The Rights and Resources Group’s Board of Directors has named as its newest members three global leaders in environmental, financial, and human rights advocacy: Emma Norrstad Tickner from Sweden; Emily Kinama from Kenya; and Peter “Mike” Bryan from the United States. They join Gam Shimray, an Indigenous Naga leader from Northeast India who joined in October 2023.
RECENT ARTICLES
Amidst conflict and violence, Colombia’s Afro-descendant People continue to protect their forests
Despite constant threats from extractive activities and drug trafficking, community councils of Afro-descendant Peoples from Buenaventura and Northern Cauca have successfully conserved the forest. This is their extraordinary story.
The Soto-Cerrón Law and deforestation in Peru
On 9 January 2024, Congress approved Law 31973—signed by Alejandro Soto and Waldemar Cerrón—which modifies Forestry Law 29763 of 2011. This modification will cause chaos in the management of Peru's forests and an acceleration of deforestation, going against global trends to limit climate change and biodiversity loss.
Who own’s the world’s land? Scaling up communities’ land rights for people and the planet
The recent release of the Second Edition of Who Owns the World’s Land? offers an important moment to take stock of the global state of Indigenous, Afro-descendant, and local community land rights recognition. The data in the report covers 73 countries, which cumulatively comprise 85% of the world's land area, and gives a comprehensive snapshot of the global landscape for community land rights at a critical moment for people and the planet. Here are five of the biggest takeaways from the report.
The LandWise Law Library’s next phase: Improving access to crucial and reliable data on women’s land and property rights to inform community-led activism and policymaking
For more than 10 years, the LandWise Law Library has grown into an essential resource on family, land, and natural resource rights under the care of Landesa and Resource Equity. As Resource Equity closes its doors, RRI is thrilled to announce that it will carry the LandWise Law Library on through its next chapter.
Two big wins for Indonesia’s agrarian reform movement
RRI collaborators are celebrating two big victories for Indonesia’s agrarian reform movement this October. The Consortium for Agrarian Reform’s years-long advocacy with peasant and smallholder farmers has led to redistribution of two agrarian reform priority locations by the Indonesian Government, transferring their control to peasant and their union who have long reclaiming and managing these lands.
New research published in Nature finds multiple benefits in locally managed tropical forest commons
In the lead-up to COP28, amid a growing push to restore degraded and deforested lands as natural climate solution, a new peer-reviewed study shows better outcomes when Indigenous Peoples and local communities are in charge.
African Communities Formalize Regional Alliance for Community Conservation
More than 300 representatives of Indigenous Peoples, local communities, governments, donors, and NGOs from 47 African countries gathered last month in Namibia to collectively develop a strategy for community-led and people-centered conservation in Africa.
New Report—Asia: Learning and Living Our Elders’ Wisdom
Co-authored with 15 organizations from across Asia—spanning youth groups, Indigenous networks, and ally organizations—this new report collates and brings to the fore the experiences and leadership of youth activists from across the continent into a call to action.
DRC National Assembly adopts landmark bill on land-use planning
This October, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)’s National Assembly passed the country’s first-ever legislation on land-use planning. The historic bill’s passage is a result of years-long advocacy by civil society organizations led by RRI collaborator Centre for Innovative Technologies and Sustainable Development.
Press Release: National Land Institutions and Ministries from 11 African Countries Gather in Arusha to Scale Up Community Land Rights
More than 100 participants from 11 countries gathered in Arusha, Tanzania, this week for the 4th Conference of National Land Institutions in Africa, working to secure community land rights.
ANNOUNCEMENT: Rights and Resources Group acquires LandWise, key legal database on women’s land rights
Rights and Resources Group has acquired the LandWise Law Library, a crucial digital compilation of articles, and research on women’s land rights and tenure.
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