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

This report by the World Resources Institute argues that securing community land rights is a cost-effective strategy for achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and mitigating climate change. It highlights the gap between the amount of land inhabited by indigenous and rural communities and the amount legally recognized by national governments, warning that this insecurity leads to deforestation and poverty. The document advocates for legal reforms, simplified formalization procedures, and a more equitable playing field between communities and corporate interests to protect global carbon sinks and biodiversity.

• There is a significant disparity between the amount of land inhabited by communities and the amount legally recognized by governments. While indigenous people and rural communities inhabit over 50 percent of the world's land, national laws recognize only 10 percent as belonging to communities, with an additional 8 percent designated for their use.
• Securing community land rights is directly linked to achieving several UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Specifically, SDGs 1 (end poverty), 2 (end hunger), and 5 (gender equality) explicitly address community land rights, while land stewardship is described as essential for SDG 13 (climate action) and SDG 15 (protect forests and other land ecosystems).
• Tenure-secure community land is more effective at preventing deforestation than land not managed by indigenous people. In Bolivia, Brazil, and Colombia, annual deforestation rates in tenure-secure indigenous forestlands between 2000 and 2012 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 approximately 66% in the following two years.
• Securing indigenous 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 to secure indigenous land is estimated at $6 to $68 per hectare, representing at most 1 percent of the resulting ecosystem-service benefits. In contrast, capturing carbon from coal-fired power plants is estimated to be five to 29 times more expensive than the costs of securing indigenous lands in those three countries.
• Communities face systemic barriers to formalizing land rights that favor corporate interests. In the Philippines, the formalization process requires 56 legally mandated steps, and in Indonesia, 21 government agencies are involved. Conversely, companies in some developing countries can acquire formal land rights in as little as 30 days.
• Many countries have failed to include community land rights in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement. Only 21 countries—representing 13 percent of the world's tropical and subtropical forest area—include clear commitments to secure community land or promote community management, and only Cambodia has set a measurable target for securing community land rights in its NDC.

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} }