Secure Indigenous Peoples and Community Land Rights as a Nature-based Solution to Climate Change

Indigenous Peoples and local communities—2.5 billion people—customarily manage over 50% of the global land mass, but legally own just 10%, rendering them and their lands vulnerable to the economic pressures that drive land use and land cover changes worldwide. Scaling-up efforts to close this gap and secure community land rights represents the world’s single greatest opportunity to simultaneously increase carbon stores, restore degraded land, reduce emissions, improve food security, diminish the likelihood of conflict, and enhance ecosystem resilience on the basis of equity, and in the context of sustainable development and efforts to eradicate poverty.