Blog Posts: indigenous people

Indigenous peoples and other local communities have long argued that they play a central role in safeguarding more than half the world’s land, including much of its forests. The world’s leading climate scientists now agree.

Disenfranchised communities feel the effects of climate change first and hardest. They're also oftentimes the most innovative in adapting to these impacts.

About half of the world's land is collectively held. In this podcast, WRI Vice President Lawrence MacDonald interviews Peter Veit, director of the Land and Resource Rights Initiative in the Governance Center at WRI, about the social, environmental and economic case for securing tenure for indigenous and community lands.

When palm oil companies forcibly took communities' land in Liberia, lawyer Alfred Brownell tried to stop them. He received threats to his life and had to escape the country — but he's not done fighting.

Peruvian indigenous communities have shown themselves to be exceptional environmental and conservation leaders. Their leaders have worked for a decade to ensure a government commitment to conserve 54 million hectares of forest, as a part of the REDD+ program.

Scientists estimate that by managing the world's land more sustainably, such as by protecting forests and investing in reforestation, we could achieve up to 37 percent of emissions reductions necessary to limit the global rise in temperature to 2 degrees Celsius by 2030.

Las comunidad de Santa Clara Uchunya lleva varias generaciones viviendo en una zona remota del Amazonas peruano. Al igual que muchos grupos indígenas, esta comunidad del pueblo Shipibo-Konibo ha gestionado y dependido tradicionalmente de sus bosques para la caza, la pesca y los recursos naturales.

Pero en 2014, alguien empezó a talar grandes extensiones de los bosques ancestrales de la comunidad.

Sin el conocimiento ni el consentimiento de la comunidad, el Gobierno regional había entregado 200 parcelas de tierra, que fueron compradas a continuación por la empresa de aceite...

The Santa Clara de Uchunya community has lived in a remote section of the Peruvian Amazon for generations, relying on the forest for hunting, fishing and natural resources. But in 2014, someone started cutting down large sections of their ancestral lands. They've been struggling for their land rights ever since.

Eager to extract natural resources, governments and corporations are increasingly snatching land from indigenous groups. But these communities aren't standing by idly—they're mapping territory borders, protesting and even litigating to protect their land and resources.

A new sugarcane plantation forced 600 Cambodian families off their land. Many lost all their belongings, and parents, unable to farm and afford school fees, sent their children to work in Thailand. It's a shocking story, but one that's all too familiar for the 2.5 billion people living on indigenous and community lands.