3 December 2023, Dubai, UAE – Today at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP28), Ministers and Indigenous leaders from the most important tropical forests in the world spoke at the launch of Equitable Earth – a new voluntary carbon market standard designed to drive climate finance directly to Indigenous peoples and traditional communities.

The governments of Brazil and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) reiterated commitments to end deforestation, highlighting the crucial role of community-led forest carbon projects in achieving this goal.

H.E. Sonia Guajajara, Minister of Indigenous Peoples, Brazil said:

“We must end deforestation in the Amazon to help solve the climate crisis. And we must do so with justice and human rights for the forest people for whom forests are home. Therefore, I welcome project initiatives led by communities and respecting Free Prior Informed Consent, as they will help achieve our climate goals, preserve the forest and the life within it, and bring equity to our people.”

The IPCC is clear that ending deforestation is critical to addressing the climate crisis. And according to the UN, where the rights of Indigenous peoples are recognized, rates of deforestation tend to be lower and carbon stocks tend to be higher. Despite this, less than one percent of climate finance currently reaches Indigenous peoples and local communities to help secure land tenure rights and manage tropical forests. Community-led forest carbon projects can change this, by driving private sector finance directly to the Indigenous peoples and traditional communities that live there.

For example, the Mai Ndombe project in DRC is funded by companies voluntarily purchasing carbon credits. The project works with over 50,000 community members to help meet their own development ambitions, while protecting 299,640 hectares of forest which has avoided 38,843,976 tons of CO2e emissions to date.

“The world asks us – Amazonia, Congo Basin, Mekong Basin – to preserve our forests. But to do this means adaptation of our lives, our agriculture, of everything. And this adaptation needs funds” said H.E. Eve Bazaiba, Environment Minister, DRC speaking of the Mai Ndombe project at the event today, “So, we say Ok, and we entered into the carbon markets.”

“We have now built more than 16 high-level schools, we have hospitals, they support us with resilient agriculture. And now we are going to have more social infrastructure like roads, bridges, solar energy, airports, and ports and so on. This is all to help us adapt to the new situation of the climate crisis,” said Minister Bazaiba.

The Amazon and the Congo Basin are the two largest rainforests in the world. Combined, the territories of the two nations who spoke today include over 600 million hectares of tropical forest – an area roughly two thirds the total size of the U.S.

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Notes to editors

Media contact: info@eq-earth.com

About the Equitable Earth Coalition

Equitable Earth is a coalition of leaders committed to delivering a compelling new voluntary carbon market standard and platform to end deforestation and biodiversity loss in equitable partnership with Indigenous Peoples and local communities and Global South countries.

For further information, visit eq-earth.com