Amy Coughenour Betancourt
President and CEO, Cadasta Foundation
This year marks a significant milestone at Cadasta–ten years of putting people and their land on the map. In 2015, Cadasta was founded with a bold vision: to build a transformative global ecosystem of partners, technology, and data to protect land and property rights and address the world’s most pressing land challenges.
Prior to joining Cadasta in 2018, I had spent two decades working on market and community-led approaches to agriculture and rural development globally. I observed that the vast majority of smallholder farmers I met lived and worked on land without a formal title. I joined Cadasta after learning that this was the case for more than 1 billion people, leaving them vulnerable to eviction, land grabs, and exclusion from public services.
I also learned then that the land tenure “gap” is not only driven by political and legal barriers; it also stems from a technology, data, and skills gap. Most communities in emerging economies lack the tools, training, and data they need to make their land rights visible and secure.
Cadasta’s founding vision was to close that gap. A decade later, this vision has translated into meaningful global impact, equipping millions of people with the resources needed to map and secure their land, strengthening climate resilience, advancing gender equity, and unlocking economic opportunities.
A Decade of Milestones
To put our vision into action, Cadasta first started by building an open digital platform to collect and manage land data. Three years later, we pivoted to a partnership with Esri to make a secure, scalable GIS suite accessible and affordable for stakeholders on the ground. Second, we knew that to get the most out of technology, partners and communities needed to be trained in GIS, mapping, and data management skills. And finally, we realized that, along with bottom-up approaches led by communities, we also needed to support better land systems within governments. We responded by providing expertise on land administration and land information systems to local and national land agencies. Our goal was to bridge the gap between communities and governments to achieve land recognition and titling and more fair and responsive land services.
Today, Cadasta continues to bridge the disconnect between people’s customary, ancestral or informal land use, occupancy data, and government recognition of the data and community claims. By helping communities capture and share accurate, trusted land data, Cadasta makes their rights visible, paving the way for legal recognition, improved services, and long-term security.
As we celebrate our 10-year milestones, we know that they represent more than just statistics; they reflect strengthened communities, protected environments, and lives that have been transformed.
Partnerships: A Decade of Impact and Transformation
At the heart of Cadasta’s work is a simple belief: the people closest to the land are best positioned to protect and sustain it. But they need tools, training, and trusted data to make their rights visible and their voices heard. That’s why Cadasta has collaborated closely with grassroots and national organizations, communities, and governments to advance land and resource rights for those who need it most.
Our partnerships and projects span a wide range of sectors and priorities—agriculture, forests, urban settlements, biodiversity, climate adaptation, Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities’ rights, and women’s land rights. We have worked with groups across sub-Saharan Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean. This sectoral and geographic diversity underscores a shared global truth: secure land rights are foundational everywhere to achieving prosperous livelihoods, equity, justice, a thriving environment, and inclusive development.
Cadasta’s approach over the last ten years has proven that accessible technology, paired with local partnerships and tailored training and technical support, can deliver meaningful and measurable results. Looking back on our collective impact, these examples, to me, really highlight where Cadasta’s impact has been especially transformative.
Advancing Women’s Land Rights
Helping women realize their rights to own and steward land and property is a cornerstone of Cadasta’s work. In Bonito, Brazil, Cadasta partnered with Espaço Feminista and local authorities to document land rights for over 1,400 families using Cadasta’s platform.
This partnership resulted in 85% of land titles, including women, either solely or jointly, transforming decades of informal use into legally recognized ownership. I will never forget the tears of joy and gratitude of the women on the day the mayor presented them with titles to their homes and land in their names.
It was a powerful reminder of how these efforts are strengthening women’s ability to claim, defend, and benefit from the land and property they rely on.
Protecting Critical Ecosystems
Cadasta continues to work alongside local and Indigenous communities to map and defend ancestral lands that are home to some of the planet’s most biodiverse ecosystems.
In Myanmar, Cadasta partnered with the Karen Environmental and Social Action Network (KESAN) to map over 3.5 million hectares of Indigenous territory and issue land titles for 14,960 families. These efforts supported the establishment of community-managed biodiversity parks that protect endangered species, forest corridors, and sacred sites.
