The Nusantara Fund is part of movement to directly support Indigenous peoples and local communities worldwide.
Globally, less than 1 per cent of foreign aid to address climate change goes directly to Indigenous peoples and local communities, or projects to support their land tenure and forest management. This is despite studies regularly showing the important role they can play in driving effective and equitable conservation and environmental protection.
In Indonesia, home to as many as 70 million Indigenous people and over 1,300 different ethnic groups, a new initiative is aiming to bridge this gap. Launched in May, the Nusantara Fund will channel climate funding directly to Indigenous peoples and local communities based on their needs and wishes.
The fund has been created by Indonesia’s three largest Indigenous and civil society organisations: the Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN), which represents 20 million people in 2,422 communities; the Consortium for Agrarian Reform (KPA), which brings together 143 agrarian organisations; and the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (WALHI), the country’s largest environmental group, comprising 487 NGOs.
Rukka Sombolinggi, secretary general of AMAN, said the funding will be used based on priorities set by the communities, not supporting organisations. “This is not just because we have the money and they will do the work, but is depending on their priorities,” she said.
The Nusantara Fund has so far attracted US$3 million in commitments from various international donors, including the Ford and Packard foundations. It aims to eventually attract US$20 million.
“We hear about pledges of one billion dollars for this, or governments putting hundreds of millions of dollars into that, but what’s news in this case is that with a very small amount of money, you can make a huge difference,” said David Kaimowitz, chief program officer with the International Land and Forest Tenure Facility, which focuses on securing rights for Indigenous peoples and local communities. “In many ways, you can be more effective with three million dollars in the hands of a community than 200 million dollars in the hands of a World Bank project. That’s the news here.”
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What we do is work out how to quickly respond [to their needs]. There are villages that just need a little bit of support to, for instance, harvest. There are communities that make education their priority because it is a long-term investment, some want mapping.
Rukka Sombolinggi, secretary general, Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago
Kaimowitz described the fund as an important innovation that can support communities on the ground to be better organised. Community organisations are key to solving problems related to climate and food system, he said. He cited a 2021 study by a coalition of environmental and social organisations, which found that 91 per cent of lands managed by Indigenous peoples and local communities are in moderate or good ecological condition. “That is much, much higher than the average,” Kaimowitz said. “It is showing that, in one way or another, a lot of forests managed by these groups are better than people realised in the past.”
Kaimowitz said the new fund is important as it is less bureaucratic, meaning less money may be “lost” before it reaches communities, for example to different organisations, government institutions or con
