Community Funds In The Brazilian Amazon: New Tools to Defend Rights and Combat Climate Change

In recent decades, movements for Indigenous Peoples, other peoples and traditional communities in the Brazilian
Amazon have become stronger. The creation and consolidation of new organizations has been accompanied by the emergence of a new generation of leaders, including women and young people with university training. These new leaders, who combine the traditional knowledge of their peoples with academic training, have driven a process of autonomous institutional development, which has transformed them into local, regional, national and even global actors. Indigenous Peoples’ movements, and those of other traditional communities, have begun to establish new types of organizations to both manage financial resources and channel funds directly. This presents a new alternative for international funds and philanthropic organizations, a way to reach local communities that is more effective, efficient and participatory.