RRI tracks the progress on recognition of indigenous and community land rights worldwide. It also examines key elements of the relationship between secure land tenure and climate and development aims. These analyses underpin advocacy by communities, legislators, and policy experts, and strengthen the evidence base that securing indigenous and community land rights is one of the world’s most promising paths forward for achieving global climate, conservation, and development goals. RRI’s analytical work is supported and verified by a vast Coalition of national experts and developed with indigenous and community Partners, Collaborators, and Affiliated Networks from around the world.

RRI’s analytical work

Land and Forest Tenure

RRI’s tenure tracking body of work measures progress on recognition of indigenous and community land rights worldwide. RRI tracks both the amount of forests and land recognized as owned or designated by Indigenous Peoples and local communities; administered by governments; and owned by individuals and private firms. As a complement to this spatial data, RRI tracks the bundle of rights which analyze the strength of this recognition by examining whether communities’ land rights include certain qualitative aspects, such as the right to exclude outsiders from their territories. These together allow for RRI to track progress on its two targets. This body of work also covers the rights of indigenous and community women to their forests, and the recognition of community water rights.

Gender Justice

A key element of RRI’s analytical work is examining the rights of indigenous and local community women to their lands and forests. RRI’s 2017 report Power and Potential provided an unprecedented assessment of the status of developing countries’ legal frameworks regarding women’s community forest rights. It found that national laws are failing to protect indigenous and local community women’s rights, in particular their voting and leadership rights. It also concluded that recognizing their rights is critical to achieving the benefits of community forest ownership—both with respect to development aims and forest protection.

Climate and Conservation

RRI analyses examine the crucial relationship between secure tenure rights and improved climate and conservation outcomes. This includes tracking the amount of carbon stored in community lands and forests across the world, as well as examining how recognizing rights is the only viable path to meet global conservation aims.

• RRI’s analytical work on this front examines the risk assumed by companies when investing in countries when
• local peoples’ land rights are not secure, as well as the cause of conflicts between companies and local communities.
• This body of work concludes that by not addressing tenure issues early and often in the investment process

1. As it becomes clear that current economic models are unlikely to deliver sustainable and equitable development,
2. the need to support—and better understand—community-based enterprises is growing. The Coalition is developing
3. a shared agenda for advancing community-led enterprises and economic alternatives, as well as operational and policy