On what's working

Protecting the communities living alongside isolated peoples is the most effective strategy.

According to the experience of the SIRGE Coalition, the best protection strategy for Indigenous Peoples in voluntary isolation and initial contact is one that focuses on the legal protection of their territories and natural resources and the implementation of these legal frameworks, while simultaneously legally protecting the territories and resources of surrounding Indigenous communities. They assert that there is ample evidence that strategies for protecting Indigenous Peoples' territories are effective, and therefore these strategies should be supported and complemented by the actions of other key actors, such as non-governmental organizations, but always under the leadership of Indigenous communities.

The fundamental question, as Bryan poses it, is how to support the capacity of Indigenous communities living on the periphery to exercise their right to self-determination and free, prior and informed consent. That requires strengthening not just technical monitoring capacity but representative governance structures: the organized, self-determined institutions through which communities can actually act.

On the intersection of climate and PIACI rights

Climate and biodiversity frameworks provide a strong entry point for securing lasting protection for PIACI.

Bryan sees a direct connection between PIACI rights and broader climate and biodiversity frameworks. The issues are cross-cutting by nature: the minerals powering the green transition are being extracted from territories where isolated peoples live, in Indonesia and across the Amazon. Keeping these conversations separate produces weaker policy on all fronts.

At COP30, for the first time in the history of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the rights of Indigenous Peoples in Isolation and Initial Contact were explicitly recognized within the just transition framework. That outcome was built on case studies that made clear that a just transition cannot be just if it is built on the dispossession of isolated peoples. "We live in a globalized world," Bryan notes. "Businesses are globalized, investments are globalized. The level of responsibility is also global."

On adaptive advocacy

Corporate vulnerability to public scrutiny is a protection tool, and the private sector is more reachable now than it has ever been.

A distinctive strand of SIRGE's work involves direct engagement with electric vehicle manufacturers and the financial institutions behind them. Free, prior and informed consent, which is the standard most commonly applied to Indigenous rights, is not adequate for isolated peoples, who cannot give or withhold consent through any contact-based process. What SIRGE demands instead is explicit exclusion. "Their policies must be very explicit in not purchasing from or including companies in their value chain that are in some way, whether verifiable or not, impacting the territories of Indigenous Peoples in Isolation and Initial Contact," Bryan says.

The opening for this kind of advocacy is growing, Bryan says. Private companies are more exposed to public and consumer scrutiny than ever before, a vulnerability that Indigenous movements can use as leverage. Multilateral banks and development finance institutions are among the primary drivers of the investments threatening isolated peoples and among the most important audiences for accountability.

On consolidating PIACI as a global category

The global category is still in its early stages, and closing the knowledge gap is the most urgent task.

Consolidating PIACI as a recognized global category is a long-term project. Awareness of Indigenous peoples' rights is already limited, and awareness of the specific situation of those in voluntary isolation is lower still. What's needed, Bryan says, is a formal international instrument, such as a dedicated UN resolution, that would give the category the standing to travel across jurisdictions and policy frameworks. COP30 was a meaningful step, but significant work remains.

On building effective alliances

The international convening in Indonesia was a beginning, but sustaining those connections requires resources the movement doesn't yet have.

SIRGE played a central role in organizing an international gathering that brought together Indigenous organizations and civil society from South America and Indonesia to exchange knowledge, build solidarity, and amplify cases — most urgently, the situation of the O'Hongana Manyawa, whose territory in Halmahera overlaps with at least 19 mostly nickel active mining concessions in a country that does not formally recognize Indigenous peoples' rights. The gathering was driven by a recognition that strong work was already happening in both regions, but that language and geographical barriers had kept those efforts largely separate. The declaration that emerged provided an initial platform for raising visibility on cases that domestic advocacy alone cannot address.

Organizations in South America and Indonesia face versions of the same threats and have much to learn from each other's experience, Bryan says. But sustaining those connections requires more communication, materials, and resources that grassroots organizations don't currently have.

On the funding landscape

The most effective funding is non-restrictive, community-led, and oriented toward governance, not just projects.

Protection requires funding that follows the community's own priorities rather than donor-defined project categories. Resources invested primarily in science or time-bound initiatives cannot build the kind of durable governance capacity that sustained protection demands. "Funding the priorities of Indigenous peoples," Bryan says, "is one of the most effective solutions for combating climate change and combating biodiversity loss, but also for fulfilling human rights, the rights of Indigenous peoples, and for protecting Indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation and initial contact."