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A Message From Our Executive Director

Dear Friends and Supporters,

This fall, we’re particularly excited to share a new report featuring case studies from our institutional strengthening work with our Indigenous partners across Central and South America and beyond. These stories demonstrate what’s possible when trust is at the core of long-term partnerships with Indigenous organizations.

The report offers practical ways to overcome the technical, cultural, and administrative barriers that too often block funding from reaching communities. Rainforest Foundation US (RFUS) helps bridge these gaps. We offer support around eligibility, compliance, fiscal accountability, and capacity-strengthening, so that Indigenous institutions can manage large grants directly and sustainably. Developed in collaboration with our partners, these case studies illustrate how this approach can rebalance power dynamics and open pathways to urgently-needed climate finance.

Why does this matter so much? Because Indigenous peoples safeguard over a third of the world’s tropical forests, yet receive less than 1% of international climate finance. Shifting that disparity is essential if we are to protect our last great forests and stabilize our climate.

We’re also proud to share progress in our land titling efforts in Peru. A new two-year project will secure land rights for 41 Urarina communities and protect 550,000 acres of rainforest, an area nearly three times the size of New York City.

As we approach year-end, I invite you to stand with us and the communities leading the fight for our planet. Together, we are building a future where forests thrive, Indigenous peoples’ rights are respected, and our climate sustains life for generations to come.

With deep gratitude,

Suzanne Pelletier
Executive Director
Rainforest Foundation US

Program Highlights

How RFUS Is Making Climate Finance Reach the Rainforests’ Best Protectors

Indigenous peoples protect over a third of the world’s tropical forests yet receive less than 1% of international climate finance. A new series of case studies from RFUS reveals how that can change. The report shares four examples from Guyana, Peru, Mesoamerica, and a global Indigenous alliance. Each demonstrates how long-term support and trusted partnerships can help communities overcome funding barriers and take action to protect their lands and strengthen their rights.

In Guyana, two Indigenous-led organizations went from being under-resourced to managing over $7 million in funding for their work. In Mesoamerica, a regional alliance created a new fund that reached 200 communities with grants to protect their forests. In Peru, a partnership between RFUS and the Inter-Ethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Rainforest (AIDESEP) helped deliver 26 Indigenous land titles in record time. And internationally, the Global Alliance of Territorial Communities (GATC) expanded from one major donor to twelve, representing 35 million forest peoples on the world stage. These stories offer a roadmap for climate justice: Support Indigenous peoples to build strong institutions on their terms, and ensure funding reaches those protecting the planet’s last great forests. Read more.

Securing the Future of 41 Forest Communities

In the remote Chambira-Marañón region of the Peruvian Amazon, 41 Indigenous Urarina communities are leading a historic effort to protect their ancestral lands. With support from RFUS, Rainforest Trust, AIDESEP, and the Regional Government of Loreto, they have begun a two-year journey to legally title more than 550,000 acres of dense rainforest—an area nearly three times the size of New York City..

For generations, these communities have been the forest’s frontline defenders. Legal recognition now gives them the power to defend their territories against illegal logging, extractive industries, and other destructive external pressures. This effort builds on RFUS’s proven land-titling model: Communities map their ancestral boundaries, strengthen their governance, and use real-time monitoring tools like Rainforest Alert to detect threats.

“This project is a historic milestone. For decades, we have protected our territories without the necessary legal backing, without legal security. Titling means securing our future, defending our forest, and keeping alive the relationship we have always had with our ancestral lands,” said Jorge Pérez Rubio, President of AIDESEP. Read more.

Indigenous Solutions to a Growing Crisis

As fires and droughts intensify in the Amazon, Indigenous communities are responding with strategies rooted in ancestral knowledge and collective action from their territories. Delegations from over eight Indigenous peoples gathered in Moyobamba, northern Peru, to exchange experiences and co-create adaptation strategies to address the growing impacts of climate change on their lands and livelihoods.

“For us, exchanging knowledge among different communities and Indigenous peoples is essential. Each community has their own perspective, way of thinking, and way of living. By sharing and communicating, we can prevent large-scale damage from fires and droughts.” – Francisco Hernández Cayetano, President of the Federation of Ticuna and Yahuas Communities of Bajo Amazonas (FECOTYBA)

The gathering, organized by RFUS’s partner AIDESEP, brought together Indigenous women leaders, technical experts, and territorial organizations. Conversations focused on: preventing and controlling fires, strengthening territorial governance, advancing Indigenous-led economies, and securing direct access to climate finance. The result was a concrete step forward—a draft National Strategy for Indigenous Adaptation to Fires, Droughts, and the Climate Crisis.

RFUS supports this work by strengthening territorial monitoring and direct funding systems. Through our Rainforest Alert program, Indigenous forest patrollers receive training and tools to detect threats and now respond to climate emergencies like fires. RFUS also helps strengthen organizational capacity, helping partners access and manage climate finance on their own terms. Read more.