New global report highlights slow progress in expanding secure land tenure

New research from FAO, ILC and CIRAD

Rome/Cartagena de Indias, Colombia - While progress has been achieved in land tenure and governance over the past 20 years, the ownership, tenure or use rights of only 35 percent of the world’s land is formally documented, according to the Status of Land Tenure and Governance, a new report released today.

Some 1.1 billion people, almost one in four of all adults, consider it likely they could lose the rights to some or all of their land and housing within the next five years, and this number has risen notably in the past few years, highlighted the report, produced by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Land Coalition (ILC) and the French agricultural research and cooperation organization, CIRAD.

Tenure security is a crucial catalyst of responsible land governance, and rights over the control of land and decision-making about its use enables better productive and environmentally sustainable decisions, fosters stability and peace and gives people the confidence to invest. Yet while there has been some progress in establishing and expanding land tenure security and governance at the international and national policy levels, it has been slow, and its impact on the ground even slower, underscoring the need for stronger political commitment and inclusive policies.

“Land insecurity is one of the most damaging forms of inequality, paid for in lower productivity, weaker resilience, and poorer nutrition. Secure land tenure enables sustainable investment and is the difference between short-term survival and long-term food security.” said FAO Chief Economist Maximo Torero Cullen.

“Too many people still live with the fear of losing their land and homes, with women and young people remaining among the most excluded - a reality that undermines food security, climate action and biodiversity protection, and shows why secure land rights are foundational to achieving all three,” said Marcy Vigoda, Director, International Land Coalition.

The new report is the first comprehensive global stocktake designed to track how land is owned, used and governed. It draws on a wide set of inputs, complements two decades of guidance embedded most notably in the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests (VGGT), and responds to the growing demand to link land rights with climate action, biodiversity protection, gender equality and rural transformation.

"When we generate evidence with and for all stakeholders, we create the foundation for stronger, more transparent, and more equitable public policies — both nationally and internationally,” said Sélim Louafi, Deputy Director for Research and Strategy at Cirad.

Mapping the situation

States have legal ownership of more than 64 percent of land worldwide, although this includes customary land with designated tenure rights but without documented ownership.

A little more than a quarter of all land is known to be owned privately by individuals, companies or by collectives. For the remaining 10 percent or so, tenure status is unknown.

More specifically, around 18 percent of the world’s land, or 2.4 billion hectares, is owned by private individuals and corporations, according to the report.

Globally, when agricultural land is considered (about 37% of the global land area), the top 10 percent of the largest landholders operate 89 percent of all agricultural land in aggregate terms.

Across regions: a patchwork of differences

Land tenure systems vary enormously across regions. In sub-Saharan Africa, 73 percent of land is held under customary tenure, with only 1 percent formally recognized as such and most of the rest undocumented and under state ownership. In Eastern and South-Eastern Asia, state land dominates, at 51 percent, with only 9 percent of land in the region privately held. Private land ownership accounts for 32 percent of land in North America, 39 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean, and 55 percent in Europe excluding the Russian Federation where state land dominates.

The gap between real tenure and legal documentation is exemplified by the fact that while Indigenous Peoples and other holders of customary tenure rights occupy 5.5 billion hectares or 42 percent of the world’s land, only one billion hectares, covering only 8 percent, have clear ownership rights. That leaves more than a third of the world’s stored carbon and 40 percent of its intact forests at risk of legal limbo.

Men are more likely than women to own or have secure rights to land in almost all the countries with data, and the gender gap exceeds 20 percentage points in nearly half.

The report also reveals that the world’s largest farms, those spanning more than 1 000 hectares, operate more than half of all farmland, while 85 percent of the world’s farmers manage less than two hectares, or just 9 percent of global farmland.

The report notes that while only 12 countries in the world have reported on all three Sustainable Development Goal indicators related to land tenure, there is currently a significant acceleration in reporting.

Exploring customary lands

The report examines customary land systems in detail, as befits their large share of the world’s land. These systems – stewarded by Indigenous Peoples, pastoralists and tribal groups – are increasingly seen as dynamic and vital for people and the planet, as they do and can deliver significant contributions to biodiversity and climate challenges.

Around 77 percent of all reported customary lands, equal to 4.2 billion hectares, have been mapped, albeit often only indicatively. Thirty percent are in North America and Europe, including large tracts in the Russian Federation, 28 percent in Africa, 18 percent in Asia and 12 percent in both Latin America and the Caribbean and Oceania regions.

Those mapped customary territories hold an estimated 45 gigatons of irrecoverable carbon – which cannot be put back in time to avoid climate damage, found mostly in forest biomes – or 37 percent of the global total.

Customary lands are threatened by growing anthropogenic pressures such as urban expansion, transport infrastructure, large-scale industrial agriculture, oil and gas extraction and mining. Paradoxically, some climate solutions geared to renewable energy, biofuels, conservation and carbon offsets are increasing such pressures, especially on lands which lack formal recognition or protections. Preliminary analysis shows that 19 percent of intact forest landscapes, 15 percent of irrecoverable carbon hotspots, and 7 percent of key biodiversity areas on mapped customary lands lack formal government recognition.

Environmental and climate concerns are increasingly driving new large-scale land acquisitions, often funded by pension funds. While data is unclear, the 2022 Land Gap Report warned that national net-zero pledges imply land-based carbon removals requiring nearly 1.2 billion hectares, about the size of all global cropland.