Up to 40% of the world's land is degraded, affecting more than 3 billion people.

Climate breakdown, the collapse of biodiversity and the degradation of land are not three separate crises. They are one emergency, and they meet on the same ground. The hectare that stores carbon is the hectare that holds species, feeds a family and sustains a culture. Degrade it, and all of that is lost at once, and what remains is less able to withstand rising temperatures, deepening drought and extreme weather.

Because land is where these crises converge, it is also where the solutions converge. Many of them lie in a single question: how land is governed, and by whom?

Food systems account for around a third of global greenhouse gas emissions, and it is industrial, large-scale production that drives biodiversity loss, destroys carbon sinks and deepens food insecurity. Land and the ecosystems it carries are degraded further by resource and mineral extraction, ranging from fossil fuels to the minerals of the "green transition" itself.

land tenure rights for protecting biodiversity and reversing land degradation -

ILC promotes land rights as a critical cornerstone for community based conservation and restoration initiatives, while being a defense against top down initiatives that undermine land rights, prevent traditional land use practices or lead to land evictions.

land tenure rights as a climate solution

ILC's climate-focused work ensures solutions to fighting climate change are just and equitable and do not undermine the rights of those living off the land. In particular, our work promotes land rights as a basis for carbon and biodiversity markets and other financing initiatives, while highlighting the need to protect land rights in the context of the green energy transition.