Announcement: A decade after Paris, new work programme drives stronger, more coordinated climate action. Read here.
Parts of this site were translated using AI. Accuracy may vary.
Announcement: A decade after Paris, new work programme drives stronger, more coordinated climate action. Read here.
Parts of this site were translated using AI. Accuracy may vary.
Race to Resilience in Action
The Race to Resilience is a global campaign mobilizing non-State actors to increase the resilience of four billion people to climate risks by 2030. It does this through a network of partners and members supporting locally led adaptation across diverse systems, such as nature, infrastructure, finance, among others.
Learn more about the Race to Resilience Learn more about the Race to ResilienceWednesday, 23 July 2025 | By Climate Champions
Partner: Tenure Facility
Implementer: Indigenous Peoples and Local Community Organizations
Location & Region: 20 countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America
SAA Impact System: Natural systems
Impact: ~4.4 million hectares of land legally recognised. Progress towards strengthened rights and governance on ~34 million hectares of land. 10,345 communities impacted.
Across the world, Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendant Peoples, and other traditional communities steward vast landscapes critical to biodiversity and climate regulation. Yet many continue to face insecurity due to continued lack of recognition of, and respect for, their rights to their ancestral lands and forests.
Image: locals in Belize meet whilst working on a project with the Tenure Facility.
In 2024, Race to Resilience partner, Tenure Facility funded 35 projects working to close this gap, enabling local implementers to secure legal recognition and governance over ancestral and customary lands. The efforts not only advance land justice, social inclusion, and local autonomy but deliver climate solutions mirroring the Climate Champions’ 2030 Climate Solutions roadmap which identifies land tenure security as one of the most effective and scalable climate responses, critical in reducing deforestation, enhancing biodiversity protection, and strengthening community resilience.
Image: a community group tends to land in the Democratic Republic of the Congo with the Tenure Facility.
2024 marked a significant scaling of Tenure Facility’s efforts, with the legal recognition of almost 4.4 million hectares of land and strengthened rights and governance of almost 34 million hectares. Across the Amazon, crucial protections were secured for Indigenous Peoples living in voluntary isolation, providing space for them to keep their culture – and their forests – intact. In Colombia, Bolivia, and Peru, Indigenous governments advanced towards greater control over almost 6 million hectares of their ancestral lands and forests. In Panama, Indigenous Peoples managed to recover 204,000 hectares of land that had been wrongfully allocated to an oil company. In the DRC, communities mapped 762,329 hectares, bringing them closer to securing legal rights to their forests. And in India, Tenure Facility partners supported 7,490 communities’ progress towards securing and effectively governing their territories.
All initiatives embedded the principles of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC), with an emphasis on community-led decision-making. Activities also prioritized capacity strengthening for local organizations, youth leadership development, and the integration of customary practices into formal governance frameworks. This dual focus on legal recognition and practical governance support ensures that communities not only gain rights on paper but also have the tools and authority to manage their lands effectively.
Image: community members in India showcase their Tenure Facility workshop materials.
All Tenure Facility’s projects integrate actions to promote gender equity in land rights and governance. An increasing number are also led by Indigenous female-led organizations, such as the Union for the Emancipation of Indigenous Women (UEFA), which enables women and youth to participate in governance and forest management in Eastern DRC, home to some of the largest expanses of intact tropical forest on Earth. In 2024, UEFA identified 289 women leaders and integrated them into the governing bodies where decisions about community forests are made.
Read more on Tenure Facility and its 2024 annual report here.
Global IP Study
Launched by Climate High-Level Champion, H.E Razan Al Mubarak, The Global Study on Indigenous Peoples’ Climate Contribution aims to share Indigenous Peoples' knowledge, contributions and responses to climate mitigation, adaptation, loss, and damage from across the globe. The Study calls for a rights- and responsibilities-based approach, highlighting IPs as agents of change in climate action at local, regional, national, and international levels. It focuses on case studies from the seven UN socio-cultural regions of IPs.
The study is still receiving case studies. To find out more about the study visit here.
Race to Resilience
The Race to Resilience is a global campaign mobilizing non-State actors to increase the resilience of four billion people to climate risks by 2030. It does this through a network of partners and members supporting locally led adaptation across diverse systems, such as nature, infrastructure, finance, among others.
