The Scramble for Land Rights

The report reveals a systemic imbalance where community land formalization is burdensome, costly, and slow, while company land acquisition is relatively fast and flexible. It argues that this 'uneven playing field' threatens the livelihoods of 2.5 billion people and increases environmental risks, recommending reforms to make community procedures more accessible and transparent.

• Indigenous Peoples and rural communities face significant disparities in land ownership; while they hold more than half of the world's land, they legally own only 10 percent globally.
• Community land formalization procedures are characterized by extreme complexity and length. In the Philippines, the process requires 56 legally mandated steps, and in Indonesia, 21 different government entities are involved.
• There is a stark contrast in the time required to secure land rights: community procedures often take years or decades, whereas company acquisitions typically range from one month to five years.
• Communities often face restrictive conditions during formalization, including arbitrary caps on land size imposed by officials and the exclusion of forested lands from titles.
• Companies frequently bypass legal requirements, starting commercial operations or clearing land before obtaining final legal approvals.
• The burden of resolving third-party land claims falls disproportionately on communities; all surveyed community procedures require screening for third-party rights, while only 6 of 14 company procedures require any community consultation.
• Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) is rarely guaranteed in law; only 2 out of 19 community procedures provided strong FPIC protections for transactions involving natural resources on their land.
• Regulatory frameworks actively favor investors through dedicated support mechanisms, such as investment centers, while community programs remain under-resourced and inconsistently implemented.
• Securing formal land rights for Indigenous Peoples is linked to better environmental outcomes; deforestation rates on tenure-secure indigenous lands in the Amazon are two to three times lower than in similar non-titled forestlands.
• In Brazil, the 'marco temporal' or 'deadline' theory suggests Indigenous Peoples can only demarcate land occupied at the time of the 1988 Constitution, effectively freezing many demarcation procedures.

APA

Notess, L., Veit, P. G., Monterroso, I., Andiko, Sulle, E., Larson, A. M., Gindroz, A.-S., Quaedvlieg, J., & Williams, A. (2017). The Scramble for Land Rights. World Resources Institute. https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/scramble-land-rights.pdf

Chicago

Notess, Laura, Peter G. Veit, Iliana Monterroso, Andiko, Emmanuel Sulle, Anne M. Larson, Anne-Sophie Gindroz, Julia Quaedvlieg, and Andrew Williams. The Scramble for Land Rights. World Resources Institute, 2017. https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/scramble-land-rights.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Notess |first1=Laura |last2=Veit |first2=Peter G. |last3=Monterroso |first3=Iliana |last4=Andiko |last5=Sulle |first5=Emmanuel |last6=Larson |first6=Anne M. |last7=Gindroz |first7=Anne-Sophie |last8=Quaedvlieg |first8=Julia |last9=Williams |first9=Andrew |title=The Scramble for Land Rights |publisher=World Resources Institute |date=2017 |url=https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/scramble-land-rights.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{notess2017scramble, author = {Notess, Laura and Veit, Peter G. and Monterroso, Iliana and Andiko and Sulle, Emmanuel and Larson, Anne M. and Gindroz, Anne-Sophie and Quaedvlieg, Julia and Williams, Andrew}, title = {{The Scramble for Land Rights}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, year = {2017}, url = {https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/scramble-land-rights.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }