Highlights• New relationships are needed among indigenous peoples and researchers in order to co-produce knowledge to tackle global challenges.• Comparing and sharing knowledge across knowledge traditions can create opportunities to develop new approaches to addressing deforestation, forest degradation and climate change more generally.• Much is at stake as we move into the Paris Agreement implementation phase, where it is clear that 2 or even 1.5 degrees warming limitations cannot be achieved without the meaningful participation of non-state actors, including indigenous peoples and their different bases of knowledge.• We identify three approaches through which indigenous ontologies on territoriality are relevant in their local context. These approaches could be scaled up and related to REDD+ across levels of governance; their holistic practices could be interpreted as guiding principles for improving forest management.• Approaching REDD+ through the perspective of indigenous territoriality is not only about protecting forests from deforestation and forest degradation, but also about defending the integrity of peoples who have sustainably coexisted in and with their forests by means of a worldview that promotes a reflective practice on reciprocity between human and natural worlds. AbstractThis study examines traditional indigenous ontologies of territoriality based on a number of indigenous communities in Bolivia and Colombia to show how they can inform effective implementation of REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation plus sustainable forest management, forest conservation and enhancing forest carbon stock). This could help address concerns that REDD+ interventions oversimplify local dynamics and complexities. The concept of territoriality subsumes a variety of definitions and conceptions, some of which are embedded in Traditional Ecological Knowledge and represented in the multiple expressions of collective indigenous identity. We compare and contrast Western and indigenous ontologies of territoriality and identify three ways in which engagement with territoriality can enhance REDD+ implementation and effective non-state actor participation.