Indicators of Social and Governance Issues

Indigenous and Community Forests

Naomi Basik Treanor
Jessica Webb
Katie Reytar

Last Updated on June 26, 2024

This indicator aims to monitor the extent of forestland that is customarily held by Indigenous Peoples and other forest-dependent local communities, including Afro-descendant communities. It also contains data on the extent to which the forestland rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities are recognized and/or secured. Spatial data on the location and boundaries of community land are limited, so this indicator also draws on other (nonspatial) statistics from peer-reviewed literature.

In this section, we will explore the following question:

What role do Indigenous Peoples and local communities play in protecting forests?
How much forestland is held by Indigenous Peoples and other forest-dependent local communities?
How much forestland is legally recognized for Indigenous Peoples and other local communities?
Limitations and Future Prospects

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What role do Indigenous Peoples and local communities play in protecting forests?

There is a strong, and growing, evidence base demonstrating that with the right enabling conditions, Indigenous Peoples and local communities are the best stewards of forestland, and that their rights are crucial to protecting the world’s remaining tropical forests. The IPCC has repeatedly recognized the authority of these scientific findings and called for Indigenous and other local community management as a critical solution to the climate crisis. A 2023 study billed as the “largest and most comprehensive review yet of how to stop deforestation” distilled findings from 320 peer-reviewed analyses and found that since 2018, the amount of research demonstrating that deforestation is lower on Indigenous lands has more than doubled. This meta-analysis focused particularly on the role of Indigenous Peoples, but also concluded that community forestry slowed forest loss in South Asia and Mexico.

Analyses using data on LandMark have also concluded that:

Indigenous and community lands in Brazil, Peru, Mexico and Colombia sequestered more than double the amount of carbon per hectare than other areas.
Forests managed by Indigenous Peoples in the Amazon were strong net carbon sinks from 2001-2021, collectively removing 340 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) — the equivalent of the United Kingdom’s entire annual emissions from fossil fuels. Meanwhile, forests outside Indigenous territories were collectively a carbon source due to significant forest loss.
Between 2013 and 2023, the percentage of tree cover loss outside of Indigenous and community lands in Brazil and Peru (two heavily forested countries with publicly available official community land maps) was higher than within.

However, forests in Indigenous territories may be at risk. For example, in 2023, Indigenous and community lands in Brazil lost 105,000 hectares of forest, an area nearly the size of Hong Kong. Proposed legislation in Brazil during the Bolsonaro administration would allow extractive industries and infrastructure projects in Indigenous territories and weaken Indigenous and traditional communities' claims to forests, and as of mid-2024 has not been formally withdrawn by the Lula administration.

Tree cover loss is lower inside Indigenous and community lands in Peru and Brazil than outsideSee Data and Methods

How much forestland is held by Indigenous Peoples and other forest-dependent local communities?

An estimated 2.5 billion Indigenous Peoples, local communities and Afro-descendant peoples customarily hold and use 50 percent of the world’s land. It is estimated that between one-fifth and one-third of the world’s remaining intact forest landscapes are on Indigenous land. At least 36 percent of the global Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) lie within Indigenous Peoples and local community lands. This indicator includes lands under the customary stewardship of Indigenous Peoples, local communities and Afro-descendant peoples, regardless of whether official title is conferred or rights are recognized under statutory law.

Mapping Indigenous and Community Lands with LandMark

Spatial data on the boundaries and location of lands held by Indigenous Peoples, local communities and Afro-descendant peoples is often, but not always, limited or inaccessible to those outside of these communities. One global source of spatial data on Indigenous and community lands (both lands that have been recognized in formal law and those that have not) is LandMark, which has published maps of Indigenous and community lands that collectively cover more than 13 percent of the world’s land. Most of the available data is in North and South America, parts of Southeast Asia, southern Africa, Iran and Australia.

The LandMark data set includes approximately 136,000 Indigenous and community land maps and indicative areas. These areas contain approximately 21 percent of the world’s intact forest landscapes.

Though the data compiled by LandMark represents only a fraction of the world’s Indigenous and community lands, analysis of the available spatial data yields insights into how formal tenure might impact deforestation trends in these lands, and what is at stake in protecting them, as further explored below.

Although mapping of Indigenous and community lands can support recognition and defense of these lands and enable enforcement of legal rights, mapping is also a political and politicized act; geospatial data released in the public domain should be carefully considered and should have buy-in from the communities since some information may be sensitive. All of the Indigenous and community land maps on LandMark, which are also available on Global Forest Watch, are publicly available or were granted permission through a data-sharing agreement.

