Understanding land rights in the Rio Conventions

• Decision 15/4, which adopted the GBF, provides specific directives for participation at all levels of the government, including Indigenous Peoples, local communities, women, and youth. Target 1 calls for participatory spatial planning and management that respects their rights, providing an entry point for addressing land rights nationally. NBSAPs must align with GBF targets and indicators that contain language on land rights, yet many countries only partially align and do not specifically mention land rights.
• The optional disaggregation for Indigenous and traditional territories (ITTs) was retained in the last COP decision, highlighting the need to ensure that Parties apply this disaggregation and account for land tenure when reporting on all area-based indicators and targets, such as Target 2 on restoration.
• There is a need to further develop and operationalize indicators related to violence against Indigenous, land and environmental rights defenders and effective access to justice, also in the context of the traditional knowledge indicators.

The next CBD COP (17) will take place in Yerevan, Armenia in 2026, and continues to present an important opportunity for land rights advocacy in CBD policies and instruments.

The long standing commitment and experience of collaborating with Indigenous Peoples and local communities of the CBD has translated to many frameworks and instruments that contribute directly or directly to more representation of securing land rights for such communities in the CBD.

• • KMGBF Target 3, 22 and 23 include references to respect rights over Indigenous and traditional territories as well as women and girls equal rights and access to land.
  • Indicator on land tenure and use: starting in 2026, countries will be required to monitor and report on the land and territorial rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities in NBSAPs
  • IBPES reports clearly confirm the importance of clear, uncontested land rights in the context of the CBD
  • The Gender Action Plan includes direct references to women’s land rights and a paired dedicated objective (includes increasing women and girls’ rights to ownership and control over land) with indicative actions and possible deliverables.
  • Article 8(j), its voluntary guidelines explicitly address land tenure rights, and the New Programme of Work including 4 tasks directly referring to land rights

NBSAPs should comply with the KMGBF targets and the land tenure indicator that respect and monitor land rights. Still, the national level implementation of global commitments on land rights remains to one of the biggest challenges for the CBD when it comes to land rights. Capacity building, technical assistance and resources to strengthen land tenure systems are necessary steps to support implementation on the national level.

• Often land users are considered land degraders. Instead, the structural forces that lead to degradation such as land loss and conversion, adverse market and infrastructure arrangements and climate change need to be addressed. While the VGGT indirectly does this, a mechanism that explicitly values local knowledge and land governance systems needs to be developed and the concepts of rights and restoration need to be embedded and emerge from them.
• In 2015, UNCCD Parties were invited to formulate voluntary targets to achieve Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) in accordance with their specific national circumstances and development priorities. Parties continue to develop and update these targets. Specific targets on land rights would support land tenure security efforts on the national level.
• Additionally, it is important to establish comprehensive monitoring frameworks to track the impact of land degradation and restoration projects on land rights. This comes with the development of indicators to assess the implementation of land tenure reforms within UNCCD projects. Data and indicators on land governance are currently limited in scope but essential for tracking progress and identifying gaps.

The COP17 in Mongolia in 2026 presents an important opportunity for land rights advocacy in the UNCCD policies and instruments.

The designated land tenure decisions during the COPs, the Gender Action Plan (GAP) and the technical guide of the VGGT in the context of LDN provide important steps in the representation of land tenure rights in the UNCCD and its instruments.

• • Dedicated land tenure decisions since COP14
  • The technical guide for the integration of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (VGGT) into the implementation of the Convention and Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) with the objective to integrate activities to improve land tenure security into the implementation of LDN initiatives by informing policy and decision makers.
  • Gender Action Plan has “strengthening women’s land rights and access to natural resources” as one of four key areas of focus and calls for Parties to aim to increase women’s land rights by 2030
  • Dedicated gender decisions explicitly addressing women's land rights
  • The #HerLand campaign promoted inspiring examples of women and girls’ leadership in sustainable land management, mobilising support to secure land rights for women and girls across the world
  • The Science Policy Interface (SPI) reports identify land tenure security as a crucial part of the “enabling environment” for achieving the objectives of the convention and the Global Land Outlook (GLO), UNCCD’s flagship publication, highlights the role of secure land tenure in sustainable land management and land restoration.

One of the challenges is translating these global policies into national and local level implementation. There are varying levels of awareness and political will at the national level to implement land tenure policies. This is paired with limited capacity and challenges in mobilising resources for implementing land tenure reforms within the context of desertification and land degradation projects.

• The Paris Agreement and other UNFCCC instruments do not explicitly reference land rights. This means there are also weak mechanisms for monitoring the impact of climate actions on land rights and tenure security, or how land rights could create resilience for frontline communities facing the effects of climate change.
• At this point, there is no consideration known of possible land rights indicators, which, taking inspiration from the other Rio Conventions, developing indicators to assess the implementation of land tenure within climate projects could in the future be an important step and opportunity for the enhancement of land rights in UNFCCC frameworks. For example the global indicators of the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) that will be discussed during COP30.

COP30 in 2025 in Brazil presents an important opportunity for land rights advocacy in the UNFCCC

• IPCC reports recognize the importance of secure land tenure in climate action, the references land tenure in the latest IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) increased significantly,
• REDD+ safeguards reference the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples which includes references to land rights
• The renewed workplan of the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform (LCIPP) and the Facilitative Working Group (FWG) does not directly mention land rights but enhances Indigenous Peoples and local communities' engagement in UNFCCC processes potentially leading to more advocacy towards land rights recognitions
• Article 6.4 (on global carbon market mechanisms) addresses FPIC, analyses and mitigates risks of displacement and loss of land but only for Indigenous Peoples’ rights. It falls short of mandating the recognition or documentation of land tenure rights, and measures are entirely absent for non-Indigenous groups.

It is important to encourage countries to include explicit land rights provisions in their NDCs and NAPs and to establish comprehensive monitoring frameworks to track the impact of climate actions on land rights.