REDD+ Matavén at CFA Institute: Carbon Finance and Indigenous Governance
We continue to bring Matavén’s work to new international audiences. In a session with the CFA Institute Sustainable Investing Community, we shared how Indigenous leadership and carbon finance help protect forests, conserve biodiversity, and strengthen community well-being.
The voice of Matavén opened the conversation. Speaking in his Sikuani language, Oswaldo Rincón, legal representative of ACATISEMA, the Association of Indigenous Councils and Traditional Authorities of the Matavén Forest, welcomed participants. His greeting brought an international audience closer to the communities’ experience and their connection to their territory. Since 2013, carbon finance through the REDD+ Matavén Project has helped strengthen these protection efforts, which cover more than one million hectares of forest in Colombia.
Held on September 29, the session drew 250 registrants and 75 live attendees. We shared this experience with the Sustainable Investing Community of CFA Institute, a global organization of investment professionals. This community facilitates knowledge exchange on finance, climate, and environmental, social, and governance issues.
One of the central messages was how Indigenous governance and carbon finance work together to sustain long-term conservation. The communities of Matavén are co-developers and co-proponents of the Project and have been involved at every stage. Free, prior, and informed consent is an essential foundation of this process, alongside active and ongoing participation in decision-making, resource allocation, and the implementation of activities and programs. This sustained leadership has been fundamental to the project’s continuity.
During the conversation, Oswaldo offered a firsthand response to a question about how Indigenous governance is put into practice through the project. His contribution also helped explain why protecting the forest is vital to the communities: it is their home, their source of food, and the source of knowledge that guides their relationship with their territory. Caring for the forest is part of their worldview and of the teachings that elders pass on to children. Conserving it means caring for life today and for generations to come.
From this perspective, we shared how carbon finance supports existing Indigenous governance structures and strengthens communities’ capacity to protect their territory over the long term. In REDD+ Matavén, around 90% of revenue is reinvested directly in project activities and programs, supporting conservation and the well-being of the territory and its people.
Sharing this experience in international forums raises awareness of the work taking place in Matavén and brings a perspective rooted in the territory to discussions on sustainable finance: financing contributes to lasting conservation when it supports the leadership and decisions of those who live in and protect the forest.