The Brazilian indigenous fund wants to take on nature finance

Global expansion of community-managed nature fund

In four years, investments in communities have increased by 38% but are still small

Community funds are looking for local priorities and a simpler bureaucracy

By Andre Cabette Fabio

Atelie Derequine Indigenous Fashion Collective, founded in 2020, produces masks against COVID-19. Models are dressed and take part in runways in Brazil's industrial city of Manaus. This fashion collective provides jobs for Indigenous people and is a platform to promote their rights.

Vanda Witoto is the person responsible for mobilizing AtelieDerequine. She said, "We bring political awareness to the runways where we have raised banners to demarcate" Indigenous territories.

The growth of the collective was made possible by a 50,000 reais (8,600 dollars) grant from the Indigenous Fund of the Brazilian Amazon (Podaali), the first Amazon rainforest trust run entirely by Indigenous people.

In Baniwa, Podaali is the Baniwa word for giving without expecting anything back.

Witoto says that Atelie Derequine's life would have been difficult without the Podaali Fund.

She said that conventional finance institutions want indigenous people to "just plant trees."

They don't even care about us. "We go to international events and no one wants to talk to us," she said.

The fashion collective uses Indigenous networks that reach deep into the Amazon where local communities provide seeds and fasteners for clothing.

Podaali and the organisers claim that its designs attract support far beyond the Indigenous Community.

The Podaali Fund, launched by the Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon in 2019, is one of a growing number of finance institutions that are led by political groups from Indigenous and local communities.

Since 2021, the movement has gained momentum. This is when environmental NGO Rainforest Foundation Norway released a report that showed in the decade prior, only 1% global funding had been allocated to climate adaptation and mitigation.

The U.N. COP26 Climate talks in Glasgow, that year, wealthy nations and charities pledged an increase of funding for Indigenous peoples and other land owners.

Land Rights

Data from the Rights and Resources Initiative (a global land rights alliance) shows that $2.22 billion has been disbursed between 2021 and 204 to protect and manage the land of these communities. This is 38% more money than the four previous years, but it's still a relatively small amount compared to global investments.

Juan Carlos Jintiach said that there are "entities" who do not want to abandon colonialist attitudes, and therefore, they will continue to ignore investments in Indigenous communities as well as other local communities.

He said that a large portion of the climate change and biodiversity investments managed by foreigners is spent on administrative costs before they reach local communities.

In a report published last year, the Forest Tenure Funders Group - a coalition of wealthy nations and philanthropic organizations that had pledged to give $1.7 billion in grants to communities by 2025 - concluded that only 10.6% was managed directly by communities.

According to a report published by Shandia in 2023, an initiative launched by GATC, by creating its own fund, the Indigenous Movement aims to have more control over money and to distribute it to local priorities. This will also simplify bureaucracy.

Podaali belongs to a network of nine funds that are part of the Amazonian communities of Brazil. This includes "quilombola", descendants of enslaved Africans, and other groups who depend on the forest.

Aurelio Vianna is a programme officer at international NGO Tenure Facility. This organization helps to structure community funds, and is one of Podaali’s funders.

Vianna stated that the funds were being directed by Indigenous leadership "despite enormous global backlash" towards nature-focused policies, such as U.S. Government's cuts to global climate projects.

SIMPLIFIED BUREAUCRACY

Podaali is located in a downtown office building, far from tourist areas. The building's inner doors and windows are reinforced with metal grids to ensure security.

Rose Meire Apurina is Podaali’s deputy director. She said that funding decisions were based on simple questions to reduce bureaucratic hurdles and snarls.

She said that instead of prescribing top-down what types of initiatives should be prioritized by communities, the fund aims to "intensify" the work already done.

Podaali awarded between 20,000 reais (3,500 dollars) and 50,000 reais (8,800 dollars) in 2023 and 2024 to 77 initiatives.

The money was spent in part to purchase drones to monitor forests and to finance protests in Brasilia against anti-environmental laws.

Last year, Podaali raised $9 million ($1.6 million), mainly with international partners, such as the U.S. based Wellspring Philanthropic Fund Christensen Fund Nia Tero Foundation.

Brazil's Indigenous Movement is looking to expand these funds beyond the Amazon with Podaali.

Last year, at the Climate Week in New York Apib (Brazil's largest indigenous umbrella organization) launched a fund named Jaguata with Podaali’s support.

Dinamam Tuxa, Apib Coordinator, said that financiers are prioritizing the Amazon over less-known natural areas like the Cerrado Savannah. The National Institute for Space Research has listed the Cerrado savannah as Brazil's deforested Biome by 2024.

Jaguata is determined to close this gap.

(source: Reuters)