FOR INFORMATION
ILC endorses the The Pledge We Want campaign, which seeks a new funding commitment for Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and Afro-descendant Peoples to be announced at COP30 in Brazil (November 2025).
To strategically position ILC at the forefront of community-led climate finance with a focus on land tenure security—and in alignment with the ILC strategy—the ILC Secretariat has agreed to join this coalition of allies.
This endorsement presents a strategic opportunity to shape climate finance's future while ensuring Indigenous Peoples, local communities and Afro-descendant Peoples benefit from both political commitments to strengthened tenure and the financial mechanisms to implement them - directly benefiting ILC’s 300+ members and their constituencies. ILC will contribute technical expertise through its data platforms and engage in national, regional and global-level advocacy where objectives align with both territorial and financing pledge processes.
CONTEXT AND OPPORTUNITY
The original $1.7 billion Indigenous Peoples and Local Community Forest Tenure pledge made at COP26 expires in 2025, with 79% of funds already deployed as of the end of 2023. Two complementary successor pledges are emerging for COP30: one, by the Forest Tenure Funder Group, focusing on (renewed) financial commitments and another, on behalf of the Forest & Climate Leaders’ Partnership (FCLP), focused on territorial commitments (land tenure).
The Pledge We Want campaign, led by Rights and Resources Initiative, Tenure Facility, the Global Alliance of Territorial Communities, If Not Us Then Who and other partners, specifically targets the financing dimension with a focus on putting community voices at the centre and applying lessons learned from the COP26 pledge. Importantly, a new donor pledge is expected to expand beyond forests to include other ecosystems, creating opportunities for many ILC members operating outside of forests. It is also aiming to amend two particular shortcomings, namely: a) at the time of its first review at the end of 2023, only a little more than 10% were directly provided to IPs and LC led funds, and 2) only 9% of the resources were given to Asia Pacific, in spite of the fact that the largest share of IPs globally live in Asia.
STRATEGIC RATIONALE
The new pledge strengthens land tenure rights beyond access to climate financing, while formally recognising Afro-descendant Peoples (ADP) as distinct rights holders. This directly supports ILC’s Latin American and Caribbean members who recently welcomed two ADP organisations into the network. Crucially, the pledge expands its scope beyond forests to include rangelands and other ecosystems - aligning with the 2026 International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists (IYRP) and elevating pastoralist voices that have long been overlooked in the climate and tenure discourse. The endorsement creates powerful synergies with ILC’s ongoing initiatives, including the up and coming "Mobility Matters" campaign and its timing positions ILC to influence key global processes including the UNCCD COP17 in Mongolia and broader rangeland advocacy.
ILC is uniquely positioned to engage in both territorial and financing pledges, leveraging its policy expertise to support land tenure commitments, and its grassroots networks to advocate for inclusive financing mechanisms . Furthermore, ILC’s LandMark platform (global platform on data about indigenous and community lands) will play a critical role in monitoring progress linked to the pledges’ territorial commitments.
ILC is proud to stand with allies for a climate-just future that is rooted in secure land tenure and strong communities. Because this is more than a pledge - but a step towards a people-centred world
