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We work to achieve fair and representative participation for Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs) in decision-making that impacts them, to ensure their perspectives are heard and their rights are respected.
At the source of every international supply chain are Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities, or IPLCs, who are the most impacted by company practices.
At Earthworm, we believe that development can have a powerful impact on Indigenous peoples and local communities. That's why we're dedicated to ensuring that these impacts are positive, by always respecting the rights of these communities. With this approach, we support Indigenous peoples and local communities to decide what development looks like in their own communities. By doing so, we aim to create positive, sustainable change that benefits everyone involved.
While the world’s 370 million Indigenous people make up <5% of the total human population, they manage or hold tenure over 25% of the world’s land surface and support about 80% of the global biodiversity.**
1.3 billion people, mostly in developing countries, depend on forests for their livelihoods and income. 28% of the total income of households living in or near forests come from forest and environmental income.** *
At Earthworm, we believe that the key to sustainable success is supporting local communities to thrive. That's why we work to develop participatory land use plans, secure tenure rights, and improve relationships between companies and local people. We do this through our landscape and supply chain work.
Our Centre of Social Excellence (CSE) brings together social experts with real-world experience to work with and train companies on how to operate with the support of local communities, and to secure their social license to operate. We guide companies through processes such as Free, Prior, Informed Consent (FPIC), High Carbon Stock Approach (HCSA), Social Impact Assessments (SIAs), and community engagement plans, ensuring they have a social license to operate with minimal impact.
To stay informed and ensure transparency, we provide our clients with a monitoring platform, Kumacaya monitoring platform, that flags environmental and social concerns or successes in their supply chain, as they occur.
Earthworm Foundation brings an expansive suite of tools and approaches to progressing respect for Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities' (IPLC) rights in supply chains and landscapes.
We work with many of the world's largest buyers of agriculture and forest-linked products who are dedicated to respecting human rights in their supply chains.
By leveraging their role in international supply chains, the companies operating in forested regions around the world hear directly from their customers about the importance of respecting IPLC rights.
Additionally, Earthworm Foundation has staff and partners who live and work in the regions where the communities we serve are located. We work hand in hand with Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLC) to understand their priorities, their struggles, and their customary ways of working. We support them to secure recognition of their rights with the companies and government agencies who impact them and collaborate on monitoring these impacts.
Centre of Social Excellence
Through our Centre of Social Excellence (CSE), we offer best-in-class trainings and resources on Community Relations, Conflict Resolution, Workers’ Rights, Respect for Indigenous Peoples, Social Management Systems, and Multi-stakeholder Land Use Planning, as well as access to a dynamic CSE alumni network.
Kumacaya
With Kumacaya, our innovative monitoring programme, we work with local civil society to build trust and to strengthen the capacity of local organisations, individuals and communities to monitor and report on the impacts of international supply chains, and help company and government leaders to have actionable intelligence about the issues local people want them to act on.
Landscapes
Through our Landscape work, we work hand-in-hand with Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities in forested regions to carry out participative mapping of their lands and resources, develop participatory conservation and land use plans, and secure tenure rights.
Nearly 400 CSE Graduates from >20 countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America report supporting FPIC processes involving >200,000 community members.
Kumacaya, our participatory monitoring platform, covers >22 million hectares and has received over 3,100 signals on environment, community and labour concerns.
We work with around 145 companies on improving respect for IPLC rights, with each company typically impacting between 5,000 to 1 million community members.
