Indigenous Peoples' Day 2023

Global Land Alliance acknowledges that we, as individuals and as an organization, benefit from the traditional land of the Nacotchtank and the Piscataway Conoy People working in what is now known as Washington D.C. As a core value of our mission, we believe that the Indigenous knowledge is key to advancing rights to land and resources.

Land and Forest tenure is a critical element of sustainable prosperity for Indigenous people and the places that they steward. But it is an area in which a major gap exists in many countries whose legal systems and forest management institutions fall short in their recognition of community-based tenure based on traditional occupancy and stewardship.

Scientists, global leaders and thinkers, and First Nations peoples around the world continue to stress that we must listen to Indigenous voices and local communities to achieve balance with our earth and our climate.

The commitment to Indigenous land rights is embedded across GLA’s projects, specifically through GLA’s Community-Based Resource Management and GESI work. In recent months, Global Land Alliance has:

·         Worked with local partners to analyze the public designation of lands in the Brazilian Amazon and how one can approach the demarcation for Indigenous and Forest-dwelling people.

·         Uplifted Indigenous frontline voices in the U.S. and how they see their treaty rights to their land as extractive industries seek to encroach. See here and here.

·         Worked with ProGreen to support the development of Action Plans by governments of Indonesia, Philippines and Laos for clarification and formalization of forest rights and management including Indigenous Peoples and local community rights.

·         Researched pathways for investors to better support securing collective forest tenure rights in Sub-Saharan Africa, with dual benefits for climate outcomes and Indigenous and local community rights

·         Convened a roundtable of indigenous-, afro-descendent-, and traditional community representatives and organizations from the Amazon region and the Inter-American Development Bank to better understand perspectives and share knowledge about advancing community land governance and collective land titling.

#IndigenousPeoplesDay