under either standard.​
Emergent and Indigenous Peoples, Local Communities, and Afrodescendants
Emergent’s role is to channel large-scale, nature-based climate finance from public and private buyers to forest governments (national and subnational) implementing high-integrity Jurisdictional REDD+ (JREDD+) programs to reduce deforestation.
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This model provides a viable economic alternative to forest clearance for uses such as agriculture, while encouraging policies that protect forests, strengthen law enforcement against illegal deforestation, and deliver incentives for landowners and communities to preserve forests.
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Our approach is designed to give forest governments and communities access to long-term, predictable finance to support sustainable development - improving livelihoods today and safeguarding opportunities for the future.
Crucially, Emergent does not support programs that fail to respect the rights of IP, LC & ADs or that do not meet strict social safeguards.
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We only purchase jurisdictional forest carbon credits issued by high-integrity standards such as the Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART) the REDD+ Environmental Excellence Standard (TREES) and the World Bank’s FCPF. Both standards ensures rigorous socials safeguards based on the Cancun Safeguards adopted by the UNFCCC, with fair and transparent benefits sharing plans putting decisions on how funds are used into the hands of communities to ensure they deliver local impacts.
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The Cancun Safeguards - shaped through sustained engagement with IP, LC & AD groups and civil society - include specific provisions to ensure that governments:
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Respect the rights and traditional knowledge of IPs, LCs & ADs.
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Guarantee their full and effective participation in programs to reduce deforestation and generate carbon credits.
Learn more about ART TREES and the FCPF Standard
Learn more about the Cancun Safeguards
Contact Us
If you wish to find out more about Emergent’s work with Indigenous Peoples, Local Communities, and Afrodescendants, contact our Director of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities Stakeholder Engagement, Carol Burga, below.
Carol Burga
Director, Indigenous Peoples & Local Communities Stakeholder Engagement