This brief summarizes findings from the first international comparative assessment on the extent to which various national-level legal frameworks recognize the freshwater rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities, as well as the specific rights of women to use and govern community waters.
Historically, the injustices confronting women with regard to community land rights have been widespread. They are commonly perpetuated by patriarchal community-level practices, customary laws, and formal laws passed by governments, all of which either overlook or directly discriminate against indigenous and rural women’s tenure rights.
This report examines three overlapping crises: climate change, biodiversity loss and the growing land and other rights abuses against Indigenous Peoples and local communities.
Despite the substantial forest area held, claimed, and managed by Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and rural women, the vast majority of the world’s forests formally remain under government administration as national or provincial forests, protected areas, or forests allocated to third parties under concessions.
Forests and other lands are essential for achieving climate and development ambitions. If appropriately leveraged, natural climate solutions can contribute upwards of 37 percent of cost-effective CO2 mitigation by 2030, and evidence shows Indigenous Peoples and local communities are key to achieving such outcomes.
Today, there are an estimated 370 million indigenous peoples across the world. Although they represent a relatively small portion of the global population, they account for the largest portion of linguistic and cultural diversity on Earth.
This is a technical policy brief for the HLPF on Sustainable Development Goal 15 prepared by the Forest Peoples Programme and produced by the Indigenous Peoples Major Group for Sustainable Development.
Increasing global demand for natural resources is intensifying competition for land across the developing world, pushing companies onto territories that many Indigenous Peoples and rural communities have sustainably managed for generations.
