Protecting Biodiversity Hinges on Securing Indigenous and Community Land Rights

In 2022, countries reached a historic agreement to halt biodiversity loss by conserving at least 30% of land and water by 2030. This marked a critical step toward protecting the world's precious remaining species and ecosystems. But that's not all: The Global Biodiversity Framework, as it's known, also explicitly calls on countries to recognize and uphold Indigenous Peoples and local communities' rights in their conservation strategies.

Fulfilling this part of the pledge will be instrumental to its success.

Globally, Indigenous Peoples and local communities steward an estimated 50% or more of the world's land, including many of its most pristine ecosystems. Existing and emerging evidence shows that these lands often house more species and see lower rates of deforestation and degradation than lands managed by public or private entities — and can cost less to establish and maintain. Moreover, they sustain the lives and livelihoods of at least 1.67 billion people worldwide.

Yet despite Indigenous Peoples' and local communities' vital contributions to nature, they are often overlooked in national policies. Many have yet to see their land rights recognized or protected by law, even as those lands face growing threats from industry and agriculture.

Countries are now developing and rolling out new national biodiversity strategies that will underpin the world's ambitious goals. To succeed, these plans must factor in the essential role Indigenous Peoples and local communities play in safeguarding biodiversity. That means not only recognizing their importance, but ensuring their rights to hold and manage their lands and natural resources are legally secure.

Data Shows Strong Links Between Biodiversity and Community Land Management

Biodiversity encompasses all types of life on Earth and can be difficult to quantify, given the range of species, ecosystem types and other conditions that can be used to define it. But related indicators, such as the location of intact forests and key biodiversity areas, can show where conditions are ripe for species to thrive.

LandMark — which is governed by a consortium of more than a dozen local, regional and international rights-focused organizations, including WRI — provides the most comprehensive mapping of Indigenous Peoples' and local communities' lands yet assembled at the global level, covering 33.9% of the world's land. It also maps data on important biodiversity indicators. While the covered land area is still shy of the 50% or more that experts have long estimated Indigenous People and local communities to hold, this represents the best-available touchpoint for assessing the impacts of traditional land management on biodiversity conservation.

Our analysis showed just how closely the two are linked:

1) Indigenous Peoples and local communities hold or manage 54% of the world's remaining intact forests.

Intact forest landscapes are the world's last remaining unfragmented forests, large enough to retain native biodiversity without signs of degradation or deforestation. As of 2020, there were 1.13 billion hectares of intact forests in the world. Over half this area (610 million hectares) directly overlaps with lands that are held or managed by Indigenous Peoples and local communities.

This is no coincidence: Indigenous Peoples and local communities have had customary systems in place to sustainably manage their lands and natural resources for generations. In many cases their spiritual beliefs, livelihoods, food production systems and medicinal needs are inextricably linked with healthy ecosystems.

In areas where pressures on Indigenous Peoples' territories have increased, they are also implementing new approaches for governance, such as forest monitoring and perimeter patrols. Members of the Saamaka tribe in Suriname's Amazonian rainforest have used satellite deforestation data to back a suit against the government for illegal development on their land. In Peru, communities equipped with this technology have significantly reduced local deforestation rates.

2) Over 40% of Key Biodiversity Areas intersect with Indigenous Peoples' and local communities' lands and territories.

Key biodiversity areas (KBAs) are sites that are critical for the survival of a unique variety of plant and animal species and are vital for the overall health of the Earth. There are nearly 16,000 Key Biodiversity Areas around the globe, encompassing 1.8 billion hectares of land and water in total. Forty-three percent of this area (796 million hectares) at least partially overlaps with the Indigenous and local community lands.

Information on Key Biodiversity Areas often helps countries decide where to concentrate their conservation efforts. Government-managed protected areas tend to be the de facto strategy for biodiversity conservation; however, these are not proven to be more effective than community-managed lands. For example, a study in Australia, Brazil and Canada found that vertebrate biodiversity on Indigenous-managed lands was equal to, and in some cases higher than, biodiversity within protected areas.

3) Forests held and managed by Indigenous Peoples and local communities have high biodiversity intactness.

Forest biodiversity intactness models where wildlife species are least impacted by human development and ecosystem degradation and should therefore be most diverse and abundant. Globally, Indigenous and local community lands rank in the top 10% of this index on average.

Intact, old-growth forests have the highest values for biodiversity intactness and are among the most species-rich ecosystems on Earth. (They are also crucial carbon sinks for mitigating climate change.) Forest-dwelling communities have sustainably managed their forest resources for thousands of years, and systematic scientific evidence shows that deforestation and degradation are consistently lower in community-managed forests than unmanaged or unprotected areas.

To Succeed, National Biodiversity Strategies Need to Recognize and Protect Traditional Land Rights

The Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) is seen as a frontrunner among multilateral agreements for urging countries to include Indigenous Peoples and local communities in their conservation efforts. Now, the question is how they will do so.

Most importantly, national and local governments should recognize the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities over their territories and resources in law. While these groups collectively hold or manage at least half of the world's land under customary tenure systems, only 11.4% is legally owned by them. An additional 7.2% is held under legal designation rights, meaning communities can access or manage the land but do not own it. 

Without secure legal rights, communities have limited ability to prevent development and natural resource extraction from degrading and destroying the biodiversity housed in their territories. Solidifying these rights is the fundamental first step toward ensuring that biodiversity-rich ecosystems under community management are conserved.

Officially recognizing these groups' critical role would also help ensure that they are not overlooked or displaced in favor of government-managed protected areas. As many as 300 million people — most of them Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendant peoples, pastoralists and other local communities — are at risk of being displaced if strictly designated protected areas force them from their homelands.

The 2024 UN biodiversity conference (COP16) marked a turn in the right direction with two major outcomes for Indigenous Peoples and local communities:

1. First, it created a new programme of work that will ensure Indigenous Peoples and local communities are included in the implementation and monitoring of the Global Biodiversity Framework through 2030 — a critical step for elevating their voices in international negotiations and national implementation.
2. Second, parties adopted the traditional knowledge indicator as a headline indicator under the GBF's monitoring framework. This means that governments are now required to report on the extent to which they are protecting Indigenous Peoples' and local communities' rights and include them in biodiversity conservation planning. (Previously, such reporting was voluntary.)

Both of these outcomes will help ensure that governments are held accountable for recognizing and respecting the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities.

Now, countries must carry this progress forward in their own biodiversity efforts. All countries were expected to submit National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) by COP16 outlining steps they'll take to meet global biodiversity goals. But only 44 out of more than 190 countries did so. As others work to develop and implement NBSAPs, they should actively include Indigenous Peoples and local communities in the development process and ensure that their land management contributions are accounted for. For example, Australia's NBSAP for 2024-2030 includes language on ensuring that First Nations peoples have representation and participation in decisions relating to nature.

Forging a New Path, Together

There is strong evidence that Indigenous Peoples and local communities are critical to safeguarding biodiversity and protecting unspoiled lands for future generations. But the world is at risk of losing this value if their lands are not acknowledged by governments and securely held. The Global Biodiversity Framework represents a significant step forward; now, governments must turn their promises into action.

This article was co-authored by Johanna von Braun of the International Land Coalition.

This article was originally published in October 2024. It was updated in November 2024 to reflect outcomes from the 2024 UN biodiversity conference (COP16).