This year's Climate Week theme, "We Can. We Will", focused on the urgent need for action, provided the backdrop for 25 leaders from Indigenous Peoples, NGOs, Civil Society and donors to discuss what they can do to ensure that the rights and priorities of communities are at the center of global area-based conservation efforts. This report brings together the most important aspects of this dialogue.
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.
This edition is in Bahasa Indonesia; full English report is coming soon! Co-authored by 16 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.
From June 26–30, 2023, public forest agency leaders within the MegaFlorestais network from some of the world's most forested countries met in Lake Tahoe, California for the first time since before the Covid-19 pandemic. They gathered to learn about ongoing forest management programs, share trends in forest policy, strengthen relationships, expand collective knowledge, and promote strategic innovation.
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 gives a snapshot of just some of our coalition’s pivotal successes that give us hope and vigor, particularly as we embark upon our new 5-year Strategic Program.
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.
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.
Pastoralists are well adapted to harsh environments and have deep knowledge about their natural resources. They have also suffered from drought, famine, political interference, physical insecurity, armed aggression, increasing impoverishment, and marginalization. Despite these obstacles, pastoralists have long managed their lands for various purposes including livestock mobility, which depends on large commonly owned landscapes, knowledge of ecosystem productivity, and on the ability to negotiate access to resources.
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 report assesses donor funding for IPs’ and LCs’ tenure and conservation between 2011 and 2020 to learn from historical trends and outline key opportunities to improve the effectiveness of this funding over the next five years. It proposes to make donor funding more fit for purpose—which means that climate, conservation, and rights funding is channeled in ways that are relevant and appropriate for IPs and LCs and ensures funding engagements are led by their organizations—and flexible, long-term, gender-inclusive, timely and accessible, and mutually accountable.
This report argues that to effectively and equitably mitigate climate change and biodiversity loss, new conservation modalities are needed to end exclusionary approaches, embrace human rights-based strategies, and advance the recognition of the land, forest, water, and territorial rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities who customarily own over half of the world’s lands.
This summary highlights Kenya-specific findings of three RRI studies conducted in 2020. This document will explain what the findings of these three studies mean for Kenya, 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.
Este estudo analisa a situação do reconhecimento legal dos direitos dos Povos Indígenas, comunidades locais e Povos Afrodescendentes ao carbono em suas terras e territórios em 31 países da África, Ásia e América Latina.10 Juntos, esses países defendem quase 70 por cento das florestas tropicais do mundo11 e representam pelo menos 62 por cento do potencial total de solução climática natural viável identificado por McKinsey et al. (2021),12 e, portanto, a maior parte das reduções de emissões baseadas na natureza e oportunidades de compensação de carbono em países com florestas tropicais e subtropicais.
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.
Esta análise mostra que a grande maioria dos países com florestas tropicais que procuram se beneficiar dos mercados internacionais de carbono florestal ainda não definiu na lei e na prática os direitos dos Povos Indígenas, comunidades locais e Povos Afrodescendentes sobre o carbono em suas terras e territórios consuetudinários.
This analysis shows that the vast majority of tropical forested countries seeking to benefit from international forest carbon markets have yet to define in law and in practice the rights of Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and Afro-descendant Peoples over carbon in their customary lands and territories.
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…
This brief discusses legislative developments during COVID-19 in India, Indonesia, and the Philippines that undermine sustainable human-environment interactions and broader enjoyment of Indigenous and community rights over their customary territories.
Identifying Opportunities to Invest in Securing Collective Tenure Rights in the Forest Areas of Low- and Middle-Income Countries
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.
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.