Indigenous Communities Around the World Are Gaining Their Land Back

A recent report found that land owned by Indigenous, Afro-Descendant, and local communities increased by 254 million acres between 2015 and 2020.

“We are seeing the [results of] advocacy and the work that Indigenous peoples and local communities have been doing to push forward the recognition of their rights,” says the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) coordinator, Solange Bandiaky-Badji.

The report, released by the RRI, analyzed land increases across 73 countries and concluded that Indigenous groups now own more than 11 percent of Earth’s terrestrial land. Kenya and Liberia, in particular, led the way in the legal recognition of community land rights with respective 61 percent and 41 percent increases. The report acknowledges, however, that roughly 3.3 billion acres of ancestral land have yet to be recognized. These big gains, then, are only the beginning of the effort to right wrongs for Indigenous and minority communities.