For over three decades, the world’s highest decision-makers have gathered under the United Nations climate process to negotiate commitments intended to safeguard ecosystems, reduce emissions, and respond to the accelerating climate crisis. Each year at the UN Climate Change Conferences (COPs), governments shape policies that affect our futures across the globe. The reality is that despite our best efforts, our worldviews are often left out of the final agreements that shape climate policy.

Over the last 30 years of this process, Indigenous Peoples have been involved through our designated constituency:  Indigenous Peoples Organizations (IPOs), often fighting for basic inclusion of IPs. The process has expanded but power within it has not meaningfully shifted. Indigenous Peoples protect some of the world’s most biodiverse and ecologically vital territories, but Indigenous youth remain significantly underrepresented in the rooms where these global decisions are negotiated.

Re-Earth Initiative is proud to launch our Climate Policy Fellowship for Indigenous Youth. A year-long capacity-building and policy engagement program designed to support Indigenous youth in meaningfully engaging in international climate negotiations under the UNFCCC. 

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“Climate governance cannot claim legitimacy while excluding those who safeguard the world’s most critical ecosystems. The REI Climate Policy Fellowship for Indigenous Youth is about redistributing access, strengthening policy capacity, and supporting sustained Indigenous youth leadership within multilateral climate processes.”
Sofia Luna Quispe (Quechua, Peru)
Policy Lead at Re-Earth Initiative 

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The Structural Gap in Climate Governance

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International climate negotiations are highly technical, resource-intensive, and politically complex. For Indigenous youth, barriers to engagement include the high financial costs for participation as well as limited access to technical policy training for understanding complex negotiation language and procedures. The REI Climate Policy Fellowship seeks to respond directly to this access gap.

The Fellowship is designed as a 10-month program running from March to December 2026. The inaugural cohort will include four Indigenous youth fellows from across the seven sociocultural regions. 

Each fellow will be assigned one of four negotiation tracks to follow throughout the program: 

• Mitigation
• Article 6 and False Solutions
• Adaptation and Loss and Damage
• Climate Finance

As a part of the program, fellows will receive:

• High-level training through partner-led modules and peer learning spaces. 
• Support to engage in SB 64 (June 2026, Bonn) and COP 31 (November 2026, Antalya). (In person participation is not guaranteed and is subject to engagement and fundraising efforts). 
• Logistical coordination before, during, and after conference engagements.
• A stipend of $1,500 USD, disbursed quarterly and in line with program responsibilities.

Fellows are expected to engage in movement coordination spaces, participate in public communications and media efforts (where appropriate), as well as actively contribute to the production of briefs, policy analysis, and other materials prior and after the conferences. 

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A Long-Term Commitment

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"Indigenous Knowledge is vital in climate policy. Without the wisdom of the people who know the land best, we will keep on replicating the same extractivist tactics that harm our communities time and time again"
Xiye Bastida, Otomí-Toltec
Co-Founder and Executive Director at Re-Earth Initiative 

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The REI Climate Policy Fellowship reflects Re-Earth Initiative’s broader commitment to democratizing climate policy spaces and investing in diverse youth leadership that is politically grounded and community-rooted.

We believe that meaningful transformation of global climate governance requires shifting who holds knowledge, who shapes negotiations, and who has sustained access to these spaces.

By supporting Indigenous youth policy leadership, we hope to contribute to a future in which climate negotiations are more representative, more accountable, and more aligned with frontline realities.

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Applications Open on March 2nd, 2026

Applications for the 2026 cohort are NOW OPEN and will be reviewed on a rolling basis until March 16th. 

• The Fellowship is open to Indigenous youth aged 18-30 (at the time of applying) who demonstrate meaningful connection and accountability to their People, Nation, or community.
  Indigenous identity is understood through self-identification and community belonging, no formal documentation is required.
• Applicants will be asked to share their experience in climate justice, Indigenous rights, territorial defense, or related work as well as their motivation for engaging in international climate negotiations. 
• Candidates will need to indicate their preferred negotiation track and reflect on how their work connects to their territory.
• Selected Fellows must commit to regular virtual trainings and coordination meetings, and to participating (on-line or in-person) in SB 64 (June 2026) and COP 31 (November 2026).
• Upon completing the application form, a letter of recommendation from a community, movement, or organizational reference (maximum of two pages in PDF format) must be emailed by March 21, 2026 to sofia@reearthin.org and daniel.valdovinos@reearthin.org, as indicated in the forms.

