Securing Land Rights Delivers Billions in Climate Benefit Says New WRI Analysis

Indigenous Peoples are dependent on their lands for water, food and livelihoods. However, around the world, only 10 percent of Indigenous and community lands are held under secure tenure.

On October 6, WRI will launch a new report, Climate Benefits, Tenure Costs: The Economic Case for Securing Indigenous Land Rights, which finds for the first time that relatively modest investments in secure land tenure for Indigenous Peoples can generate billions of dollars in returns—economically and environmentally.

As the world comes tantalizingly close to ratifying the Paris Agreement, this report, which will be featured at a webcast event on October 7 in Washington, lays out a novel solution to help meet NDC commitments by reducing emissions from forests. The implications are enormous for forested nations seeking to fulfil climate commitments.

The report offers findings from the Amazon, with a focus on Colombia, Brazil, and Bolivia; but this approach could be replicated in other tropical forest nations from Democratic Republic of Congo to Indonesia as an effective strategy for reducing emissions from deforestation.

The launch event will feature speeches from Lord Nicholas Stern, Luis Moreno (IADB President) and Andrew Steer, a panel discussion with an esteemed group of experts, a presentation of new findings from the report, plus an original animated video.

WHAT
Launch of new WRI report, Climate Benefits, Tenure Costs: The Economic Case for Securing Indigenous Land Rights

WHEN
Friday, October 7, 2015, 10:00-11:30 AM EDT
Breakfast 9:00 AM

WHERE
1777 F Street, NW
Washington, DC 20006
Only 1 block from World Bank

SPEAKERS

• Lord Nicholas Stern, Chair, Grantham Research Institute, London School of Economics
• Helen Ding, Environmental Economist, World Resources Institute
• Naoko Ishii, CEO & Chairperson, Global Environment Facility (GEF)
• Juan Carlos Jintiach, Advisor, La Coordinadora de las Organizaciones Indígenas de la Cuenca Amazónica (COICA)
• Ulrika Modéer, Deputy Minister of Development, Sweden
• Luis Moreno, President, Inter-American Development Bank
• Andrew Steer, President & CEO, World Resources Institute

RSVP by October 6 to Ally Friedman, +1 202-729-7719, ally.friedman@wri.org