Rockefeller Foundation invests in nature to support indigenous peoples and rainforest communities at COP29
As part of “Nature and Biodiversity / Indigenous People / Gender Equality / Oceans and Coastal Zones Day” at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Baku, Azerbaijan (COP29), The Rockefeller Foundation announced a $500,000 grant to Health In Harmony (HIH).
HIH is a global climate nonprofit that collaborates with Indigenous Peoples and local communities to scale investments and implement their environmental solutions in Indonesia, Panama, Brazil, Madagascar, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in 2025.
With funding from The Rockefeller Foundation, the organization will strengthen the link between environmental conservation and human health by partnering with rainforest communities in the Brazilian Amazon and investing directly in their solutions.
Less than 1% of global climate finance annually goes directly to Indigenous peoples and local communities, despite Indigenous communities being a critical steward of the land globally and their solutions are central to avoiding rainforest deforestation. This grant is a part of The Rockefeller Foundation’s broader effort to mobilize private sector resources for people-centered climate solutions, including mainstreaming investment in nature, with a focus on nature dependencies and frontline communities.
“Indigenous solutions provide unparalleled benefits for carbon and biodiversity protection, yet current nature-based tools often disregard their rights and self-determination, offering little to no direct benefits to these communities. Despite their critical role, they are extremely underfunded,” said Ashley Emerson, co-CEO of Business & Scale at Health In Harmony. “This is a missed opportunity to develop new financing models that amplify community-driven solutions – supporting planetary health, Indigenous self-determination, and nature-positive outcomes. We must actively listen and invest in their solutions.”
HIH collaborates with local partners throughout the tropics to reverse deforestation, aiming to combat the global climate and nature crises. Reciprocity-based investments in Indigenous Peoples, Afro Descendent, and local communities’ self-designed systems and solutions can reverse the loss of tropical rainforests. The Rockefeller Foundation’s grant will support market infrastructure to drive adoption, accountability, and integrity of climate and nature solutions in the Brazilian Amazon. In addition, HIH is advancing carbon and biodiversity monitoring – critical areas that remain underfunded and hampered by a lack of robust tools, data, and community-led solutions, in collaboration with Woodwell Climate Research Center, Pawanka Fund, and WildMon.
“Nature’s health determines people’s health – and the quality of the food we eat, the jobs we have, the economies that shape our well-being, and so much more,” said Maria Kozloski, Senior Vice President of Innovative Finance at The Rockefeller Foundation. “The Rockefeller Foundation is investing in nature to help protect and preserve ecosystems while accelerating a green transition that centers people and communities. We are excited that Health In Harmony is helping drive the adoption of climate and nature solutions and increasing capital flows to underinvested areas.”
Nature-based solutions with safeguards are estimated to provide 37% of climate change mitigation until 2030 needed to meet the goal of keeping climate warming below 2°C, with likely co-benefits for biodiversity, according to the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).
