WHAT WE DO

Building climate resilience through land rights

Secure land rights can directly enhance both climate mitigation and adaptation by creating the conditions and incentives for people to invest in their land. Landesa has strengthened land rights for hundreds of millions of people over decades.

Faced with worsening climate change, we have deepened our commitment to advancing land-based solutions to build climate resilience and ensure a secure future for people and the planet. The climate crisis is complex and urgent. In response, Landesa engages at multiple levels of governance: advocating to elevate climate change in global frameworks and sectoral norms, integrating climate action into national policies, and incorporating climate resilience into local activities. The knowledge we glean at each level informs our work on other levels, creating a unified path to climate justice.

Project Highlights

The expertise our team brings allows us to work across contexts, weaving a multi-layered web of climate resilience. Explore examples of our work below, and reach out to find out how you can partner with us to advance climate justice.

Landesa collaborated with a core group of actors in the women's land rights sector (the International Land Coalition, the Global Land Tool Network/UN Habitat, the Huairou Commission, Oxfam, FEMNET) to develop a Collective Women’s Land Rights (WLR) Commitment, which was officially launched at the Generation Equality Forum in Paris in July 2021, and enshrined women’s land rights as a key element of the global efforts to accelerate and achieve gender equality by 2026. This WLR Commitment was endorsed by a broad group of civil society and farmers’ organizations, research institutes, UN agencies, and philanthropic partners. The WLR Commitment will now be part of a global accountability framework, driving action on gender equality, poverty eradication, and climate action.

At the request of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification Secretariat, Landesa led a steering committee, including the FAO, Land Portal, and ILC, in drafting an options paper on raising awareness on the importance of addressing gender-equitable and socially inclusive land tenure in the context of land degradation neutrality. The paper was presented to all 197 Parties at the UNCCD COP15 in May 2022 and can be read here.

Funded by the U.S. Department of State, Landesa is building coalitions of women-led organizations in Maldives, Bangladesh, and Nepal to spur climate action and advance women's land rights. National coalitions of civil society organizations develop and implement strategies to strengthen climate resilience and disaster risk reduction through capacity-building efforts and advocacy at local, national, and regional levels of governance.

Landesa is carrying out an ambitious law and policy initiative to lay the foundation to strengthen coastal tenure rights across this region to protect the mangrove forests and the communities living there. Alongside local partners, Landesa is addressing laws and policies regarding forest tenure, land use planning, and climate mitigation and adaptation with the six countries forming a contiguous stretch of bioregion from West Bengal, India to West Papua, Indonesia. Activities include: state policy advising in West Bengal, locally-led climate adaptation in Bangladesh, community forest certification in Myanmar, forest cover mapping in Thailand, national policy advising in Cambodia, and legislative support in Indonesia. This work is funded by King Philanthropies and other supporters.

In partnership with the Liberian Environmental Protection Agency, Landesa reviewed the country’s Nationally Determined Contributions to the UNFCCC to elevate the role of land tenure, particularly for women, as a climate change mitigation and adaptation strategy.

Landesa’s research on women’s use of wetlands in Liberia revealed the importance of wetlands for both conservation and women’s livelihoods. Requested by the Liberia Land Authority, this research will inform national policy to strengthen wetland area protections and support local communities and carbon sequestration efforts.

Landesa is developing modules for last-mile handheld technology to educate Liberian communities on land rights and climate resilient land management strategies with particular attention to the inclusion of women and youth in these capacity development efforts.

Landesa conducted research into community forest governance implementation in Liberia to improve women’s meaningful participation in community-level land governance. Landesa also worked with Liberian CSO partners to improve women’s and youth’s participation in customary land governance, expected to decrease large-scale concessions-driven development and increase community-led sustainable development approaches.

Outline of Myanmar Landesa has worked with thousands of families to protect and reforest hundreds of thousands of acres of degraded mangrove forests in Myanmar. Mangroves offer vital protection from soil erosion, sequester large amounts of carbon, provide a habitat for endangered wildlife, and create sustainable livelihoods for rural communities.

Landesa is leading an assessment of the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of community forest certification in Myanmar, evaluating ongoing climate mitigation work conducted by Landesa and our partners. The assessment specifically analyzes the elevated inclusion of women in decision-making roles on community natural resource management committees.

Prioritizing land rights in global climate agendas

Sustainable management of land is foundational to the goals of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, and the Convention on Biological Diversity. Landesa partners with these three multilateral bodies to elevate land tenure discourse and include land tenure as a climate mitigation and adaptation strategy across the Rio Conventions.

Securing land tenure in climate-sensitive environments

Landesa secures land rights for communities stewarding critical carbon sinks and biodiversity hotspots like mangroves, rainforests, and peatlands to protect these ecosystems from corporate interests and unjust land grabs. By preserving and restoring these landscapes, we support positive outcomes for conservation, livelihoods, and climate mitigation alike.

Strengthening land tenure for climate actors

The rights and expertise of Indigenous Peoples, women, and youth are central to effective climate action. Landesa partners with governments and local organizations to offer resources and community trainings for forest management, agroforestry, and climate-smart agriculture. With both strong rights to land and adaptation skills, communities can maximize their land’s potential for climate mitigation and resilience, strengthening livelihoods and ecological health.

Supporting climate-smart business practices

Companies can be powerful agents for climate action in shifting sectoral standards to advance sustainable practices that prioritize local community rights and environmental health.

In our corporate engagement work on land rights, Landesa is exploring best practices for companies seeking to invest in low-emission technologies, build climate resilience within their value chains, and support the local communities engaged in their land acquisitions. For market-based instruments like carbon markets and payments for ecosystem services, land rights are foundational to smallholders receiving due benefits.

Building climate resilience through land rights

Prioritizing land rights in global climate agendas

Securing land tenure in climate-sensitive environments

Strengthening land tenure for climate actors

Supporting climate-smart business practices

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