Last week, leaders from governments, businesses, philanthropy, and civil society convened in New York City for Climate Week NYC 2025, one of the world’s largest annual gatherings dedicated to advancing climate action. With climate impacts accelerating, from biodiversity loss to land degradation and displacement, the conversations happening in New York are more urgent than ever. 

At Cadasta, we know that solutions to the climate crisis must begin with land and resource rights. This is why our President and CEO Amy Coughenour Betancourt and Senior Director of Philanthropy and Strategic Partnerships Heidi Burgess were on the ground in New York, engaging with partners and amplifying the critical role of secure land rights for local communities in biodiversity protection and climate resilience. 

Why Climate Week Matters 

Climate Week NYC has become a focal point for accountability and collaboration, moving the global conversation from what should be done to how it gets done. This year’s agenda emphasizes implementation, with governments, businesses, and philanthropy coming together to drive progress on clean energy, biodiversity protection, and climate justice. 

“The challenge for New York Climate Week and beyond is to ensure that individuals and institutions come together in new ways to reimagine how we can cooperate against common threats.” –Rajiv Shah, President of The Rockefeller Foundation

This spirit of cooperation is essential. But true progress is only possible when the voices of Indigenous Peoples, local communities, smallholder farmers, women, and youth, the frontline stewards of land and nature, are included and respected. 

Cadasta’s Critical Role 

For ten years, Cadasta has worked alongside local communities to secure land and resource rights. We do this because we know that land rights are the foundation of effective climate action. By securing and promoting secure land rights, we also promote:  

• Biodiversity: Secure tenure enables communities to conserve forests, protect habitats, and safeguard species. 
• Climate Resilience: When people have rights to their land, they can invest in adaptation by restoring soils, planting trees, managing water, and reducing deforestation. 
• Equity and Protection: Land rights protect communities, especially Indigenous Peoples, women, and marginalized groups, against displacement and exclusion, ensuring they are leaders in climate solutions. 

Cadasta provides the digital tools, training, and partnerships that enable communities to map, document, monitor, and advocate for their land and natural resources. By combining local knowledge with technology and data, we help bridge the gap between community stewardship and global climate goals. 

“Securing land and resource rights is not a side issue, it is the bedrock of climate resilience, biodiversity conservation, and equity,“ emphasizes Amy Coughenour, president and CEO of Cadasta. “When communities have the power to define, document, and defend their land and resources, they become powerful stewards of our shared future.” 

This has never been more evident than the impact of our Strengthening Land and Forest Rights (SLFR) program, supported by partners around the globe and funded by UK International Development from the UK government. Together, we are turning vision into measurable change:

• 4.4 million+ hectares of land documented by local communities
  
• 107,730+ hectares of Indigenous and local community land legally recognized
  
• 70% of land documents issued under the program recognize women’s ownership rights
  
• 513,643 Indigenous Peoples and local community members documented on the Cadasta Platform
  
• 82,740+ people trained and educated on land administration and rights
  
• 12 Indigenous and community organizations now equipped with GIS solutions to monitor, manage, and protect land

These results demonstrate how strengthened tenure and governance protect ecosystems, advance justice, and drive systemic change.In meetings such as the Forest Climate Leaders Partnership and the Path to Scale, we engaged with high-level country actors as well as leadership from civil society and Indigenous and Local Community organizations. We heard the latest report from the Forest Tenure Funders Group on progress toward the $1.7 billion in finance pledged at COP 26, which showed progress toward the goal of more direct funding to frontline communities, but also the need to achieve more.

Discussions of the Intergovernmental Land Tenure Commitment and the new Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities Land and Forest Tenure Pledge highlighted the collective efforts to do better by recognizing and funding the communities who steward and protect critical ecosystems.