Global funding for Indigenous land rights has increased since 2021 but is now slowing, with a 23 per cent drop in 2024.
The closure of USAID, a major funder, exacerbates the issue, leaving a significant funding gap.
Despite increased contributions from other donors, the report highlights the need for more direct and flexible funding to Indigenous groups.
Funding to support Indigenous Peoples, local communities and Afro descendent people in securing their land rights has grown since 2021, but is now showing signs of slowdown, according to a new global report.
The State of Funding for Tenure Rights 2025 report, released by the Rights and Resources Initiative and Rainforest Foundation Norway, showed that donor support has increased by 46 per cent since the COP26 Forest Tenure Pledge, averaging $728 million every year between 2021 and 2024.
Even with this growth, the money going to community land rights is less than 1 per cent of all climate aid. From 2019 to 2023, it accounted for only 0.91 per cent of climate aid.
The report noted that after peaking in 2021, funding has dropped each year since, down to $642 million in 2024 a 23 per cent drop from the peak, raising fears that momentum may be fading.
A major setback came in early 2025 when the United States shut down its aid agency, USAID. The agency had been one of the largest funders of Indigenous land rights worldwide. USAID had provided $747 million since 2011, or 12 per cent of global funding.
Its closure is expected to leave a $394 million gap by 2030. Overall, the world could fall short by $2.9 billion of the $10 billion target needed to secure 400 million hectares of land under community stewardship by 2030.
Historically, most funding went to Latin America. Since 2020, support to Africa and Asia has grown significantly. Africa now averages $208 million a year (48 per cent higher than before), while Asia saw steady growth until 2024, when disbursements fell 27 per cent as large projects ended.
Country exposure to USAID cuts: Some countries are highly dependent on US funds. For example, nearly all of Malawi’s $11 million since 2020 came from USAID, and 61 per cent of Tanzania’s $30 million. Colombia faces the biggest absolute loss, with $89 million (30 per cent of its funding) from USAID.
Between 2020–2024, about 21 per cent of India’s Indigenous and community land rights funding came from USAID.
Some major funders have stepped up. The World Bank and Germany have more than doubled their support since 2020, and together they now provide over one-third of total annual funding, 36 percent.
Other new players, like the Canada, Norway, the Ford Foundation, the Bezos Earth Fund, and multilateral funds like the Global Environment Facility and Green Climate Fund, have also brought in fresh resources.
But the report warned that while the amount of money has grown, the way it is delivered is still a big problem. Most funds continue to pass through large international organisations or governments before reaching the ground.
This means that Indigenous and community-led groups rarely receive money directly, and often face delays or restrictions in how they can use it.
Funding gap to 2030: At the current pace, donors will fall $2.9 billion short of the global $10 billion “Path to Scale” target needed to secure 400 million hectares of community land rights by 2030.
Even if 2021’s peak level were maintained, there would still be a $2.1 billion gap.
The situation is worse for women’s organisations. The report says many of these groups run on very small and unstable budgets, often less than $100,000 a year. Few receive flexible, long-term support, leaving them financially insecure despite their proven role in protecting forests and land.
With COP30 in Brazil coming up later this year, the report urged donors to renew their commitments through a new land tenure pledge. It calls for at least $2.2 billion in funding, adjusted for inflation and expanded to cover not just forests, but also grasslands, savannas, wetlands and mountain ecosystems.
It also highlighted the need for at least 20 per cent of all new climate funds to go directly to Indigenous and community groups. Long-term, flexible support, it said, is essential because securing land rights takes years of work.
These concerns go beyond climate finance. The issue is also tied to the Convention on Biological Diversity and its Global Biodiversity Framework, where governments have pledged to respect the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities while protecting 30 per cent of land and seas by 2030.
Experts warned that without secure land tenure, these biodiversity targets will be very difficult to achieve.