What can Indigenous Peoples, local communities and women expect from Global Climate and Forests Funds in terms of their rights? An introduction and comparison of Safeguards and Participation Mechanisms

As a result of the regime on ‘Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation and enhancing forest carbon stocks’ (REDD+) adopted by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, several relatively new global funds or financial windows have been established to finance forest-related initiatives from a climate perspective.

The purpose of this briefing paper is to make a comparative analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of these funds rules and safeguards, specifically with respect to the rights of Indigenous Peoples, women and local communities, including their participation rights. Although we explore and compare a number of global funds, we place more emphasis on the Green Climate Fund, since it has recently emerged as the main multilateral finance mechanism within the international climate arena, with separate windows for adaptation and mitigation.