For questions regarding eligibility or the application process please contact sofia@reearthin.org

These pages summarize hundreds of hours of work across multiple corners of the world. Our multicultural group of young people got together to build bridges of interconnectedness between our communities and the global climate movement, and every day strives to serve our current and future generations.

We continuously learn from each other, from our movement peers, and from our elders. Some of this growth is registered as the tangible results of our year 2024 in the document below. Thank you for your interest and support always!

Written by: Daniela Bobadilla, Xiye Bastida, Theresa Rose Sebastian, Sofía Luna, Gabriela Sánchez, Niklas Todt, Isabel Mejía Roberts

Design: Darsh Vatsa and Karin Watson Ferrer

Edition: Daniela Bobadilla

Spanning 670 million hectares and housing 10% of all species on Earth, the Amazon rainforest plays a crucial role in regulating the global climate, supporting biodiversity, sustaining local economies, and providing for millions of people, including numerous Indigenous communities. The Amazon is one of our planet’s most vital ecosystems but its increasingly threatened state represents an alarming symbol of the climate crisis. Massive deforestation, driven by extractive industries such as commercial logging, mining, and industrial agriculture, as well as infrastructural projects, continues to threaten the region, raising alarm bells among scientists, activists, and people who call the Amazon home.

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Why is Amazon so important?

The Amazon is the largest rainforest in the world and has a massive impact on global carbon emissions and clean air, making it an essential ecosystem for all living beings on Earth. Known as one of the world’s lungs, the Amazon produces more than 20% of the world’s oxygen by taking in carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen into the atmosphere via photosynthesis. Because of its sheer size, it is a massive carbon sink, effective at storing 1-2 billion tons of carbon annually and sequestering more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than it emits.   

The Amazon is also essential for ecological and societal functions at the local level. Millions of species, including humans, living in the rainforest rely on the natural resources at their disposal for survival as well as spiritual and cultural practices. For many Indigenous Peoples, such as the Yanomamo, the Waiapi, and the Waorani, the Amazon is their home and a part of their identities. “She [the rainforest] is also like our mother, who gives us attention, sustenance, [and] takes care of our health. We don’t need to deforest her to survive because she already gives us sustenance,” said Genilson Guajajara, an Indigenous photographer who lives in Piçarra Preta, a village in the Maranhão state of the Brazilian Amazon. They have thrived in the rainforests for millennia, producing their own agricultural products, clothes, and even medicine. It is also a reciprocal relationship—studies have found that Indigenous-managed lands support more threatened vertebrate species and have higher biodiversity levels than existing protected or non-protected areas in Brazil.

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Magnitude and Causes of Deforestation

Deforestation threatens this equilibrium. It is estimated that the Amazon lost over 54.2 million hectares, or about 9% of its forests, between 2001 and 2020 due to deforestation. Unfortunately, the Brazilian Amazon's destruction rate increased to more than 4,600 square miles per year, nearly double the amount in 2012. 

Human extractive use is the leading cause of Amazonian deforestation, motivated by commercial cattle ranching, soy production, and gold mining—both legally and illegally. Deforestation occurs when trees are cut down by logging or intentional burning to clear land for extractive uses. Infrastructure also plays an important role in promoting further deforestation, by stimulating “disorderly occupation” of the land and placing pressure on Indigenous Territories (ITs) and Protected Natural Areas (PNAs) in the Amazon; roads allow the transportation and outflow of Amazonian merchandise (ie. lumber, agricultural products) to easily leave the land. This also incentivizes land grabbing, which is the invasion of ITs and PNAs by using forged documents certifying possession and other intimidation tactics to force Indigenous communities to give up their land.

The Consequences of Deforestation

Cutting down forests releases huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere that have been trapped in trees and soil for years. Fires used to clear forest can also emit additional carbon dioxide besides the amount from removing the actual trees. The resulting tree loss leads to a decreasing level of carbon dioxide absorption in the Amazon, minimizing its effectiveness at acting as a carbon sink. Researchers have found that the Amazon may only be “absorbing half as much carbon dioxide as it did 20 years ago” due to deforestation.

