Originally posted on Devex.com
The Sustainable Development Goals aspire to “leave no one behind.” If the international community is to succeed in this aim, it must address the grinding poverty, hunger, and despair that still plague many of the world’s forests and rural areas. This devastating inequality is closely tied to the other major existential crisis facing the world today: climate change. If either continues on its current track, our future will be defined by political disruption, conflict, and the collapse of the resources that humanity relies on.
This is not hyperbole — but nor is it unsolvable. In fact, secure, legally recognized land rights for the world’s indigenous peoples, local communities, and rural women are the linchpin of solving both….