Equitable and direct conservation and climate finance to frontline communities.
A flexible funding mechanism designed to channel flexible, climate and conservation finance directly to Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities across Indonesia, and strengthens their capacity to lead, manage, and sustain their own solutions.
Less than 1% of global climate finance reaches frontline communities directly.
The CGF aims to change that, by drivingdirect, flexible finance to frontline communities,the people most connected to the landscapes they protect.
Built on Planet Indonesia's decade of trust-based partnerships across West Kalimantan, Borneo, it strengthens community governance and capacity so communities can lead their own solutions for natural resource stewardship, climate resilience, and lasting wellbeing.
Direct funding access for frontline communities to invest in community-determined solutions
with
Tailored support to strengthen project management and governance capacity.
This dual approach ensures financing reaches the right places and builds financial and project management capacity at the frontlines. By focusing on long-term support, the fund reduces the risks often associated with short-term project funding.
Communities can implement their own, context-specific solutions.
Four grant tiers, matched to governance level
The Governance Index
Funding options are linked to Planet Indonesia’s Governance Index, a participatory evaluation tool that consists of a set of indicators used to assess the organizational capacity of partnering Community-led Governance Bodies in areas such as accountability, inclusiveness, and effectiveness.
The index categorizes community organizations into four governance levels - from Basic to Independent. This classification enables the CGF to tailor grant size, flexibility, and technical support to each partner’s capacity.
Startup
Governance Level: Basic
Funding Level: $1,000 to $3,000
Designed to provide small-scale seed funding for new initiatives led by local communities.
Development
Governance Level: Intermediate
Funding Level: $3,000 to $6,000
Targets communities that have moved into the development phase of their governance effectiveness.
Growth
Governance Level: Advanced
Funding Level: $6,000 to $9,000
For established program activities that are demonstrating significant potential.
Independence
Governance Level: Independent
Funding Level: $10,000 to $15,000
Provides larger-scale funding to enable mature projects to achieve long-term sustainability and independence.
The CGF is intentionally designed as a stepping stone toward financial independence, not an end point. For many recipients, the fund acts as a first entry point into direct finance, helping build the credibility, systems, and track record needed to later access new and diverse sources of funding, including government schemes, corporate social funds, and international climate finance mechanisms.
Short term
Partner institutions pursue self-defined priorities with flexible, low-barrier grants.
Medium term
Communtiy Governance Bodies grow, becoming less reliant on program support and able to access diverse funding sources.
Long term
Contributes to global direct-financing efforts, enhancing IPLC funding absorption capacity and generating practice-based models for equitable, community-led conservation finance.
See the impact
These figures reflect the fund’s footprint in the 2021–2023 cycles. The current 2025–2026 cycle is active and covers 46 community governance bodies and their solutions.
Deforestation threatens a clean water supply and the communities most vulnerable are facing sanitation issues. A solution was devised to solve both issues simultaneously.
Turning approved plans into action: strengthening institutional governance, formalising community resource agreements, and growing sustainable livelihoods. Building a village forest institution founded on genuine…
Securing these funds is essential to honour our long-term commitment to partner communities. Real change requires multi-year accompaniment, not short project cycles, so that governance bodies can plan, adapt, and grow with the steady support they were promised.
The term ‘integrated landscape initiative’ (ILI) has gained popularity as an ‘umbrella concept’ that describes projects that aim to explicitly improve food production, biodiversity conservation, and rural livelihoods on a landscape scale.
It describes approaches that consider the entire landscape, including its environmental, social, and economic aspects, by bringing together diverse stakeholders to manage land use in a way that balances competing needs, aiming for sustainable outcomes across the whole system, rather than focusing on isolated issues within the landscape.