How much forestland is legally recognized for Indigenous Peoples and other local communities?

Legal recognition of Indigenous Peoples and local communities’ forestland rights grew in the 2000s and 2010s. In a 2018 study by the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI), which included 58 countries covering nearly 92 percent of global forest area, Indigenous Peoples and local communities were legally recognized as owning at least 447 million hectares (Mha) of forestland and having legally designated rights (see box below for how this term is defined) over an additional 80 Mha, for a total of 14 percent of global forest area, as of 2017. Analysis of a subset of 41 of these countries shows an increase in the amount of forested land owned by or designated for Indigenous Peoples and local communities over time, from 11 percent in 2002 to 15 percent in 2017, representing a 40 percent increase. The majority of the gains in forest area legally recognized for Indigenous Peoples and local communities from 2002-2017 has been in low- and middle-income countries.

Forest ownership and rights are divided between governments, communities, private individuals and firms<fn>Ginsburg and Keene 2018, <a href="https://rightsandresources.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/At-A-Crossroads_RRI_Nov-2018.pdf">https://rightsandresources.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/At-A-Crossroads_RRI_Nov-2018.pdf</a>.</fn>

Forestland owned by or designated for communities increased from 2002 to 2017<fn>Ginsburg and Keene 2018, <a href="https://rightsandresources.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/At-A-Crossroads_RRI_Nov-2018.pdf">https://rightsandresources.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/At-A-Crossroads_RRI_Nov-2018.pdf</a>.</fn>

The Bundle-of-Rights Approach

RRI has monitored legal recognition of Indigenous Peoples and local community rights to forestland since 2002, tracking both quantitative and qualitative aspects of rights. Their bundle-of-rights approach, originally developed by Elinor Ostrom, classifies forest tenure according to the rights-holder and specific legal entitlements recognized by national-level laws and regulations, as follows:

Government administered: Forestland is legally claimed as exclusively belonging to the state, including concessions on state-owned lands. Governments may recognize communities’ rights to access forestlands and/or withdraw forest resources.
Designated for Indigenous Peoples and local communities: Statutory law recognizes Indigenous Peoples and local communities’ rights to access and withdraw, as well as at least management of forests and/or exclusion of outsiders. Other rights may be conferred, but communities do not have the full bundle of rights associated with ownership.
Owned by Indigenous Peoples and local communities: Statutory law recognizes Indigenous Peoples and local communities’ rights of access, withdrawal, management and exclusion, with the addition of due process and compensation for an unlimited duration. Alienation rights (through sale, lease or use as collateral) are not required.
Privately owned by individuals and firms: Individuals and firms legally hold the full bundle of rights described in #3 above for an unlimited duration, as well as the right to sell forestland.

Legal analysis itself does not shed light on the extent to which rights are realized on the ground by communities — in other words, the extent of secure tenure. With secure tenure, communities can exercise rights autonomously and enforce such rights when they are under threat. Analysis at the tenure regime level also does not shed light on whether titles are held. (While title is less crucial to secure tenure than the ability to exercise rights, it does not in and of itself confer tenure, and is often a separate process.)

Limitations and Future Prospects

Maps created and/or endorsed by communities are important for spatial planning and land use decision making, both within the communities themselves and for external stakeholders. Maps enable communities to delineate the boundaries of their ancestral lands and can be a useful tool to support protecting and recognizing legitimate rights to forests. They also can be presented as evidence to support reducing conflict from overlapping land claims. Additionally, community land maps have been used to understand the impacts of tenure systems on natural assets, such as biodiversity and carbon storage. Increasingly, Indigenous and community land maps are also being used by risk assessors working for companies or their investors to understand risks, such as whether there are conflicting claims over lands that they wish to invest in.

However, Indigenous Peoples, local communities and Afro-descendant peoples are often unwilling to share their geospatial data publicly, and with good reason. Historically, maps have been used by vested interests including the governments, private industry and colonizers to justify taking of land, resulting in direct harm to Indigenous Peoples, local communities and Afro-descendants, and in some cases exacerbating conflict, particularly when community maps are seen as illegitimate compared to “official” (i.e., government) data. In addition, rightsholders may be wary because their ways of knowing and conceptualizing their territories are not covered in most geospatial tools. Therefore, lack of data should not be interpreted as indicating the absence of communities. It is essential to ensure that mapping efforts are led by or co-designed with communities themselves and are respectful of communities’ data security and sovereignty.

