Climate Change
Climate justice starts with secure land rights.
Climate change is the gravest challenge humanity faces, endangering peace and prosperity, food security, and the full enjoyment of human rights for every person on Earth. Systemically, those least responsible for the climate crisis feel its effects most harshly.
Two and a half billion people worldwide depend on land for their livelihoods, yet nearly half lack secure land rights to the land they need to survive. This leaves hundreds of millions of people – and their land – at far greater risk for climate impacts and exploitation, especially among rural and Indigenous communities.
Bring expertise in climate action, sustainability, and communities’ rights on mangroves, forests, rainforests, peatlands, and wetlands- Advocate for the inclusion of land rights as a foundation for effective action in global environmental frameworks and national climate policies
- Collaborate with private sector actors advancing climate solutions to ensure free, prior, and informed consent of affected local land stewards
Our work
Integrating Land rights into Global Climate Agendas
Landesa works directly with the three Rio Conventions through the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Women and Gender Constituency, the UN Convention to Combat Desertification Secretariat, and the UN Convention on Biological Diversity Women Caucus, providing ongoing technical guidance and policy recommendations concerning land and gender.
Recently, we published guidance with UNCCD and are supporting governments' revisions of their Nationally Determined Contributions. Landesa’s advocacy has contributed to successfully updating Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Nepal’s NDCs to better integrate elements of gender equity and land tenure security, which stand to benefit 91.8 million people.
Read: Technical Guidance for Integrating Land Tenure into NDCs →
Coastal Livelihoods and Mangroves Project
Landesa is implementing an ambitious initiative to strengthen coastal tenure rights across nine countries in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, protecting both the mangrove forests and the communities who depend on them. Alongside local partners, we are addressing laws and policies regarding forest tenure, land use planning, and climate mitigation and adaptation in Bangladesh, Cambodia, India (State of West Bengal), Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Thailand in South and Southeast Asia, and Kenya and Tanzania in East Africa.
Our activities include:
- Advising on state policy
- Supporting locally-led climate adaptation
- Certifying community forests
- Mapping forest cover
- Providing legislative support
This work is funded by King Philanthropies and other supporters.
Read: Project Overview →
Read: 2026 Project Mid-Term Pause and Reflect →
Strengthening Resource Rights in Carbon Markets and Land-Based Projects
Landesa supports IP & LC autonomy in decision-making (including the right to withhold consent) and works to strengthen their land and resource rights in partnership with governments, communities, CSOs, and the private sector. We support actions that 1) strengthen IP & LC land and resource rights, 2) ensure IP & LC access to information needed to make decisions with free, prior, informed consent about carbon projects, and 3) increase IP & LC participation and power in decision-making and negotiations related to carbon projects and markets that affect their land and natural resources, and 4) advance the legal and policy reforms needed to build a regulatory system that recognizes IP & LC rights and embeds FPIC and equitable benefit-sharing in the rules governing carbon markets.
Read: Landesa's Approach to Carbon Markets & Land-Based Projects →
Collective Action to Address Climate Change
Landesa strengthened the capacity of networked, women-driven civil society organizations to advance local climate resilience and sustainable land management, effective advocacy at all levels of governance, and gender-equitable land rights in Bangladesh, Nepal, and Maldives. This work has led to the strengthened capacity of 2,000+ people to better adapt to climate change, 1,400+ people engaged in advocacy, local land use planning and disaster management policy reform, and strengthened land tenure and gender equity commitments at national levels, which stand to benefit more than 91.6 million people. Landesa has also supported country coalitions within Stand for Her Land to identify and advance environmental advocacy goals.
Read: Linking Women's Land Rights, Climate Action, and the UN Women Peace and Security Framework →
Building climate resilience through land rights
Climate change is the gravest challenge humanity faces, endangering peace and prosperity, food security, and the full enjoyment of human rights for every person on earth. We all experience the effects. But people living in poverty feel them the most harshly. Climate change and poverty are now so deeply intertwined that we must solve them together.
At Landesa, we leverage land rights as a powerful tool to flip the script toward resilient environments and thriving communities. Explore our work growing the path to climate justice through land rights.
