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 Atlas maps the territorial presence of Afro-descendant Peoples in 15 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, the state of recognition of their territorial rights, their overlap with areas that are important for regulating and mitigating climate change, and their contributions to conservation efforts.
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.
This research includes four cases of enterprises led by Indigenous women across Peru, and analyze the contributions of Indigenous women-led enterprises to local economies, territorial governance, sustainable natural resource management, and resilience to climate change, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This document includes the results of the study Contributions of Indigenous Women's Entrepreneurship in Colombia to their Economy, Territorial Governance and Climate Resilience during COVID-19, which brings together four case studies of entrepreneurship led by Indigenous women from different regions of Colombia.
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.
Eighteen young leaders from 10 Latin American countries call on governments,donors, and grassroots organizations to include youth in decision-making that impacts their territorial rights, and to strengthen their understanding of biodiversity management and conservation efforts.
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.
Afro-descendant Peoples’ Territories in Biodiversity Hotspots across Latin America and the Caribbean
This study seeks to raise awareness of the territorial presence of Afro-descendant Peoples in 16 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Although Afro-descendant Peoples in the region have been fighting for a place in international climate and conservation debates, not having defined boundaries for their ancestral lands has been an obstacle to adequately establishing how important their territories are for protecting biodiversity.
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.
In coordination with 20 grassroots organizations and researchers of Afro-descendant Peoples, RRI, PNC, and OTEC carried out a joint investigation to identify the presence, lands, and territories of the Afro-descendant People in Latin America and the Caribbean. For the first time, a freely accessible cartographic viewer gathers decisive data in the region on the territorial presence and the significant relationship between these territories and areas of great importance for the conservation and stability of the terrestrial and oceanic climate.
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 report identifies possible pathways towards the integration of a rights-based approach in the legal conservation frameworks of Colombia and Peru. It does so in the context of tenure rights recognition for Indigenous Peoples (IP) and Afro-descendant Peoples (ADP) as an effective strategy for biodiversity protection in the Amazon. With this in mind, it highlights opportunities for implementing a rights-based approach within current and medium-term conservation frameworks and policies in both countries.
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.
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.
In December 2015, the Paris Agreement was adopted at the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Five years after the submission the NDC proposals and their initial implementation, signatory countries had to update and share the progress of their NDCs in 2020. This study carried out by Asociación Ambiente y Sociedad, ONAMIAP (National Organization of Andean and Amazonian Indigenous Women of Peru) and RRI analyzes the degree that human rights, women’s rights, and the rights of Indigenous Peoples and Afro-descendants are included in the NDCs of Colombia and Peru, as well as in the processes related to updating them.
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 presents an innovative, international comparative assessment on the extent to which various national-level legal frameworks recognize the freshwater tenure rights of Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendants, and local communities, as well as the specific rights of women to use and govern community waters.
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.
At a Crossroads: Consequential Trends in Recognition of Community-Based Forest Tenure from 2002-2017
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.