Less than 1% of climate finance reaches Indigenous peoples directly.
Yet they manage or hold rights over a quarter of the world’s best-preserved land, including some of the most intact ecosystems left. The forests they protect hold the planet’s biodiversity and regulate the climate the rest of the world depends on.
If Indigenous peoples protect forests, why does climate finance almost never reach them?
Because the financing system still has complex processes, incompatible timelines and requirements that do not adapt to their territorial context or to the way indigenous peoples manage and make decisions, nor to the speed and effectiveness that is required. Deforestation is advancing faster — we need greater effectiveness.
SUMAR+ changes that.
SUMAR+: a model built for Indigenous governance
Developed by Practical Action, AIDESEP and other Indigenous organisations in Ecuador and Peru, SUMAR+ connects climate finance with the indigenous peoples who protect the Amazon. A system designed with those who manage the territory, not from the outside.
It receives and manages funding. It handles the reporting and compliance funders require. And it builds the capability for organisations to take this on themselves, directly. Funding is now managed and held accountable while building independence.
SUMAR+ can be rolled out across any country in the Amazon basin, with governance frameworks defined by the indigenous organisations in each jurisdiction.
What SUMAR+ holds to?
Funding reaches organisations on terms they can deliver today.
The model follows Indigenous governance: its decisions, its timescales, its structures.
Equal participation in decision-making.
Women, young people and Indigenous defenders are prioritised, who are central to their territories’ resilience.
Partnerships are transparent, inclusive, long-term, and built towards independence.
When funding reaches the people already protecting the Amazon, it gives back.