We build the capacity Indigenous Peoples, forest communities, and coastal communities need to secure their land, protect their ecosystems, and shape their own future — on their own terms.
Forests generate enormous value — carbon sequestration, biodiversity, clean water, timber, and productive livelihoods. But none of that value reaches the communities who steward them until two things are in place.
Without documented land rights — a CADT, a CBFMA, a clear title — communities have no legal standing to negotiate, no seat at the table, and no protection against those who would take the value without asking.
Once the land is titled, communities need the capacity to understand and claim the rights that come with it — carbon rights, biodiversity credits, water payments, timber permits, and benefit-sharing agreements written in their favor.
With land and rights secured, forests become a source of durable, diversified income — not a one-time transaction, but a generational asset that pays communities for what they've always done: protecting the land.
Verified sequestration and avoided deforestation credits under Verra, Gold Standard, and emerging Article 6 frameworks
Measurable habitat protection, species conservation, and biodiversity credits for the Philippines' megadiverse ecosystems
Watershed protection, payment for ecosystem services, and clean water provision for downstream communities and cities
Solar and wind potential assessment on community lands — energy transition infrastructure that respects indigenous rights
Cocoa, coffee, bamboo, and timber under integrated canopy systems that generate income while sequestering carbon
"A forest that pays its community is a forest that stands forever."
The most resilient forest economies don't choose between conservation and production. They integrate shade-grown crops, sustainable timber, and carbon sequestration into a single productive landscape — generating diversified, year-round income while maintaining forest cover.
Philippine cacao — particularly from Davao, Bukidnon, and Mindoro — commands premium prices in the growing single-origin craft chocolate market. Shade-grown under native forest canopy, cacao agroforestry sequesters 2-4x more carbon than open-sun monoculture while producing higher-quality beans. We assess community lands for cacao suitability, connect growers to ethical buyers, and integrate carbon value into the farm economics.
The Cordillera's arabica and the lowland liberica and robusta varieties are gaining international recognition. Coffee agroforestry stabilizes slopes, protects watersheds, and provides shade-dependent habitat for endemic species. Our feasibility assessments evaluate altitude, microclimate, soil, and market access to identify where specialty coffee under forest canopy can generate the highest combined value — harvest revenue plus carbon credits plus watershed payments.
With one of the fastest growth rates of any plant on earth, bamboo sequesters carbon rapidly while producing construction material, activated charcoal, textiles, and bioenergy feedstock. Philippine bamboo species are suitable for plantation-scale agroforestry on DENR lands and ancestral domains. We evaluate sites for bamboo potential alongside carbon credit feasibility — helping communities and developers build bankable bamboo-carbon projects at 1,000+ hectare scale.
The Philippines holds 256,000 hectares of mangrove forest — ecosystems that sequester carbon at 3-5x the rate of terrestrial forests while protecting coastlines from typhoons and storm surge. Coastal communities and fisherfolk who steward these mangroves deserve the same capacity support as upland forest communities: documented rights, organizational strength, and access to blue carbon markets and coastal resilience finance.
Community-managed forests, pristine coastlines, and indigenous cultural heritage are powerful tourism assets — when communities control the narrative and the revenue. We help communities develop ecotourism plans that complement conservation, generate sustainable income, and ensure visitors contribute to the landscape rather than extracting from it. From forest trails to mangrove kayaking to cultural immersion, ecotourism turns conservation into a livelihood.
Every hectare of community land — whether upland forest, coastal mangrove, or agricultural lowland — has a unique combination of potential value: carbon, biodiversity, water, renewable energy, productive agriculture, and ecotourism. We analyze these value streams together, not in isolation, to help communities make informed decisions about their land's highest and best use.
Philippine law is, on paper, some of the most progressive indigenous rights legislation in Asia. The Indigenous Peoples' Rights Act recognizes ancestral domain, self-governance, and free, prior and informed consent. Communities are meant to hold the pen on decisions about their own land.
But recognition without capacity is an empty promise. Titling takes decades. Organizations lack the legal and financial infrastructure to hold and steward capital. And as carbon markets and climate finance flow toward forested landscapes, the very communities who protected those forests for generations risk being priced out of deals made in their name.
Philippine law does not clearly define carbon rights or ownership. Into that vacuum have stepped opportunistic brokers offering communities lopsided deals — in one documented case, a community received just 10% of project revenue. Meanwhile, FPIC processes routinely take two or more years to complete, and over 55% of monitored land-rights violations in the region involved a failure of free, prior and informed consent. Communities need more than good intentions from outside actors — they need their own capacity to evaluate, negotiate, and say no.
Inclusive Forests works across three interlocking pillars — because land rights, organizational capacity, and access to capital are not separate problems. They are the same problem, seen at different stages.
The foundation of everything else: clear, documented, defensible rights to ancestral territory.
Governance and financial infrastructure that lets a community act as a credible institutional partner.
Rigorous, community-owned assessments that make land-based livelihoods legible to investors — on fair terms.
A structured, community-led pathway — every step designed to hand the community more leverage than they had before, not less.
Understand the community's land status, governance readiness, and priorities directly from its members.
Support CADT/CBFMA processing, mapping, and legal recognition of territorial rights.
Formalize governance, financial systems, and decision-making structures the community controls.
Independent carbon, biodiversity, and agroforestry assessments owned by the community, not the buyer.
Negotiate from strength with investors, buyers, and development finance institutions.
“We don't develop projects on community land. We build communities' capacity to develop their own.”
These forests have been stewarded for generations. The next generation deserves a seat at the table — with the knowledge, the legal standing, and the financial literacy to negotiate their own future.
Inclusive Forests is a new organization. These figures describe the context we work within — the scale of the opportunity, and the scale of what remains undone.
Figures reflect national data on indigenous land rights and forest management in the Philippines as of recent government and civil society reporting, and describe the sector Inclusive Forests operates within — not claims of organizational impact.
Inclusive Forests works alongside — and is informed by — the broader institutional landscape shaping indigenous land rights and climate finance in the Philippines.
Climate finance too often flows around communities rather than through them. We're building the infrastructure to change that — and we need capital partners who share the conviction that durable forest protection starts with the people who already live it.
Support can flow through several channels, each suited to different partners:
The fastest-growing giving vehicle in the US, with over $400B in assets. We are positioned to receive DAF grants for capacity-building programs.
Program-aligned funding for land documentation, organizational capacity, and feasibility work.
For companies seeking credible, community-led engagement with forest carbon and sustainable sourcing.
Inclusive Forests is a registered non-profit organization.
Whether you're a funder, a development partner, or a community organization looking for support — we'd like to hear from you.