In 2025, the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) advanced land and livelihood rights for Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendant Peoples, and local communities while marking its 20th anniversary with a renewed focus on rightsholder-led governance and coalition expansion.
This document presents the Rights-Based NDC Model, a framework designed to integrate the rights and contributions of Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendant Peoples, and local communities into the design and implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement. NDCs are the central policy instruments through which countries communicate their climate commitments—defining national goals, mitigation and adaptation strategies, and financial needs.
Through examples of Indigenous Peoples’, Afro-descendant Peoples’, and local communities’ movements from the Maya Biosphere Reserve in Guatemala, the Enggano island in Indonesia, India's Bastar region, the Sinangoe in the Ecuadorian Amazon, and Colombia, the report presents best practices from communities defending their territories and cultures.
This new report presents the results of the second phase of a collaborative research analysis between RRI and WiGSA. It showcases the lack of funding for Indigenous, Afro-descendant, and local community women and highlights the need for the new funding Pledge anticipated at COP30 to concretely include a gender-responsive perspective.