Rights, Climate, and Conservation

RRI’s research strengthens the growing body of evidence—captured in studies by the IPCC, IPBES, and others—that recognizing community land rights leads to lower deforestation rates, higher carbon storage, and higher biodiversity. This includes tracking the amount of carbon stored in Indigenous and community lands.

Communities manage nearly 300 billion metric tons of carbon, including 22 percent of tropical and sub-tropical forest carbon. Protecting and recognizing their rights to these lands is vital to keeping forests standing, prevent carbon from being released into the atmosphere, and restore damaged lands.

Given their key role in conservation and climate action, Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendant Peoples, and local communities would appear to be natural allies for governments and conservation actors. However, RRI’s research has found that colonial models of conservation, which empty forests and lands of local peoples, are still widespread.

RRI engages with international climate instruments and policymakers to ensure that rights are not just included as a safeguarding measure to prevent human rights violations, but embraced as a key solution. Our research on the critical links between community land rights and improved climate outcomes has been featured in the 2019 IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Land, the 2023 and 2024 Forest Declaration Assessment report, and leading peer-reviewed journals across the world.