Indigenous Rights and ESG: 2025 Reckoning

As the ESG movement accelerates into boardrooms, policy frameworks, and investment algorithms, a long-overlooked truth is crashing through the noise: Indigenous rights are not optional. They are existential.

From the Amazon to Australia, indigenous communities have stood as guardians of 80% of the planet’s biodiversity—despite constituting less than 6% of the global population. Yet time and again, they're the first to be displaced, dismissed, or dishonored by extractive industries and land-hungry infrastructure.

In 2025, this imbalance has finally become impossible to ignore.

Case in Point: The Lithium Gold Rush

The world wants electric cars. To get them, we need lithium.

In Nevada, the Thacker Pass mine project—backed by a major ESG-rated corporation—was greenlit with one problem: it sits on sacred Indigenous land. Despite protests, lawsuits, and public outcry from the Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribes, bulldozers rolled in.“You can't be carbon neutral if you're colonial,” read one banner.

Investors praised the project for green innovation. But did ESG metrics track tribal consultation? Consent? Cultural preservation?

The Inclusion Gap in Indigenous ESG Commitments

Let’s not mince words: the ESG world has a representation problem.

According to Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI):

• Only 10% of ESG standards globally include specific safeguards for Indigenous peoples.

• Over 370 land disputes involving Indigenous communities were tied to ESG-labelled investments in the past five years.

What’s worse? Many of these disputes were not captured in ESG risk assessments—because community rights are rarely material on balance sheets.

Charting the Imbalance: Voices vs Ventures

When Rights Are an Afterthought, So Is Risk

In Brazil, 2023 floods in the Amazon basin were intensified by deforestation projects on Indigenous land—projects stamped “sustainable” by ESG raters.

The fallout?

• $1.2 billion in insurance claims

• Six investor class-action lawsuits

• Three indigenous-led international complaints at the UN

And still, ESG scores for some involved companies remained unchanged.

Why? Because the scoring algorithms weren’t built to detect Indigenous harm.

What Real Accountability Looks Like

Let’s flip the script. First Nations Major Projects Coalition (Canada) partners directly with Indigenous governments to co-own energy and mining ventures.

The result?

• Stronger social license

• Faster project approvals

• Shared economic returns

• And ESG ratings that reflect actual justice, not PR spin

  
  

The 2025 Reckoning Has Arrived

The UN, in collaboration with global investors, is now developing the Indigenous ESG Framework, set to launch by end of 2025. It mandates:

• Free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC)

• Land tenure recognition

• Cultural heritage valuation

• Community-led impact assessments

It’s not perfect. But it’s a start.

What You Can Do

If you're a board member:→ Stop approving ESG plans that don’t mention Indigenous rights.→ Demand FPIC before approving any land-based projects.

If you're an investor:→ Flag every ESG scorecard that omits community voices.

If you're a consumer:→ Ask where your clean energy, gold jewelry, and timber come from.→ Support brands and funds that include Indigenous people in decision-making.