Documents - Forests and Climate Change

Who Owns the World’s Land?

A global baseline of formally recognized indigenous and community land rights. In recent years, there has been growing attention and effort towards securing the formal, legal recognition of land rights for Indigenous Peoples and local communities. Communities and Indigenous Peoples are estimated to hold as much as 65 percent of the world’s land area under customary systems, yet many governments formally recognize their rights to only a fraction of those lands. This gap—between what is held by communities and what is recognized by governments—is a major driver of conflict, disrupted investments, environmental degradation, climate change, and cultural extinction. This report seeks to contribute to this field as the first analysis to quantify the amount of land formally recognized by national governments as owned or controlled by Indigenous Peoples and local communities around the world ( RRI 2015).

My Home My Land

My Home, My Land is a graphic representation of much of the Oakland Institute's work on land grabs. Illustrated by the Institute's Intern Scholar, Abner Hauge, this publication dismantles the many myths promoted by so-called donor countries, development agencies, and corporations about the positive effects of foreign direct investments through large-scale land acquisitions. (The Oakland Institute, 2015)

West Papua Oil Palm Atlas

The West Papua Oil Palm Atlas portrays a frontier region's early encounters with a crop that has come to dominate the Sumatran and Bornean landscapes.

Communities as Counterparties

An analysis of almost 73,000 concessions in eight tropical forested countries, more than 93% of these developments were found to involve land inhabited by Indigenous Peoples and local communities. This report, prepared by The Munden Project, highlights the alarming amount of land that governments have handed over to the private sector for mining, logging, agriculture, oil and gas, including 40% of all land in Peru and 30% in Indonesia. (RRI 2014)

Securing Rights, Combating Climate Change

Securing Rights, Combating Climate Change analyzes the growing body of evidence linking community forest rights with healthier forests and lower carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. This report makes a strong case for strengthening the rights of indigenous and local communities over their forests as a policy tool for mitigating climate change. (Rights and Resources Initiative, 2014)