A new analysis by RRI finds Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendant Peoples, and local communities have recognized rights to just 16% of forests. This is despite mounting evidence that secure tenure is vital to achieving global climate and biodiversity commitments and to sustaining the livelihoods, cultures, and self-determined economies of communities that have stewarded these forests for generations.
In 2025, the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) advanced land and livelihood rights for Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendant Peoples, and local communities while marking its 20th anniversary with a renewed focus on rightsholder-led governance and coalition expansion.
This report includes a brief presentation of findings across seven countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America on the legal status of pastoralist and mobile communities’ and women’s rights to mobility and access, key barriers and implementation issues, and a collection of eight case studies across these countries providing insights into the lived realities of pastoralists.
The Women in Global South Alliance (WiGSA) is a cross-continental solidarity network of Indigenous, Afro-descendant, and local community women from Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The following principles outline the values that guide WiGSA in its internal relationships, decision-making, planning, and development of joint advocacy. These principles also support WiGSA’s positioning when crafting declarations and defining representation of the network in international and national spaces, and in dialogues with governments, allies, and donors.
This document captures emerging lessons from CLARIFI’s three-year learning journey. CLARIFI is RRI’s Indigenous and local community-led funding mechanism, and these lessons draw on collaboration with hundreds of partners worldwide to examine how resources can move directly to Indigenous, Afro-descendant, and local community organizations. Beyond documenting programmatic learning, it underscores a clear message that effective and equitable climate action depends on financing that is long-term, flexible, directly accessible to communities, and firmly anchored in secure land and territorial rights.
Continuing the mapping of lands and spaces used by people of African descent carried out in 2024, this edition incorporates a maritime and coastal dimension that allows for a more complete understanding of the complex network of relationships between Afro-descendant Peoples and the marine environment.