Why land rights must be at the centre of climate action: Insights from LANDac 2025

As the world prepares for COP30,  an urgent call to protect the planet’s threatened ecosystems and confront climate injustice is growing louder. The international community is recognising that Indigenous Peoples, Afrodescendant Peoples, and local communities must be at the forefront of global decision-making to address these crises. Across climate, biodiversity, and development agendas, securing land rights goes beyond a matter of justice—it lays the foundation for lasting climate solutions. Yet despite this momentum, much more needs to be done to turn recognition into action. 

This year’s LANDac Conference, held from 2 to 4 July 2025 in Utrecht, the Netherlands, brought together around 100 people from academia, civil society organisations, and donor institutions. It focused on how to advance land rights in the face of mounting global challenges, including climate-induced displacement, shrinking civic space, and deep-rooted gender inequalities. Against the backdrop of declining international support, especially from the high-income countries, the conference offered space for reflection, learning, and strategy-sharing among those working to strengthen land governance and human rights around the world. 

Standout sessions discussed environmental collaboration for peace-positive land governance, Sahel land commissions blending customary and state law, and gender equality and youth inclusion in pastoral land governance. Many of the speakers’ recommendations and findings can be linked to Tenure Facility’s work.

Keynotes that set the tone: Power, voice, and accountability  

The keynote speeches during the event framed where the land rights movement must go next—especially in relation to climate justice and international accountability. 

Esther Mwaura-Muiro from Kenya, global advocacy director of the Stand for Her Land Campaign at Landesa and founder of Grassroots Organizations Operating Together in Sisterhood (GROOTS), delivered a clear message: sustainable development and climate action cannot be achieved without grassroots women’s leadership. These women, often the most affected by land and environmental injustice, possess crucial knowledge and experience that must guide decision-making. Esther called for long-term, systemic change rooted in existing community structures and urged the dismantling of harmful customary norms through community dialogue. She highlighted Kenya’s National Land Policy as a promising example of inclusive, consultative land governance. 

In a following presentation, Raymond Cardinal from Canada, chair of the Indigenous Advisory and Monitoring Committee, addressed international frameworks and climate-linked displacement. He cited the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; the right to free, prior, and informed consent; and the 2024 Dublin Declaration on Fair and Equitable Land Access—a roadmap for governments, companies, and development actors to address displacement. Raymond unpacked how Indigenous Peoples are too often left navigating decision-making systems that are not their own. He stressed the need to protect Indigenous-led spaces, ensure shared power in forums, and demand transparency and notification in closed spaces. 

As we approach COP30, these perspectives must resonate not only in conference halls but also in climate negotiations, investment plans, and national strategies. 

Environmental peacebuilding as climate action 

One takeaway for the climate community came from a session organised by Tropenbos International on environmental collaboration as a peacebuilding tool. This presentation reflected how conflict-sensitive forest management led by local communities has helped reduced tensions or build trust in countries such as Colombia, Indonesia, Somalia, and Ethiopia. 

These case studies revealed that when communities define their own priorities, and when interventions are designed with awareness of root causes, environmental projects can heal both landscapes and social divides. In a world where climate-induced conflicts are increasing, especially around land and resources, these approaches offer actionable pathways forward. 

Customary land commissions: A model in the Sahel 

In the Sahel, local land commissions are crucial structures for securing land rights and resolving disputes. During a session covering case studies from Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, and Benin, participants shared how these commissions support customary land recognition, sustainable land use, and conflict resolution. 

In Mali specifically, village land commissions—known as COFOs—are central to implementing the 2017 Agricultural Land Law, which formally recognises customary rights. Baba Togola, representing the Netherlands Development Organisation (SNV) highlighted these commissions’ crucial role in handling disputes, particularly between land lenders and traditional rights holders. Yet he also outlined key challenges: underrepresentation of women and displaced populations, low public visibility, and resistance from the formal justice system. 

As climate change reshapes power and territory across the Sahel, supporting and scaling COFOs could prove essential—not only for land security but also for peace, adaptation, and social cohesion. 

Tenure Facility’s contribution to climate and land justice 

These rich exchanges, including the challenges raised, align with Tenure Facility’s work to support Indigenous, Afrodescendant, and local communities worldwide to secure land tenure and protect forests.  

In 2024 alone, Tenure Facility partners advanced tenure security across nearly 34 million hectares of land and forests through 35 projects in 18 countries. These initiatives directly counter climate change, biodiversity loss, and social inequalities. 

Tenure Facility has, for example, partnered with the National Coordination of Farmer Associations (CNOP) and Union of Associations and Coordination of Associations for the Development and Defence of the Rights of the Disadvantaged (UACDDDD) in Mali since 2017 to help establish and support more than 300 COFOs across four regions. CNOP and UACDDDD provide training to local communities on the Agricultural Land Law, facilitate stakeholder alignment, and drive forward women’s land rights through capacity building and agroecological practices. They also prepare conflict mediation networks to help communities resolve disputes outside the formal court system.  

These efforts have yielded important results. In 2024, in four regions in Mali, Tenure Facility partners improved communal land or forest rights and governance across 403,970 hectares and 271 communities. A CNOP-supported workshop on gender- and age-based challenges in accessing secure agricultural land shifted the attitudes of local leaders, contributing to 95 village chiefs signing formal commitments to allocate community land specifically to women and youth. With support from UACDDDD, 102 villages and the mayors of their communes signed local conventions (sets of rules) on land and natural resource management. These conventions define practices and norms for the management of land, flora and fauna, fishing grounds, pastoral tracks, forests, and extractive resources. They also provide for women’s participation in decision-making and help prevent and resolve conflicts around customary land rights. 

With land and climate issues increasingly intertwined, these locally led responses represent the kind of leadership COP30 must call upon for climate preparedness and local resilience around the world.  

Moving toward COP30: What needs to happen now 

LANDac 2025 made one thing clear: land rights must no longer be treated as an afterthought in global climate processes. Indigenous, Afrodescendant, and local community actors have already developed functional models for environmental peacebuilding and protection as well as land governance structures. Sustained political will, long-term financing, and meaningful inclusion are the next steps for strengthening and expanding their efforts. 

As climate negotiators and development actors plan to gather in Belém for COP30, the insights shared at LANDac should inform the global conversation. Whether by adopting frameworks such as the 2024 Dublin Declaration on Fair and Equitable Land Access, expanding community-led land governance structures, or meaningfully including grassroots women in decision-making, we must move from recognition to action. 

The solutions are already in motion—it’s time to scale them.