We have seen how our Indigenous partners and communities across the globe are embracing technology as a way to claim, protect, and steward critical ecosystems on ancestral lands. By helping communities map and document their stewardship, Cadasta enables long-term conservation and strengthens their resilience to threats from deforestation and climate change.
Bridging Community and Government Action
In Uganda, Cadasta worked with the Ministry of Land, Housing, and Urban Development (MLHUD) and local NGOs, including the Ujamaa Foundation, over the past 8 years to close the gap between informal land use and formal recognition.
Through participatory mapping and capacity-building, over 5,000 land certificates (CCOs) were issued to rural households, and 5,000 more are pending. For the first time in history, these land documents are being integrated into the national land information system, making the CCO holders more visible and unlocking their potential to access financial and public services. Furthermore, through community outreach, 77% of the CCOs were issued in women’s names. The project demonstrates how community-led mapping can align with national land systems, offering a scalable model for legal recognition and the benefits that land rights provide.
Building Trust Through Transparency
In India, Cadasta partnered with local partners to help forest-dwelling communities in Odisha, Gujarat, and Jharkhand map and claim their rights under the Forest Rights Act. A third-party, independent assessment found that 70% of participants expressed high levels of trust in the mapping and documentation process, while 79% said the Cadasta Platform made the process easier and more transparent.
The evaluation also found that improved land documentation using Cadasta’s Platform enabled communities to access government entitlements, such as agricultural loans and employment programs, while also reducing conflict through more accurate boundary mapping.
Surveyors reported being able to map two to three villages in a single day, thanks to the platform’s ease of use and efficiency. These results demonstrate the power of transparent, community-driven processes to unlock services, strengthen local trust, and lay the groundwork for sustainable development.
An Evolving Organization, A Consistent Mission
Over the last decade, Cadasta has evolved from a pioneering start-up to a global leader in facilitating locally led documentation of land and resource rights. We pivoted and evolved our strategies to address global realities and the evolving needs on the ground, yet remained true to our mission. Looking back on our ten years, I am struck by three lessons:
- Technology is a powerful tool, but not the end game. It enables progress and facilitates decision-making and knowledge, but can never stand alone nor replace local expertise. There is no perfect technology solution that will meet every need and last forever. It always operates within a local context and must be responsive to that.
- It takes time to invest in technology capacity, and most donor project timelines don’t support that. At the same time, if we waited for the perfect conditions to respond to partners’ immediate needs, we would not have achieved the results we have. We need to work with what we have while also pushing for flexible funding and timelines that sustain support over time.
- Trust is the most important currency of all. Any work with partners is built on trust that comes from honesty, deep listening, reliability, and a learning mindset that admits mistakes and adapts along the way. For example, a strong commitment to community data ownership, transparency, and self-determination has been a bedrock of our partnerships from the beginning and is foundational to all our work.
The Road Ahead
Today, we are operating in an institutional and funding landscape that has drastically changed in a short period of time and the dust is still settling. While we celebrate a decade of milestones, we look forward with recognition that the road will not be easy. The global land tenure gap remains vast, but we know from experience that progress is possible.
To have the type of impact we hope to have over the next 10 years, we must work differently. One-on-one partnerships with a narrower scope have a harder time attracting resources and achieving impact. Instead, we see the need to approach opportunities more systemically and strategically. Often this means partnering with a broader range of complementary actors, who together can achieve greater impact at a larger scale. This includes policymakers, implementers, donors, researchers, and communities who all have critical roles to play.
With Gratitude and Commitment
We owe our success to our founders, partners, donors, board, and team who launched and shared this journey with us. Your trust, collaboration, and support have enabled Cadasta to reach new heights, supporting rights-holders worldwide in claiming and defending their land rights.
As we celebrate 10 years of progress, we remain steadfast in our mission to support secure land tenure for communities around the world, create pathways for opportunity, and build resilience for a sustainable future. Here’s to the next decade of meaningful impact!