Carbon markets: a new form of colonialism for Indigenous Peoples?

The interconnected and compounding climate change and biodiversity crises have led to increased urgency in moving towards transformational change within how national and international sustainability efforts are viewed and operationalised. Despite the known benefit of carbon markets as part of these sustainability efforts, there has been increasing scrutiny of carbon market mechanisms, with warranted distrust present at the community level. Indigenous Peoples are key stewards of biodiverse landscapes, yet their exclusion within carbon market decision making is ongoing. With this exclusion, outstanding questions remain on the placement of Indigenous Peoples within current carbon market design and decision making and their roles have yet to be fully appreciated in wider policy and practice. Platformed on substantial inequities, marginalisation, and racism, we therefore query in this Personal View, are carbon markets a new form of colonialism? We further reflect on the challenges and the potential opportunities of carbon markets for Indigenous Peoples and anchor our reflections with examples from different regions.