Vision and Values

The overarching goal of the Forum is to elevate and enforce the rights of Indigenous Peoples and / or local communities within the VCM led by their interests, values, principles and vision.  

A strategic plan is being developed by the Forum and is expected to be published by the end of Q2 2025. 

In its second meeting on September 4^th, 2024, the Forum agreed its priority areas with the goal of producing a series of recommendations both to ICVCM and the voluntary carbon market. These priority areas include: 

• Defining capacity building needs – to enable the Forum, itself and / or through partners, to develop materials and tools to support Indigenous Peoples and local communities to engage with the market as partners. 

• Defining best practice in grievance mechanisms – to allow redress where projects fail to meet their obligations. 

• Defining best practice in benefit distribution – ensuring that financial and other benefits are shared equitably and transparently. 

• Respecting and empowering Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Customary Laws – with an aim to encourage Indigenous entrepreneurs to bring new carbon crediting methodologies to market and to require external project developers to respect traditional knowledges and governance systems which are known to protect carbon and biodiversity. 

• Removing barriers to market engagement – to support the above ambition to enable as many entrepreneurs from Indigenous Peoples and local communities to enter the market as possible. 

The secretariat also seeks to ensure the Forum’s insights and inputs are integrated into the continuous improvement work of the Integrity Council in its ongoing drive towards a high integrity voluntary carbon market. The Forum also provides input into the Integrity Council’s assessment processes.