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A football pitch is slightly smaller than a hectare (pitches are between 0.62 and 0.82 hectares).\r\n"},"67":{"name":"intact","description":"A forest that contains no signs of human activity or habitat fragmentation as determined by remote sensing images and is large enough to maintain all native biological biodiversity.\r\n"},"78":{"name":"intact forest","description":"A forest that contains no signs of human activity or habitat fragmentation as determined by remote sensing images and is large enough to maintain all native biological biodiversity.\r\n"},"8":{"name":"intact forests","description":"A forest that contains no signs of human activity or habitat fragmentation as determined by remote sensing images and is large enough to maintain all native biological biodiversity.\r\n"},"55":{"name":"land and environmental defenders","description":"People who peacefully promote and protect rights related to land and\/or the environment.\r\n"},"9":{"name":"loss driver","description":"The direct cause of forest disturbance.\r\n"},"10":{"name":"low tree canopy density","description":"Less than 30 percent tree canopy density.\r\n"},"84":{"name":"managed forest concession","description":"Areas where governments have given rights to private companies to harvest timber and other wood products from natural forests on public lands.\r\n"},"83":{"name":"managed forest concession maps for nine countries","description":"Cameroon, Canada, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Indonesia, Liberia, and the Republic of the Congo\r\n"},"104":{"name":"managed natural forests","description":"Naturally regenerated forests with signs of management, including logging, clear cuts, etc.\r\n"},"91":{"name":"megacities","description":"A city with more than 10 million people.\r\n"},"57":{"name":"megacity","description":"A city with more than 10 million people."},"56":{"name":"mosaic restoration","description":"Restoration that integrates trees into mixed-use landscapes, such as agricultural lands and settlements, where trees can support people through improved water quality, increased soil fertility, and other ecosystem services. 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"},"86":{"name":"natural","description":"A forest that is grown without human intervention.\r\n"},"12":{"name":"natural forest","description":"A forest that is grown without human intervention.\r\n"},"63":{"name":"natural forests","description":"A forest that is grown without human intervention.\r\n"},"144":{"name":"open canopy systems","description":"Individual tree crowns that do not overlap to form a continuous canopy layer.\r\n"},"82":{"name":"persistent gain","description":"Forests that have experienced one gain event from 2001 to 2016.\r\n"},"13":{"name":"persistent loss and gain","description":"Forests that have experienced one loss or one gain event from 2001 to 2016."},"97":{"name":"plantation","description":"An area in which trees have been planted, generally for commercial purposes.\u0026nbsp;\r\n"},"93":{"name":"plantations","description":"An area in which trees have been planted, generally for commercial purposes.\u0026nbsp;\r\n"},"88":{"name":"planted","description":"A forest composed of trees that have been deliberately planted and\/or seeded by humans.\r\n"},"14":{"name":"planted forest","description":"Stand of planted trees \u2014 other than tree crops \u2014 grown for wood and wood fiber production or for ecosystem protection against wind and\/or soil erosion.\r\n"},"73":{"name":"planted forests","description":"Stand of planted trees \u2014 other than tree crops \u2014 grown for wood and wood fiber production or for ecosystem protection against wind and\/or soil erosion."},"148":{"name":"planted trees","description":"Stand of trees established through planting, including both planted forest and tree crops."},"149":{"name":"Planted trees","description":"Stand of trees established through planting, including both planted forest and tree crops."},"15":{"name":"primary forest","description":"Old-growth forests that are typically high in carbon stock and rich in biodiversity. 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"},"96":{"name":"shifting agriculture","description":"Temporary loss or permanent deforestation due to small- and medium-scale agriculture.\r\n"},"103":{"name":"surface roughness","description":"Surface roughness of forests creates\u0026nbsp;turbulence that slows near-surface winds and cools the land as it lifts heat from low-albedo leaves and moisture from evapotranspiration high into the atmosphere and slows otherwise-drying winds. \r\n"},"17":{"name":"tree cover","description":"All vegetation greater than five meters in height and may take the form of natural forests or plantations across a range of canopy densities. Unless otherwise specified, the GFR uses greater than 30 percent tree canopy density for calculations.\r\n"},"71":{"name":"tree cover canopy density is low","description":"Less than 30 percent tree canopy density.\r\n"},"60":{"name":"tree cover gain","description":"The establishment of tree canopy in an area that previously had no tree cover. 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Citation

“Indigenous and Community Forests Indicator.” Global Forest Review, updated June 26, 2024. Washington, DC: World Resources Institute. Available online at https://research.wri.org/gfr/social-governance-issues-indicators/indigenous-community-forests.