RRI is excited to announce the launch of its new online Tenure Tool. This platform, hosted on RRI’s website, will give rightsholders, researchers, activists, policymakers, and the public free and easy access to qualitative and quantitative data on the forest tenure rights of Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendant Peoples, local communities, and the women within those communities.

New research shows significance of community-held territories in 24 countries to global climate

At UNFCCC COP 26, new research shows Indigenous Peoples and local communities hold at least 958 million hectares of land in countries spanning most of the world’s endangered tropical forests – yet have legal rights to less than half of their lands. Community-held lands sequester over 250 billion metric tonnes of carbon, and lack of secure rights threatens to release much of this carbon into the atmosphere through deforestation.

On average, tenure interventions are good for people and the planet

With surging international, national, and sub-national policy attention to land tenure security (LTS) in developing countries in recent years, it is timely to ask: What have been the effects of thousands of efforts to improve it in dozens of developing countries? To date, almost all efforts to answer this question have been relatively small-scale, discrete studies within the boundaries of a single country.

Does community-based forest management work in the tropics?
Does community-based forest management work in the tropics?

On paper, community-based forest management sounds like a good idea and it has garnered strong support internationally. But experts familiar with this conservation strategy have found that while CFM may be succeeding in meeting some of its goals, it fails to achieve others. By reviewing some of the scientific literature on CFM’s impacts, we have tried to tease apart its effectiveness.

Is This My Land?

For Amazonian and native communities, it is not a matter of ignoring or rejecting the land market, but rather finding the best way to relate to it while preserving their ancestral properties, rights, traditions, and knowledge (which are key for biodiversity and intellectual property).

Land grabbing in Africa ‘is fueling conflicts’
Land grabbing in Africa ‘is fueling conflicts’

New research released on Thursday by the Rights and Resources Institute shows that despite improvements in respect for communities’ rights by global companies, land rights remain largely ignored.

New research shows the high cost of land disputes in India
New research shows the high cost of land disputes in India

While land-related conflict in India has long posed a threat to communities’ security and investment in sustainable development alike, relatively little research has attempted to…

The need for transparency in land data
The need for transparency in land data

Data on customary lands of local communities is crucial to advocacy, securing legal recognition of land and resource rights, and measuring global progress.