For more than 10 years, a funding model has quietly done what many others have struggled to do: Funnel nature and climate finance directly to Indigenous peoples and local communities. The Dedicated Grant Mechanism (DGM) was created by the Climate Investment Fund (CIF) in 2010 to support Indigenous peoples’ and local communities’ involvement in forest conservation and community-led nature-based solutions. This came after Indigenous beneficiaries of CIF programs demanded that a portion of the funds be granted directly to Indigenous peoples and local communities for projects they design and manage. Since the start of this program, $70 million has been allocated to communities through CIF’s Forest Investment Program (FIP) and $40 million has been approved for its Nature, People and Climate (NPC) program. The model doesn’t only direct funding, say project managers, but also addresses key obstacles — like donor mistrust in giving money directly to communities and the lack of local capacity to manage funding portfolios effectively. “It’s not traditionally the direction that [the multilateral development banks] go,” said Paul Hartman, the lead for CIF’s NPC Program, explaining why their direct funding model, as part of a multilateral climate financing mechanism, is so little known and passes under the radar. We’re also rarely in the spaces and meetings on territorial governance and community finance, so the news doesn’t spread, he told Mongabay. For years, communities have been underrepresented when it comes to decision-making and the governance of funds, say researchers. Little funding reaches communities directly and instead passes through…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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