UNDP launches platform to connect private investors with Indigenous forest protectors

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) launched Forest Guardians Invest to connect private companies and philanthropies directly with Indigenous-led conservation projects.

This new platform addresses a structural gap where Indigenous Peoples, who manage about one third of the world’s tropical forests, often receive limited financial support or political recognition for their stewardship. The platform creates a direct financial pathway by removing layers of intermediaries between investors and communities.

It focuses on projects that support the bioeconomy while ensuring all agreements comply with human rights protections and environmental, social, and governance standards. The system monitors investments to confirm that they produce the specific environmental and economic results agreed upon by both the funders and the communities. Forest Guardians Invest also builds a pipeline of bankable projects to help investors see opportunities beyond small pilot programs.

The model relies on free, prior, and informed consent to ensure Indigenous communities keep decision-making power over their territories. One early example includes a partnership between the UNDP and the coffee company Lavazza to market deforestation-free coffee from Ecuador. The initiative aims to support work similar to that of the Forest Warriors, a group of Guajajara women in the Maranhão state of Brazil.

These women currently patrol more than 172,000 hectares of the Caru Indigenous Land to fight wildfires and illegal logging. By connecting such communities to reliable funding, the platform seeks to treat forest conservation as a service that compensates local people directly.