Land Matters: How Securing Community Land Rights Can Slow Climate Change and Accelerate the Sustainable Development Goals

The document examines the link between community land tenure and global sustainability goals, highlighting that while indigenous and rural communities manage over 50% of the world's land, only 10% is legally recognized. It presents evidence that secure tenure reduces deforestation and carbon emissions more cheaply than technological carbon capture. The author calls for legal reforms, simplified formalization procedures, and a more equitable playing field between communities and corporations to protect these critical carbon sinks and support rural livelihoods.

• There is a significant gap between the amount of land managed by communities and the amount legally recognized by governments; while communities inhabit more than 50 percent of the world's land, national laws recognize only 10 percent as belonging to them, with an additional 8 percent designated for their use.
• Securing community land rights is a highly cost-effective climate mitigation strategy compared to industrial carbon capture and storage (CCS). In Bolivia, Brazil, and Colombia, the cost of securing indigenous lands is estimated at most 1 percent of the resulting ecosystem-service benefits, whereas CCS for coal-fired power plants is five to 29 times more expensive than securing indigenous lands in those countries.
• Tenure security for indigenous and community lands leads to lower deforestation rates. In Bolivia, Brazil, and Colombia between 2000 and 2012, annual deforestation rates in tenure-secure indigenous forestlands were two to three times lower than in similar land not managed by indigenous people. In the Peruvian Amazon, titling indigenous lands in 2002 reduced forest clearing by over 75% and forest disturbance by roughly two-thirds within two years.
• Community land is a critical global carbon reservoir; communities in 52 tropical and subtropical countries manage at least 22 percent of forest carbon and 17 percent of total forestland carbon (including soil carbon). Approximately one-third of this forest carbon is on community land that lacks legal recognition, risking a "climate catastrophe" if released.
• Current land formalization processes are often prohibitively complex and favor corporations over communities. For example, the Philippines requires 56 legally mandated steps for formalization, and Indonesia involves 21 government agencies, while companies in some developing countries can acquire formal rights in as little as 30 days.
• Most countries are failing to integrate community land rights into their climate commitments. Only 21 countries (representing 13 percent of tropical and subtropical forest area) include clear commitments to secure community land in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement, and only Cambodia has set a measurable target.

APA

Veit, P. (2019). Land Matters: How Securing Community Land Rights Can Slow Climate Change and Accelerate the Sustainable Development Goals. World Resources Institute. https://www.wri.org/insights/land-matters-how-securing-community-land-rights-can-slow-climate-change-and-accelerate

Chicago

Veit, Peter. Land Matters: How Securing Community Land Rights Can Slow Climate Change and Accelerate the Sustainable Development Goals. World Resources Institute, 2019. https://www.wri.org/insights/land-matters-how-securing-community-land-rights-can-slow-climate-change-and-accelerate.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Veit |first1=Peter |title=Land Matters: How Securing Community Land Rights Can Slow Climate Change and Accelerate the Sustainable Development Goals |publisher=World Resources Institute |date=24 January 2019 |url=https://www.wri.org/insights/land-matters-how-securing-community-land-rights-can-slow-climate-change-and-accelerate |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{veit2019land, author = {Veit, Peter}, title = {{Land Matters: How Securing Community Land Rights Can Slow Climate Change and Accelerate the Sustainable Development Goals}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, year = {2019}, month = jan, url = {https://www.wri.org/insights/land-matters-how-securing-community-land-rights-can-slow-climate-change-and-accelerate}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }