Biography
Josimara Baré, an Indigenous woman of the Baré people from the Upper Rio Negro region in the Brazilian Amazon, has become one of the most credible voices arguing that climate money should go directly to the communities protecting the forest. Her work addresses a major contradiction: although Indigenous Peoples are at the forefront of forest protection and climate action, they have historically remained far removed from the resources needed to strengthen their territories, ways of life, and their own solutions to the climate crisis.
Josimara was born in São Gabriel da Cachoeira, one of the municipalities with the strongest Indigenous presence in Brazil. “I grew up immersed in the dark waters of the Rio Negro and surrounded by the towering forests of the Brazilian Amazon,” she recalls. “Long before I understood the words ‘climate,’ ‘conservation,’ or ‘environmental policy,’ I already had a deep relationship with nature, which is an extension of who we are.”
As a young woman, she had to move to a “big city” to study. It was a challenging and disorienting transition. “Many times, I had to hide my origins,” she says, “because being Indigenous outside the territory could be dangerous, a source of shame, or a reason for discrimination.” After graduating from university, she returned home. That return became a source of purpose as she began to see her role as a bridge between the world of her territory and the world beyond it, “without letting one erase the other.”
In 2021, Josimara began working directly with Indigenous organizations and funds, as well as funding mechanisms created by and for Indigenous Peoples. She supported the implementation and operational consolidation of the Rio Negro Indigenous Fund (FIRN), an initiative of the Federation of Indigenous Organizations of Rio Negro (FOIRN) serving Indigenous associations across the Lower, Middle, and Upper Rio Negro. She helped strengthen FIRN as a mechanism for supporting locally led Indigenous initiatives.
In 2024, Josimara coordinated the process to structure and implement the Rutî Indigenous Fund, an initiative created by the Indigenous Council of Roraima (CIR), one of Brazil’s oldest and most prominent Indigenous organizations. Within its first two years, the Fund invested millions of reais (Brazil’s currency) across dozens of projects led by Indigenous communities in Roraima.
Through her engagement in international forums, Josimara observed that many funders remained resistant to providing funding directly to Indigenous organizations. This constraint reduced the ability of those organizations to implement their own priorities. The problem, therefore, was not only a shortage of funds but also the barriers preventing direct access. Her own experience with these two Indigenous Funds demonstrates that these organizations are fully capable of managing their own resources, provided that financing systems recognize, respect, and strengthen their own forms of governance.
“Great warriors are given great battles. It has never been easy!” Josimara says, recalling the guidance from her leaders. “In the most difficult moments, that advice taught me not to give up because my struggle is not mine alone. It comes from my ancestors, my people, and the generations to come who look to us for the courage to open new paths.”
Breakthrough program
Josimara Baré was selected for the Climate Breakthrough Award program in 2026.
For millennia, Indigenous Peoples and traditional communities have been stewards of the ecosystems on which the climate depends. More than one-third of the world’s remaining intact forests sit on Indigenous Peoples’ lands, and evidence shows that supporting Indigenous Peoples and traditional communities is powerful climate action. Yet less than 5 percent of multilateral climate funding reaches Indigenous Peoples and traditional communities directly. The people protecting these ecosystems receive the smallest share of the resources meant to support them.
The obstacle, argues Josimara, lies in the way the entire climate finance system is structured. Much of the funding moves through structures that are, in her words, “far removed from the territories, with rules, language, timelines, and requirements that often fail to reflect Indigenous realities.” Conventional funding models are not aligned with how Indigenous communities operate, and excessive bureaucracy blunts the impact of what little does reach them.
Drawing on her experience, Josimara understands both sides—the language and expectations of funders, as well as the rhythms, priorities, and governance of Indigenous territories. Her ability to navigate both contexts is the foundation for what she intends to build through the Climate Breakthrough Award program.
Josimara aims to convene and engage various stakeholders across this agenda to create an intercultural infrastructure for what she calls “Direct Funding.” It’s a coordinated effort to transform how money reaches Indigenous Peoples and traditional communities, engaging territorial funds and organizations alongside the funders themselves. The project design has five parts: 1) assessing the current landscape, including the mechanisms and challenges involved in direct funding; 2) developing co-governed platforms for territorial data and evidence; 3) strengthening and mentoring for Indigenous organizations and funds; 4) creating Bem Viver (or “living well”) indicators; and 5) building a living repository of good practices to help change funders’ rules and practices.
While this initiative builds on existing networks and projects, its unique contribution is to pair the strengthening of territorial mechanisms with strategies to influence funding institutions’ rules, instruments, contracts, indicators, and practices. The goal is to make self-determination, financial autonomy, and Indigenous governance operational realities within the climate finance architecture.
More funding reaching communities with fewer obstacles means stronger territorial stewardship. In Josimara’s view, this creates a virtuous cycle: supporting the peoples and communities who protect the forest means safeguarding the forest itself.
“Success for this initiative means that we will be able to put our motto into practice: ‘We are the answer,’” says Josimara. “Indigenous territories are not empty spaces or merely conservation areas, but places of life, science, spirituality, protection, and the future.”
