MEXICO & CENTRAL AMERICA

We support efforts to reverse deforestation, build climate resilience, and strengthen Indigenous Peoples’, Afro-Descendant Peoples’ and local communities’ rights through transforming territorial to regional governance across Mexico and Central America.

Priorities For Support

The Climate and Land Use Alliance supports a diversity of civil society organizations in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and Panama, as well as organizations working at the regional level, with a focus on ensuring they have the resources and connections they need to be effective and resilient.

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Why Mexico & Central America?

The forests of Mexico and Central America are exceptionally biologically diverse and strongly tied to the communities who live within them. Deforestation in Mexico and the expansion of the agricultural frontier throughout Central America threaten forest systems and these communities, who are among the best stewards of forests.

Across the region, violence is often at the base of the economies driving deforestation. Regenerative forest-based economies also face significant hurdles and challenges. On top of the pressure and threats to the territories driven by illicit, violent economies, the demand for transition minerals is rising, and infrastructure and agro-commodities are expanding.

These factors play out in a region uniquely vulnerable to the effects of climate change. As elsewhere, Indigenous Peoples, Afro-Descendant Peoples, and local communities, and women and youth, face additional layers of exclusion from social and institutional structures rooted in inequitable systems shaped by racism, discrimination, and violence.

In spite of the significant challenges, promising progress and change is underway. Across the region, people are working to secure land rights, reverse deforestation, and build climate resilience.

What We Support

Across the region, we support efforts to revitalize forest and land tenure social systems and community efforts to secure and exercise their collective rights, adopt climate and environmental resilience mechanisms in wider agricultural and food systems, address the criminalization and violence targeting communities and environmental defenders, and enhance the governance of tropical forest systems. Specific support is provided to Indigenous Peoples’, Afro-Descendant Peoples’, and local communities’ efforts to secure their rights and livelihoods, and create strong connections with broader citizen movements to contribute to the effective protection of tropical forest systems and improve climate resilience.

WE SUPPORT EFFORTS TO:

Secure Forest Communities’ Rights and Livelihoods

The Climate and Land Use Alliance works with partners to channel more resources directly to forest communities—particularly Indigenous Peoples’, Afro-Descendant Peoples’, and local communities’ organizations and networks—to support community land stewardship. We support efforts to develop regenerative forest-based economies, and promote self-determination and effective local governance including women and youth. We also support efforts to foster intergenerational dialogue that counters the erosion of collective property and tenure systems and supports effective land rights transfer. We supports efforts to increase access to technology for territorial management, and promote experiences with community forest management to inform policy and practice.

We Support

Regenerative Forest-Based Economies
Building regenerative forest-based economies, including community forest management and food production systems, to increase economic and climate resilience and improve local governance.
Self-Determination and Resilience
Supporting Indigenous Peoples’, Afro-Descendant Peoples’, and local communities’ self-determination and organizational resilience.
Effective Local Governance
Establishing good governance to build regenerative forest-based economies and deter illicit economies.
Women’s Participation
Increasing women’s involvement in local governance and decision-making to advance recognition of their rights, and fair distribution of resources and benefits.
Youth Engagement and Intergenerational Transfer of Land Rights
Increasing youth participation in land administration systems, territorial governance, and sustainable economies. Fostering intergenerational dialogue and culturally relevant approaches to secure transfers of territorial land rights and collective tenure systems between generations.
Technology for Forest Management and Livelihoods
Ensuring access to digital tools that support independent monitoring and management of territories and the development of entrepreneurial activities to support livelihoods.
Community Forest Management
Exchanging community forest management experiences from Mexico and Central America to inform policies, programs, and practices around the world.

Advance Governance, Policy & Accountability

The Climate and Land Use Alliance supports efforts to strengthen governmental systems that support sustainable land use and tackle violence against land defenders, increase the accountability for environmental and human rights abuses, and improve organizations’ ability to mitigate violence and address the impacts of migration.

We Support

Sustainable Laws, Policies, and Regulations
Enhancing, implementing, and ensuring enforcement of policies that support conservation and sustainable land use, climate objectives, and social and environmental justice.
Subnational Initiatives to Tackle Deforestation
Ensuring jurisdictional initiatives effectively reduce deforestation and forest degradation while prioritizing social justice, human rights, and high-integrity in carbon market-linked activities.
Reducing and Preventing Abuses Against Environmental and Human Rights
Increasing the political and economic risks to companies committing violations and putting in place strong protections to stop environmental and human rights abuses.
Preventing Criminalization and Violence
Supporting Indigenous Peoples’, Afro-Descendant Peoples’, local communities’, and civil society organizations’ abilities to tackle the closure of civic space, violence, and criminalization. Increasing access for Indigenous Peoples’, Afro-Descendant Peopls’, local communities’, and civil society organizations’ to tools and technology for predicting and preventing criminalization and other forms of violence against land and environmental defenders.
Lessened Impacts of Migration
Developing greater understanding and action to help address the impacts of migration on tropical forest systems.