Additionally, this loss in vegetation can negatively affect water cycles and trigger a cycle of desertification at the regional and global levels, causing a decrease in transpiration and evaporation of rainfall. A 2014 study found that widespread destruction of the Amazon can cause less rain and snowpack in certain parts of North America, among other continents.

Indigenous Land Rights As a Solution to Deforestation

Indigenous communities have good reason to protect the Amazon and they possess a potential solution to prevent further destruction if they have the legal rights to manage and live in the land. A report from the World Resource Institute found that deforestation in Indigenous community forests was less than 1%, compared to 7% outside them from 2000 to 2012, leading to more stored carbon per hectare than other areas of the Brazilian Amazon. 

Currently, the Brazilian Constitution recognizes Indigenous Peoples’ “sociopolitical and original right to land” and guarantees they have access to “the lands they traditionally occupy” upon the Union’s demarcation of these territories. Per Article 231 of the Constitution, Indigenous communities are not granted full property rights to their territories unless they go through a legal process called demarcation. This process ensures that third parties cannot contest Indigenous land rights, and extractive activities cannot be done within the land without approval from the Indigenous communities and the National Congress of Brazil. A study found that territories with full property rights show a significant decrease in deforestation, especially from illegal activities.

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Barriers to Indigenous Land Rights

Legal protections for Indigenous land rights exist on paper, but enforcement often falls short in practice. Despite their role in conserving one of Earth’s most essential ecosystems, Indigenous communities have faced threats of displacement for years as deforestation has increased by 129% inside ITs from 2013 to 2021. This is often due to weakened legal protections from the government, as a result of changing political leaders that reverse pre-existing environmental regulations and weaken policies that protect Indigenous land rights. Without government support, Indigenous communities have taken to patrolling their land against land grabbers, often leading to violent conflicts and further vulnerability to threats of degradation of their home and livelihood. These communities’ way of living—and thus, their commitment to managing and protecting the Amazon—will be compromised without substantial political backing from the countries where the Amazon resides and from international support.  

However, political action must be based on the knowledge of Indigenous communities to create effective and meaningful results. The halting of deforestation in the Amazon is more than a climate change dilemma; it is also a dilemma that determines the survival of their people and culture. “When you destroy [...] this forest, you also destroy the life of the people who depend on it,” said Guajajara. They will continue the fight because their lives depend on it—and so must we.

‍About the author:

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Esther Duong (she/her) is a Vietnamese-American storyteller and activist from the Bay Area, California, USA. She has an interest in environmental policy and environmental justice issues within conservation and urban planning. She’s been involved in city and regional advocacy for five years and has experience in youth-led grassroot lobbying and environmental science education. She received a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Policy Analysis and Planning at UC Davis, with a minor in Landscape Restoration.

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¹ Zanon, S. (2023). Deforestation in the Amazon: past, present and future. (M. Rinaldi, Trans.). InfoAmazonia.

² Baragwanath, K. & Bayi, E. (2020). Collective property rights reduce deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 117 (34) 20495-20502, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1917874117

³ Adams, E. et al. (2020). Deforestation Hits Home: Indigenous Communities Fight for the Future of Their Amazon. Center for Strategic & International Studies Journalism.

⁴ Adams, E. et al. (2020). Deforestation Hits Home: Indigenous Communities Fight for the Future of Their Amazon. Center for Strategic & International Studies Journalism.

⁵ Ibid

⁶ Zanon, S. (2023). Deforestation in the Amazon: past, present and future. (M. Rinaldi, Trans.). InfoAmazonia.

⁷ Adams, E. et al. (2020). Deforestation Hits Home: Indigenous Communities Fight for the Future of Their Amazon. Center for Strategic & International Studies Journalism.

⁸ Zanon, S. (2023). Deforestation in the Amazon: past, present and future. (M. Rinaldi, Trans.). InfoAmazonia.

⁹ Wegrowski, B (2019). Deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest. Ballard Brief.

¹⁰ Ibid

¹¹ Ibid

¹² Baragwanath, K. & Bayi, E. (2020). Collective property rights reduce deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 117 (34) 20495-20502, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1917874117

¹³ Ibid

¹⁴ Silva-Junior, C.H.L., Silva, F.B., Arisi, B.M. et al. (2023). Brazilian Amazon indigenous territories under deforestation pressure. Sci Rep 13, 5851. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-32746-7