STEWARDSHIP FUND

CONTEXT

Market-based mechanisms such as carbon and PES can create new financing opportunities for conservation, but they may also introduce externally defined metrics, compliance requirements and market incentives that do not always align with community priorities or customary stewardship systems.

The Community Stewardship Fund seeks to address this gap through direct, flexible, trust-based and long-term finance that strengthens community agency and locally defined stewardship priorities. Rather than treating stewardship primarily as a tradable commodity, the Fund recognises it as a public good that warrants sustained investment.

CLANS is currently exploring blended-finance pathways to operationalise and scale the Fund across Northeast India.

Objectives

The fund aims to strengthen community-led stewardship by supporting conservation, sustainable livelihoods and food sovereignty, while reinforcing cultural identity and customary governance, with a strong focus on inclusive participation of women and youth

Problem Statement

Despite their central role in conserving biodiversity and managing forest landscapes, IPLCs face systemic barriers:

Chronic underfunding:

Less than 3% of global climate and biodiversity finance reaches IPLCs directly.

Marginalisation of governance systems:

Customary institutions are often bypassed by state-led or market-driven interventions.

Top-down conservation models

This is the space to introduce the business and what it has to offer. Define the qualities and values that make it unique.

Weak institutional capacity:

Plantation-based and carbon-centric approaches

frequently undermine biodiversity and local livelihoods.

Social and structural risks:

Many communities lack access to finance, technical support,

and governance strengthening mechanisms

The Stewardship Fund addresses these structural gaps through three core shifts:

Communities are repositioned as primary agents of governance, not implementers of externally designed programs.

From Beneficiaries to Decision-Makers

The focus moves beyond isolated interventions to strengthening enduring stewardship systems, including governance, livelihoods, and knowledge.

From Projects to Systems -

The fund prioritises climate resilience, ecosystem health, and community wellbeing, rather than narrow carbon outcomes.