This study reviews the status of the legal recognition of the rights of Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and Afro-descendant Peoples to the carbon in their lands and territories across 31 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Together, these countries hold almost 70 percent of the world’s tropical forests and represent at least 62 percent of the total feasible natural climate solution potential, and thus the bulk of nature-based emissions reductions and carbon offset opportunities in tropical and subtropical forest countries.
A growing body of evidence suggests that recognition of the collective tenure rights of Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and Afro-descendants is a powerful and cost-effective strategy for addressing the climate and biodiversity crises. In spite of this, international funding for rights recognition pales in comparison to donor mobilization around alternative solutions to these crises.
This report is informed by the imperative to prevent the collapse of biodiversity while respecting the tenure and human rights of Indigenous Peoples (IPs), local…
The legal recognition and protection of the land and territorial rights of Indigenous Peoples (IPs), local communities (LCs), and Afro-descendants (ADs) offers one of the…
Identifying Opportunities to Invest in Securing Collective Tenure Rights in the Forest Areas of Low- and Middle-Income Countries
The global urgency to both document and secure Indigenous Peoples’, local communities’, and Afro-descendants’ customary rights cannot be overestimated. Research shows that legally recognized community…
This report identifies factors that have contributed to the success of local, national, and regional initiatives employed in low- and middle-income countries to strengthen indigenous and rural women’s governance rights concerning community lands.
If properly leveraged, natural climate solutions can contribute over 37% of cost-effective CO2 mitigation by 2030. Evidence shows Indigenous Peoples and local communities are key to achieving such outcomes. This report presents the most comprehensive assessment to date of carbon storage in documented community lands worldwide.
This analysis reports on trends in global forest tenure from 2002-2017. It is the fourth in a series of analyses monitoring the legal recognition of forest tenure around the world.
Despite widespread poverty and insecure resource rights, evidence shows that Indigenous Peoples and local communities are still spending their limited resources on conservation efforts. They are also achieving outcomes that are at least equivalent to those of government-funded protected areas. This brief shows an urgent need to replace the fortress-conservation model with rights-based approaches to both improve conservation outcomes and end human-rights abuses committed in the name of conservation.
This brief presents a review of the nominal progress made in the national-level laws and regulations that govern the carbon trade and define the rights of parties—across a sample of 24 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. These countries collectively hold more than 50 percent of global tropical and subtropical forests.
This brief highlights key attributes of national constitutions, laws, and regulations that play a fundamental role in protecting indigenous and rural women’s rights to community forests and other community lands. These legislative best practices were derived from a 2017 analysis of over 400 national laws and regulations, Power and Potential, which evaluates the extent to which women’s rights to community forests are recognized by national law in 30 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) across Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
Drawing on international standards and Green Climate Fund policy documents, this report traces the adequacy and implementation effectiveness of the Fund’s current institutional frameworks across a representative sample of approved projects. Noting critical gaps in nearly every aspect of the Fund’s operational modalities and project approval processes, the report calls on the GCF to take progressive steps to make Indigenous Peoples’ and local communities’ rights a key part of its climate actions going forward.
This paper proposes a framework of analysis to systematically classify and evaluate legal pathways to secure recognition of community-based property rights.
A new analysis from RRI provides an unprecedented assessment of legal frameworks regarding indigenous and rural women’s community forest rights in 30 developing countries comprising 78 percent of the developing world’s forests.
Amid the realities of major political turbulence, there was growing recognition in 2016 that community land rights are key to ensuring peace and prosperity, economic development, sound investment, and climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Compelling quantitative evidence of the unparalleled role that forest peoples have to play in climate change mitigation.
A new report quantifying the carbon stored aboveground in tropical forests that are legally owned or traditionally held by Indigenous Peoples and local communities in 37 countries across tropical America, Africa, and Asia.
Protected areas have the potential of safeguarding the biodiversity for the benefit of all humanity; however, these have also been associated with human rights violations against Indigenous Peoples in many parts of the world.
New research from RRI reveals that 13 submissions to the World Bank’s Carbon Fund–one of the most advanced REDD+ initiatives–either fail to recognize the importance of land rights or adequately include local peoples in key decision-making processes.
A review of submitted Intended Nationally Determined Contributions to determine the extent to which Parties made clear commitments to strengthen or expand the tenure and natural resource management rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities as part of their climate change mitigation plans.
Just over a decade ago, several forest agency leaders from around the world met in Beijing, China at a conference convened by the Rights and Resources…
This report explains what tenure risk is and offers objective evidence that the problem is widespread and of increasing frequency, as well as provides highlights from a real-world analysis of over 360 case studies.
The aim of this conference was to take stock of efforts to scale up Indigenous Peoples’ and community land and resource rights worldwide and to…