Amplifies regional leadership on the global stage for climate and biodiversity action.
Just Resilience Action Platform
A coordinated effort to put people at the heart of climate resilience
Supporting regions to build just resilience that lasts
Five years into what the United Nations calls the “decade of delivery,” the climate crisis continues to intensify, magnifying long-standing social, economic, and environmental inequalities. Climate impacts are felt most deeply by those least responsible for it: women, children, the elderly, low-income households, people with disabilities, and Indigenous peoples. These pre-existing vulnerabilities are now aggravated by extreme weather worldwide.
Subnational governments are on the frontlines of this reality. Responsible for up to 70% of climate mitigation and over 90% of adaptation actions, they are often the closest authorities to communities and ecosystems under pressure. Yet, they currently receive less than 17% of international climate finance, leaving many without the means to respond effectively.
The Just Resilience Action Platform (JRAP) responds to this gap by connecting people, territories, and institutions and serving as a global matchmaker, aligning local climate and nature projects with the donors, technical partners, and networks that can help them succeed. It ensures that resources and knowledge flow directly to the communities most affected by climate change and biodiversity loss, turning local vision into collective action.
The platform includes several projects open for investment and partnership opportunities – from restoring Mangroves for coastal resilience in Saint-Louis, Senegal, to rewarding Indigenous peoples and small farmers for conserving the threatened Cerrado savanna in Goiás, Brazil. JRAP is led Regions4 with support from The Scottish Government, the Consortium of Provincial Autonomous Governments of Ecuador (CONGOPE), Nature4 Climate, the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy (GCoM) and Race to Resilience as Founding Partners.
Just Resilience in Action: How JRAP Works
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The platform acts as a matchmaker, connecting territory-led, project-specific needs with donors, investors, and technical partners to match resources for action.
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Directly channels finance and technical support to regional governments and communities.
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Strengthens peer-to-peer learning by connecting regional communities of practice.
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Equips members with practical tools for just resilience planning and monitoring.
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A platform that recognizes that pre-existing social and economic inequalities heighten vulnerability and that building resilience requires tackling these structural challenges.
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The crises of climate change and biodiversity loss demand more than action - they demand justice. The Just Resilience Action Platform embodies that principle, connecting local leadership, knowledge and solutions with global solidarity. By empowering communities to address the root causes of inequality and vulnerability, we’re investing in justice, in people, and in the places where real transformation begins. The Scottish Government has embedded climate justice into all of our international engagement, and is proud to support this platform to make resilience both just and lasting.
Gillian Martin, Cabinet Secretary for Climate Action and Energy, The Scottish Government
Just Resilience means ensuring that responses to climate and biodiversity challenges are not only effective - but also fair, inclusive, transformative and grounded in local realities.
It brings together equitable outcomes - where the costs and benefits of action are fairly shared — with equitable processes that promote transparency, participation, and knowledge-based decision-making.
Just Resilience tackles the root causes of vulnerability - from poverty and exclusion to environmental degradation - and empowers communities as true agents of change. It ensures that people can shape and transform their territories when provided with the right conditions: the policies, resources, and platforms they need to lead.
Delivering Just Resilience from the Ground Up
Pilot Solutions
JRAP provides tailored, catalytic support to early-stage initiatives that advance climate, nature, and equity from the ground up.
Learning & Scaling
Enables region-to-region exchange, knowledge sharing, and development of tools to replicate and adapt successful models.
Influencing Global Agendas
Raises visibility of subnational action at major global fora — from Climate COP30 to Biodiversity COP17, the UN High-Level Political Forum for Sustainable Development and beyond.
A Living Pilot: Guardians of the Amazon
JRAP’s first pilot project in the Ecuadorian Amazon led to The Guardians of the Amazon, a flagship effort of just resilience in action.
Developed in the Ecuadorian Amazon by Regions4, Nature4Climate and Wiñak, with the support from The Scottish Government, CONGOPE, The Nature Conservancy, Nature and Culture International, the Global Alliance of Territorial Communities (GATC) and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), the initiative strengthens Indigenous economies, promotes forest restoration, and uses drone-based monitoring systems to protect biodiversity. Photos here
Become a Founding Partner and Invest in Resilience Where Change Happens
Be part of shaping a global movement for just resilience. As a Founding Partner of the Just Resilience Action Platform (JRAP), you’ll help scale transformative action, gain strategic access to influential networks, and be recognized as a leader in equity, climate, and nature.
Building on Scotland’s £100,000 contribution, we invite partners to match or multiply this investment, fueling innovation, local impact, and global influence.
Join us in co-creating a lasting mechanism for finance, knowledge, and collaboration where transformation happens.
Why now?
JRAP arrives at a critical moment. Five years into what the UN calls the “decade of delivery,” the climate crisis is intensifying. Climate change, it's already claiming lives and severely affecting vulnerable populations, including women, children, the elderly, low-income communities, people with disabilities, and indigenous peoples.
