With ICI support, Maglin Reonela Alvarado Vargas — a young Yine woman from the native community of Monte Salvado in the Peruvian Amazon and ICI Fellow — made history as the first Yine woman to participate in the Minamata Convention COP-6, held in Geneva in November 2025. Traveling with her baby, she represented FENAMAD and presented their Indigenous mercury monitoring program at a historic COP that adopted 22 decisions, including strengthened measures to reduce mercury use in artisanal and small-scale gold mining — the very activity contaminating the rivers and food sources of her community in Madre de Dios. Indigenous Peoples' engagement at COP-6 also reached new levels, with a new decision recognizing Indigenous rights in the Convention's framework. Maglin's presence, made possible by ICI, ensured that the voices of those most affected were part of shaping those outcomes.

The 2025 IUCN World Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi marked a historic moment for Indigenous leadership in global conservation, with the inaugural World Summit of Indigenous Peoples and Nature placing Indigenous governance at the center of the world's largest conservation forum. ICI leaders were part of this defining moment, contributing to a Congress that adopted a landmark 20-year Strategic Vision and the Abu Dhabi Call to Action — both of which explicitly prioritized Indigenous rights, equity, and community-led conservation as non-negotiable foundations for nature action through 2045.

At COP16 in Cali, Colombia, 23,000 participants from 196 countries gathered to advance the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). ICI showcased Indigenous-led, rights-based approaches through six side events, co-hosting the official Nature-Culture Summit, and engaging in targeted advocacy with policymakers. Indigenous Peoples’ leadership through the IIFB was instrumental in securing a historic outcome: the establishment of a permanent Subsidiary Body on Article 8(j). Article 8(j) enshrines Indigenous participation and traditional knowledge in CBD decision-making. ICI’s engagement demonstrated how inclusive, community-driven action can operationalize the GBF, particularly Target 3, ensuring equitable and effective conservation by 2030.

Indigenous leaders working on initiatives within ICI continued to amplify traditional knowledge and IP and LC territorial rights at the upcoming UNFCCC COP 28, hosted in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, particularly as they relate to the Global Stocktake and how its outcomes may inform a strong rights-based approach to the L&D Facility.

The continuous engagement of IP and LC voices in technical meetings of the CBD have been an important part of the work moving forward with specific focus on SBSTTA, Article 8J, Target 3 and resource mobilization.

Sharing ICI experiences to-date, the ICI Global Steering Committee attended the 7th GEF that took place August 22-26 in Vancouver, Canada and advocated for more direct IP and LC financing, including through the establishment of the new Global Biodiversity Framework Fund.

Sharing ICI experiences to-date, the ICI Global Steering Committee attended the 7th GEF that took place August 22-26 in Vancouver, Canada and advocated for more direct IP and LC financing, including through the establishment of the new Global Biodiversity Framework Fund.

In 2022, ICI began its global engagement via the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (COP) 27 in Sharm-el-Sheik, Egypt, and the Kunming-Montreal UN Convention on Biological Diversity (UNCBD) COP 15. Each forum was crucial for raising awareness about ICI and to influence global climate and biodiversity policy decisions.

During UNFCCC COP 27, ICI supported and hosted over 10 events that uplifted Indigenous leadership in advancing nature-based solutions that are meaningful, harness the experience of IPs and LCs, and do not present false solutions or a reliance on monetizing climate mitigation. Indigenous ICI leaders called for progress and accountability on the COP 26 pledge of USD$ 1.7 billion in funding to IPs and LCs – of which an estimated 7% had reached them from 2021 to 2022 – and called for increased scaled investments into inclusive finance mechanisms such as ICI and to make progress on facilitating direct climate and conservation financing to IPs and LCs.

Indigenous women are powerful advocates for Mother Nature and are often at the forefront of climate action in their communities but are not guaranteed effective and full participation in international decision-making on climate. Recent studies show that of climate funds intended for Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities, only 17% reaches them – and Indigenous women are the most left behind, receiving 5% of funding (Grist, 2022). IUCN launched the Indigenous Women’s Insights – Stewarding the Earth initiative in 2021 as a communications campaign designed to advance the visibility of IPO messages in global conservation policy. In 2022, IUCN adapted the campaign to support Indigenous women and girls’ climate-leadership and reduce barriers to their full participation by supporting six Indigenous women leaders, three mentors and three mentees – including from the ICI subprojects at UNFCCC COP 27 in Sharm-el-Sheik. 

In December 2022, the globe gathered in Montreal for the Kunming Biodiversity Conference (CBD COP 15) to decide upon the final text of the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). ICI leaders from Chile, DR Congo, Kenya, Panama, and Tanzania engaged in dialogues to make the case for an inclusive GBF that incorporates a human-rights based approach to conservation to ensure agreements and targets adequately consider the ways policies can unfold in reality.

From sharing how exclusionary protected area practices can affect Indigenous rights and livelihoods and result in forced removals of Indigenous Peoples, to sharing how hydroelectric dams can negatively impact Indigenous communities, ICI leaders emphasized that a human-rights based approach to global 30×30 targets requires the inclusion of IPs and LCs, and not their exclusion or expulsion.

Leaders also advocated for traditional knowledge as a foundation of inclusive conservation as a part of the GBF, and urged the GBF to ensure human-rights approaches are integrated into its financing. Together, they called on policymakers to reimagine how finance and the ways in which conservation results are measured contribute to the upholding and advancement of IP and LC rights, working with diverse stakeholders from across global policy, finance mechanisms, the private sector, and others to lay out a roadmap for translating pledges, commitments, and human rights integration into the GBF. In Montreal, Indigenous leaders also collaborated with the GEF to officially launch ICI in the global arena, inviting other funders to adapt or innovate models for increased inclusive or direct financing to IPs and LCs to tackle the concurrent climate and biodiversity crises.