About Us
About Us
Piloting the changes needed to ‘business-as-usual’ practices to transform inclusive conservation through large-scale, longer-term direct finance to Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities
About ICI
The GEF-7 Inclusive Conservation Initiative (ICI) works in partnership with Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPs and LCs) in their continuing efforts to safeguard Earth’s natural ecosystems, recognizing the historical roles they have played in nature conservation. ICI works inclusively with IPs and LCs, their regional and local organizations, governments, NGOs, civil society, and others to further strengthen their capacity to conserve globally significant biodiversity and ecosystems.
ICI provides site-based investments in 10 geographies to prioritize Indigenous and local community organizations to take the lead in carrying out inclusive, culturally appropriate processes for decision-making and strategy development that they have defined, implementing activities within their respective territories, landscapes and/or seascapes.
The ICI Indigenous-led initiatives will generate a range of governance, tenure, sociocultural, and livelihoods benefits.
Explore ICI Geographies in Action
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![A group of people seated around a long wooden table in a rustic wooden cabin, engaged in a meeting or discussion, with some taking notes and others listening, with large windows on one side showing greenery outside in the Futa Mawiza Territory.]()
Futa Mawiza Biocultural Territory
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![Four Indigenous men from the Southwest Amazon standing behind a table at COP30 Brazil Amazon, with a green flag and cultural accessories, during the conference in Belém 2025.]()
Southwest Amazon
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![Three young Kuna girls in colorful traditional attire, dancing outdoors with huts in the background, on a sunny day.]()
Ru K'ux Abya Yala
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![Group of hikers standing outdoors in a mountainous area with snow-capped peaks in the background in the Himalayas in the Annapurna Area.]()
Annapurna Area
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![A rural landscape with sparse green trees, small huts, and people walking on dirt paths under a partly cloudy sky in Tanzania.]()
Ewaso Ng'iro River Basin
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![Two Indigenous Thai women in traditional clothing hanging photographs and papers on a string outdoors surrounded by greenery.]()
Thailand
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![A traditional Fijian wooden sailboat with a large red sail floating on the ocean, with a blue sky and distant land in the background.]()
Fiji Lau Seascape and Cook Islands
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![Two Indigenous Tanzanian women in traditional colorful tribal clothing, one standing and one sitting, on a rocky ledge overlooking a landscape of hills and forests.]()
Northern Tanzania
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![A person's hands holding a bunch of black or dark purple berries, with a background of leaves and forest floor in the DRC.]()
DR Congo
About the ICI Team
The ICI team is a global community of Indigenous organizations working together with the GEF, Conservation International, and IUCN to pilot inclusive large-scale and longer term conservation finance.
Contact us
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