Author: Rights and Resources Initiative

Date: May 21, 2026

More than two-thirds of the world’s forests remain controlled by governments or private actors, despite being traditionally owned and managed by Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendant Peoples, and local communities.

This analysis, which covers 61 countries spanning 91 percent of the world’s forests, finds that despite their outsized role in managing and protecting these essential ecosystems, Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendant Peoples, and local communities have legally recognized rights to only 16 percent of forests. As the world races to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030, governments remain far behind on commitments to recognize the rights of the communities that safeguard most forests.

Findings show uneven regional progress:  

• In Africa, where community forest rights recognition continues to lag behind Asia and Latin America, 18.17 million hectares have been designated for or owned by communities since 2017 across 21 countries. Nearly all of that progress is concentrated in five countries: Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Madagascar, Mozambique, and Zambia. 

• In Asia, progress has been modest. Excluding China, 10 million hectares have been recognized as designated for or owned by communities since 2017, with India and Indonesia accounting for 78 percent of these gains.  

• In Latin America, long considered a role model for community forest tenure recognition, the pace of progress has slowed sharply. The region added 15.25 million hectares of recognized community forests since 2017, but the annual rate of increase fell from 6.6 million hectares per year between 2002 and 2017 to 1.91 million hectares per year between 2017 and 2025. There was also a concerning increase of 77.3 million hectares in privately owned forests in Brazil. 

But this progress is still far too slow. In 49 low- and middle-income countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, only 26 percent of total forest area is currently legally designated for or owned by communities. To meet the global goal of ending deforestation by 2030 while leaving no one behind, governments would need to recognize at least 97 million hectares of forests per year, which is more than 10 times the current pace.