Strengthen Movements, Narratives & Collective Action

The Climate and Land Use Alliance supports Indigenous Peoples, Afro-Descendant Peoples, and local community organizations and networks in Mexico and Central America in their advocacy efforts by supporting connections and capacities across movements to scale up territorial governance and improve livelihoods, amplify climate justice and regenerative economy narratives, and elevate the voices and perspectives of Indigenous and community organizations in political spaces to inspire greater collective action.

We Support

Connected Coalitions
Connecting Indigenous Peoples’, Afro-Descendant Peoples’, and local communities’ organizations and other civil society organizations to build and sustain movements that improve territorial governance, climate justice, and livelihoods.
Influential Advocacy
Advocating for prioritizing rights and territorial governance in regional discussions on issues affecting tropical forest systems, including drug policy, environmental crime, and violence-driven economies.
Rights-Based Narratives
Highlighting narratives that further Indigenous Peoples’, Afro-Descendant Peoples’, and local communities’ rights and territorial governance, and pushing back on narratives undermining collective rights.
Combatting Disinformation
Supporting Indigenous Peoples’, Afro-Descendant Peoples’, and local communities’ and civil society organizations in detecting and counteracting narratives harmful to their rights and combating disinformation and attacks targeting land and human rights defenders.
Community-Created Media
Supporting Indigenous Peoples, Afro-Descendant Peoples, and local communities and civil society organizations in creating and using their own media and communications technologies for sharing information in support of their economic, political, cultural, and social aims.
Amplifying Regenerative Forest-Based Economies
Broadening the reach and improving the effectiveness of narratives on the need for a just, regenerative forest-based economy.

Shift Financial Systems

The Climate and Land Use Alliance supports increasing stable, predictable, and accessible funding flows for regenerative forest-based economies and communities, particularly for Indigenous Peoples, Afro-Descendant Peoples, and local community organizations and funds, aligned with broader principles of political independence, and respectful and trust-based investment. We also support greater transparency and accountability to stop investments harming people, their territories, tropical forests, and the climate.

We Support

Finance for Forest Communities
Increasing Indigenous Peoples’, Afro-Descendant Peoples’, and local communities’ access to national and international nature and climate finance, particularly through their own independently-controlled territorial funds.
Increased Financial Transparency and Oversight
Promoting greater transparency and oversight of investments in industries (including unsustainable extractives, infrastructure, and agri-business) to mitigate social and environmental impacts, including through supporting Indigenous Peoples’, Afro-Descendant Peoples’, and local communities’ capacities to monitor harmful practices in their territories.
Investments in Regenerative Forest-Based Economies
Strengthening locally-driven economic opportunities with direct financing to communities and territories.

Improve Production, Consumption & Trade

The Climate and Land Use Alliance supports work to increase the economic and political costs for companies and actors linked to industries that abuse the environment and human rights by advancing deforestation, exposing harmful practices, and holding companies to account. We also support conflict-free supply chains, efforts to ensure high environmental and social integrity in forest carbon markets, and promote sustainable approaches and investments in forest communities’ livelihoods.

We Support

Deforestation- and Conflict-Free Supply Chains
Transforming supply chains by removing deforestation, land degradation, and rights violations from large-scale agriculture and cattle ranching.
High Integrity in Forest Carbon Markets
Ensuring high social and environmental integrity in forest carbon markets, including by promoting rights recognition and real reductions in both fossil fuel use and land use emissions, helping scale best practices from regional levels, and increasing benefit sharing and active partnerships with Indigenous Peoples, Afro-Descendant Peoples, and local communities.
Effective Monitoring and Enforcement
Strengthening monitoring and enforcement efforts to remove deforestation, land conversion, and rights violations from supply chains.
Exposing Harmful Companies and Sectors
Improving land-based supply chains and regulatory frameworks by exposing damaging practices and proposals by companies and sectors.
Social and Environmental Responsibility
Supporting social and environmental responsibility programs across sectors to promote best practices and investments in supporting Indigenous Peoples, Afro-Descendant Peoples, and local communities.

Grants

We unfortunately do not accept unsolicited grant proposals.

The Climate and Land Use Alliance member foundations work closely together to identify funding opportunities and make grants aligned with our shared priorities.

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