The Kayapó Fund as an innovative financial conservation mechanism

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by Kristen Walker, Conservation International

A red breasted toucan in Brazil © IUCN Imène Meliane

The Kayapó Fund, developed by Conservation International, is the first trust fund to focus on long-term financing for conservation of the Amazon by indigenous people, the Kayapó peoples of the southeastern Amazon region of Brazil. The Fund launched in 20111, with at least US$8 mio to provide in grants. Grants support monitoring and protection of Kayapó land, development of sustainable economic activities and capacity-building of Kayapó organization.

Last update: 17 Jul 2019

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Context

Challenges addressed

Land and Forest degradation

Lack of access to long-term funding

Lack of technical capacity

Poor monitoring and enforcement

Unemployment / poverty

Scale of implementation

Local

Ecosystems

Tropical deciduous forest

Tropical evergreen forest

Theme

Habitat fragmentation and degradation

Sustainable livelihoods

Indigenous people

Protected and conserved areas management planning

Location

Amazon Rainforest, Codajás - State of Amazonas, Brazil

South America

Impacts

With the initiative’s early success, the Kayapó Fund can serve as a model for financially supporting other indigenous communities — in Brazil and elsewhere — and their efforts to sustainably manage large areas of land. The Trust Fund benefits approximately 7,000 people in five Indigenous territories. The grants have helped conserve an area of 10.6 million hectares, which is about 3 percent of the Amazon, and constitutes the largest block of tropical forest protected by a single Indigenous group and is encircled by increasing deforestation.