This Earth Day, as people around the world reflect on the future of our planet, Cadasta is spotlighting a solution that is often overlooked but deeply transformative: securing land rights for the communities that protect the world’s forests and biodiversity. 

Imagine living with the constant fear that the land you call home could be taken from you at any moment. Without formal rights to the land and resources they depend on, millions of people worldwide live in uncertainty. This insecurity fuels a cycle in which immediate survival takes precedence over long-term sustainability, undermining both environmental stewardship and economic opportunities. 

Secure land rights give households and communities the confidence to make long-term investments, which in turn strengthen their livelihoods, food security, and climate resilience. Yet today, only a small percentage of Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendant Peoples, and Local Communities (IP, ADP, and LCs) hold legal rights to their ancestral lands. Even fewer receive financial support to manage and protect these critical areas, despite the fact that these communities safeguard 80% of the world’s biodiversity and 36% of the world’s remaining intact forests. 

Why Land Rights Matter for Climate and Sustainable Development 

Land rights are not just about ownership, they are about empowerment, justice, and the survival of our planet. When communities have the legal authority to manage and protect their territories, they become frontline defenders against deforestation, biodiversity loss, and climate change. 

Despite underpinning at least five of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), land rights are often missing from global strategies to protect the planet—an oversight we can no longer afford. Each year, 10 million hectares of forest are lost, often due to industrial activities sanctioned without the Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) of local communities. Land and environmental defenders are criminalized, and one is murdered every two days. 

At Cadasta, we see firsthand how secure land tenure can break cycles of poverty and environmental degradation. That’s why we work directly with frontline communities to map their lands and collaborate with governments to strengthen land governance. When those rights are recognized and enforced, communities can protect forests, resist exploitation, and make meaningful contributions to global climate goals. 

Strengthening Land and Forest Rights Program

One of our most ambitious projects to date is the Strengthening Land and Forest Rights program, funded by UK International Development from the UK government. This program supports communities in some of the world’s most ecologically significant regions to secure and defend their land and resource rights.

To date, Cadasta and its partners have: 

• Identified and validated over 4.5 million hectares of forested land. 
• Formally submitted 300,000 hectares for legal recognition
• Helped secure government recognition of 100,000 hectares 
• Reached 80,000 people through land rights education and outreach

A Call to the Global Community

This Earth Day, we call on global donors, NGOs, and policymakers to center land rights in actions that conserve and protect the planet’s natural resources. 

This work is more than clarifying boundaries and ownership, it’s about transforming systems. It’s about securing rights that allow families to invest in their land, communities to build resilience, and ecosystems to thrive. Most of all, it’s about recognizing that our Earth’s resilience begins with rights for the people and communities who steward it. 

We are deeply grateful to the UK International Development, our partners, and the communities we serve. Together, we are providing that when land is secure, so is our planet’s future.