In 2025, the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) advanced land and livelihood rights for Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendant Peoples, and local communities while marking its 20th anniversary with a renewed focus on rightsholder-led governance and coalition expansion.
This report includes a brief presentation of findings across seven countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America on the legal status of pastoralist and mobile communities’ and women’s rights to mobility and access, key barriers and implementation issues, and a collection of eight case studies across these countries providing insights into the lived realities of pastoralists.
This document presents the Rights-Based NDC Model, a framework designed to integrate the rights and contributions of Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendant Peoples, and local communities into the design and implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement. NDCs are the central policy instruments through which countries communicate their climate commitments—defining national goals, mitigation and adaptation strategies, and financial needs.
This report offers RRI's updated assessment of the status and strength of Indigenous Peoples’, Afro-descendant Peoples’, and local communities’ statutory forest tenure rights across 35 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
This second edition of the State of Funding for Tenure Rights provides an updated analysis of international donor funding for Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and Afro-descendant Peoples in tropical countries from 2011 to 2024. This edition includes an expanded scope to all terrestrial ecosystems, recognizing the importance of tracking funding beyond forests.
The Kunming-Montréal Global Biodiversity Framework’s targets cannot be achieved without the rights, leadership, and knowledge of Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendant Peoples, and local communities. This new RRI report with Forest Peoples Programme and the ICCA Consortium analyzes the legal frameworks of 30 countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America and finds that although most have potential pathways for legally recognized community-led conservation, many have yet to formalize it as a distinct and additional means of achieving national conservation priorities.
This report represents two decades of working together across continents, cultures, and movements to build a more just and sustainable planet for Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and Afro-descendant Peoples—particularly the women and youth within them.
This report examines the current state of play as countries prepare for the operationalization of Article 6.4 of the Paris Agreement, offering a systematic analysis of the recognition of the carbon rights held by Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and Afro-descendant Peoples in 33 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America as of August 2024.
This study provides an up-to-date assessment of the status of Indigenous, Afro-descendant, and local community women’s forest tenure rights across 35 key forest countries in the Global South. In doing so, it aims to inform and encourage gender-transformative actions by governments and other stakeholders impacting community forests, lands and other resources.
From August 19–22, 2024, public forest agency leaders within the MegaFlorestais network from some of the world's most forested countries met in the state of Pará in northcentral Brazil. They gathered to learn about ongoing forest management programs, progress and challenges of elevating the role of community-led conservation, preventing forest loss, and promoting restoration and reforestation around the world.
This policy brief summarizes findings from a study undertaken by the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) and McGill University to systematically analyze the carbon rights held by Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and Afro-descendant Peoples in 33 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
In response to the dearth of data on funding for women and the need to support international advocacy promoting direct funding to Indigenous, Afro-descendant, and local community women’s groups and organizations, the Rights and Resources Initiative initiated a bottom-up research effort to build a baseline for measuring funding levels reaching community women on the ground and assess the extent to which existing grants and funding mechanisms are considered fit-for-purpose.
This report aims to influence the localization agenda and improve bilateral policies and practices to ensure that more direct, fit-for-purpose support reaches Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and Afro-descendant Peoples and their supporting organizations to secure tenure rights and conserve key ecosystems and biodiversity.
Rights and Resources Initiative and Rainforest Foundation Norway are thrilled to announce the launch of the Path to Scale dashboard, a new open-source online tool that gives easy access to donor funding data for Indigenous Peoples’, Afro-descendant Peoples’, and local communities’ tenure and forest guardianship.
On 17 September 2023, over 70 rightsholder representatives and their allies joined together for a global dialogue on how climate finance can or should support their vision for the future in a world impacted by climate change. Held under Chatham House Rules, the dialogue sought to go beyond known gaps and challenges to address the critical needs of rightsholders and begin defining pathways that can support a more just, equitable, inclusive, sustainable, and climate-resilient future for all.
More than 200 participants from 20 countries sign a Declaration inviting government actors, policymakers, international donors, the private sector, civil society, and allies to promote the implementation of the Forum's Roadmap by strengthening and promoting the engagement of Indigenous and local community women and girls in Central Africa in biodiversity conservation and climate resilience.
This report presents the most comprehensive and up-to-date picture of global progress towards the legal recognition of community-based land tenure, and offers a baseline against which the Kunming-Montréal Global Biodiversity Framework 2030 Targets can be monitored.
This document shares emerging ideas, principles, and good practices to socialize the concept of community monitoring among companies and investors in land-based sectors, as well as outline steps they can take to meaningfully engage with Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and Afro-descendant Peoples to monitor and respond to the potential environmental and human rights impacts of their operations, supply chains, or investments.
Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and Afro-descendant Peoples must be recognized and supported as key actors and leaders in combatting climate change and conserving the Earth’s natural diversity to have any hope of reaching global climate and biodiversity goals. This paper provides an initial overview of emerging experience with “fit for purpose” approaches to channel resources at scale to collective rightsholders and their supporting organizations to conserve and manage forests and rural landscapes.
Over the course of 2022, one hundred leaders of grassroots networks in 22 countries—men, women, and youth among Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and Afro-descendant Peoples—were interviewed about their hopes, dreams, and fears for the future.
This summary highlights findings of three RRI studies conducted in 2020 as they relate to Liberia, and explains what the findings of these three studies mean for Liberia and aims to equip local communities and civil society organizations (CSOs) with data to advance their advocacy work to influence future reforms, and help the government, donors, private sector actors, and conservationists make informed decisions.
This research provides a timely reminder of the global significance of community-held lands and territories; their importance for the protection, restoration, and sustainable use of tropical forestlands across the world; and the critical gaps in the international development architecture that have so far undermined progress towards the legal recognition of such lands and territories.
This summary highlights findings of three RRI studies conducted in 2020 as they relate to the DRC. This document explains what these three studies mean for the DRC and aims to equip local communities and civil society organizations (CSOs) with data to advance their advocacy work to influence future reforms, and help the government, donors, private sector actors, and conservationists make informed decisions.
After more than a decade of engaging with Indigenous Peoples and local communities through REDD+ readiness and implementation efforts, participant countries of the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) have gained insights into what is needed to strengthen communal and collective land forest tenure. This comprehensive report provides an assessment of countries affiliated with the FCPF's Carbon Fund and lays out cross-cutting challenges as well as opportunities to advance Indigenous Peoples' and local communities' land rights.