Worldwide, Indigenous Peoples are stewards over vast tracts of vital forest lands, but often without proper legal protections. Now a new landmark report has shown conclusively that when Indigenous Peoples have secure tenure over the forests they live in, deforestation and other forms of environmental degradation are at the very least tempered, if not halted altogether.

Despite its proven efficiency in protecting rainforests, Indigenous Peoples and local communities only receive a small share of funding for climate and biodiversity protection. 

Countries are largely missing out on a key strategy to fight climate change.

2020 was a tough year on many fronts, and land rights were no exception. COVID-19 hindered land rights advocates from doing field research, meeting with government officials, prioritizing policy initiatives, and obtaining funding.

Despite these headwinds, we have seen important advances, and the field continues to grow. Here are eight breakthroughs in 2020 to celebrate:

#1: New laws and policies

Hit hard by the pandemic, Asia's indigenous and local communities face fresh government-led efforts to exploit their land and resources

In addition to its devastating toll on public health, COVID-19 has exacerbated global food insecurity and economic crises. These costs have been particularly acute for Indigenous Peoples and local communities on customarily governed territories and lands.

This blog was written by Sidi Munan as a column in the Borneo Post

Main photo: MPs from Sarawak should initiate a move to legislate for Sarawak in the case of native land rights. — Bernama file photo

Yesterday, on International Human Rights Day, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands announced that Saw Eh Say, the coordinator from the Kayah Earthrights Action Network (KEAN), received the 2020 Human Rights Tulip Myanmar Award for his great efforts to promote the right to land in Myanmar. The Human Rights Tulip is an annual award of the Dutch government for outstanding and courageous human rights defenders.

For centuries, people around the world in the continents of Asia, Africa, Oceania and Latin America have been living off the forests and other natural resources to sustain their livelihoods, their cultural practices and sometimes even religious rituals.

The COVID-19 crisis has made 2020 the most challenging year in our lifetime. It has demonstrated the need to ensure that sustainable and equitable land governance remains a priority on the international agenda. The pandemic also underscored the importance of digital platforms for both maintaining access to data and information and providing a space people can trust.

The  ability of the Embera villages in Panama to shut off the road into their community, and to exclude outsiders, is based in large measure on the government’s official recognition of their indigenous collective land rights.