Subnational governments are on the frontlines of this reality, closest to communities and ecosystems under pressure, yet often lacking the resources to act at the necessary scale. JRAP responds to this gap by channeling finance, technical support, and shared learning to empower territories to turn ideas into action.
The platform includes several projects open for investment and partnership opportunities - from restoring Mangroves for coastal resilience in Saint-Louis, Senegal, to rewarding Indigenous peoples and small farmers for conserving the threatened Cerrado savanna in Goiás, Brazil. Supporting these initiatives now is vital to strengthen local action where transformation happens.
Azuay, Ecuador
The ‘Wetland Restoration project’, led by the Prefecture of Azuay and local partners, restores high-altitude Andean wetlands that regulate water flow, store carbon, and support biodiversity. The project enhances rural and urban water security, supports sustainable livelihoods, and fosters local leadership, particularly among women and youth.
Goiás, Brazil
The ‘Cerrado em Pé’ project is a state-led payment for environmental services scheme that rewards Indigenous peoples, traditional communities and small farmers for conserving the Cerrado biome, one of the world’s most threatened savannas and a vital carbon sink.
Saint-Louis, Senegal
The ‘Mangrove Restoration project’ supports the conservation and restoration of mangrove ecosystems in the Senegal River Delta, strengthening coastal resilience while generating sustainable livelihoods. Led by the Saint-Louis regional government with partners, the initiative restores up to 40 hectares of degraded coastline annually with the support of local residents.
West Cameroon
In the heart of Cameroon, the West Region is bringing new life to Mount Mbapit, a stunning crater rich in biodiversity. Together with local municipalities and communities, this ambitious restoration project is driving ecological restoration and responsible ecotourism.
Manabí, Ecuador
The ‘Producer’s School’, a pioneering project led by Manabí Province, empowers farmers to adopt eco-friendly agricultural practices and boost productivity sustainably.
Ecuador (Various locations)
‘The Guardians of the Amazon’ project focuses on agroforestry, eco-tourism, and food sovereignty initiatives co-developed with Indigenous organizations and provincial governments.
Paraná, Brazil
The project ‘Restoration and Drone Monitoring of Degraded Areas of the Floresta Estadual Metropolitana (FEM)’ combines conservation, Indigenous inclusion, and technological innovation (such as drone-based monitoring), strengthening climate adaptation and territorial equity.
Gossas, Senegal
The project ‘Malka Classified Forest Management Plan’ combines ecological restoration and social inclusion, placing women, youth, and vulnerable people at the heart of local governance and sustainable resource management, while strengthening the energy security and climate resilience of rural communities.
Sud Comoé, Ivory Coast
The project ‘Restoration of mangroves around Ehotilé Islands National Park’ links the conservation of coastal ecosystems with the creation of green jobs, the promotion of clean energy, and the improvement of livelihoods for local communities, thereby strengthening social justice and local climate resilience.
Zamora Chinchipe, Ecuador
The project ‘Actions of the Gender Action Plan (GAP)’ integrates gender equity, social inclusion and participatory governance into forest management. To strengthen the leadership of rural and indigenous women, promote the equitable distribution of benefits and link conservation with food security and sustainable livelihoods, the project translates the principles of social and environmental justice into concrete actions for transformative resilience.
Explore the Resources
The Just Resilience Action Platform (JRAP) brings together knowledge, tools, and partnerships to advance socially equitable and territorially grounded resilience projects. Our resources support subnational governments and partners in understanding Just Resilience and in designing, implementing, and scaling just resilience actions worldwide.
Policy Brief: Cultivating Just Resilience at the Subnational Level, highlights the key role of subnational governments in translating global goals into equitable, locally adapted outcomes.
White Paper: Provides a conceptual and operational framework for integrating justice, equity, and sustainability into resilience planning and governance.
Call for Founding Partners: Invites partners and all interested to support and co-invest in JRAP, strengthening its global architecture and ensuring lasting impact where transformation happens.
What Building Just Resilience Looks Like
The Breakthrough Workshop on Indigenous Economy and Just Resilience, held from January 20–24, 2025, in Napo, Ecuador, is a powerful example of how the Just Resilience Action Platform (JRAP) turns ideas into impact.
Supported by JRAP, the workshop brought together provincial governments from Ecuador’s Amazon region, Indigenous communities, NGOs, and international partners to explore how Indigenous economic models can strengthen climate resilience and local development.
This collaboration reflects JRAP’s mission to empower subnational governments with the finance, tools, and partnerships needed to accelerate just and inclusive resilience at scale. Co-organized by Regions4, Nature4Climate, and Wiñak, with support from The Scottish Government, CONGOPE, The Nature Conservancy, Nature and Culture International, GATC, and EDF, the workshop showed how regional leadership and Indigenous innovation can work hand in hand to shape a just, sustainable future and inspire action. Read the Report
Join as a Founding Partner
Let’s invest where transformation happens- in the territories. Join us to support those leading , scale what works, and deliver resilience where it matters most.
Jordan Harris, responsible
of this project:
Jordan Harris
Executive Director
jharris@regions4.org