Tenure Facility helps Indigenous, Afrodescendant, and local communities secure ancestral land rights, enabling them to protect critical natural ecosystems for generations to come.
Indigenous Peoples, Afrodescendant Peoples, and local communities manage over half of the world’s land, including many of the most biodiverse and carbon-rich ecosystems on Earth. Yet their ownership is often not legally recognised or respected.
This lack of recognition leaves vital ecosystems vulnerable to deforestation and communities faced with displacement and loss of livelihoods. Without legal ownership, even the strongest conservation efforts can be undone.
The imbalance between the scale of stewardship and the lack of recognised rights means communities cannot fully defend their territories against growing threats, undermining both their futures and global biodiversity.
This is why Tenure Facility is stepping in, transforming how we protect the world’s most biodiverse lands.
Tenure Facility is a global funding and legal mechanism dedicated to guaranteeing land and forest rights for Indigenous and, Afrodescendant Peoples, as well as local communities.
By combining legal expertise with direct funding, Tenure Facility provides communities with the tools they need to secure their land rights, safeguarding ancestral homelands and ensuring long-term stewardship of forests and ecosystems.
Already operating across 20 countries, Tenure Facility have helped support community rights and local governance on 34 million hectares in 2024 alone — an area roughly the size of Germany. To date, they’ve helped secure legal tenure to a quarter of this area and have channelled up to $100 million directly to Indigenous groups for legal, technical, and governance support.
And these investments are delivering real impact. In Indonesia’s Papua region, thanks to Tenure Facility’s support, more than one million hectares of primary tropical rainforest were mapped in 2024, and over 500,000 hectares of Indigenous land received official recognition — the largest milestone in the region’s history.
Each success builds momentum towards Tenure Facility’s bold 2027 goal of securing rights across 60 million hectares. But they have ambitions to go much further. By the end of this decade, they aim to double the area currently protected, helping Indigenous Peoples lock in long-term land rights to 70 million hectares.
By empowering the people that have been guardians of our forests for generations, Tenure Facility offers a powerful pathway to protect the natural world at huge scale. Because when Indigenous communities lead, nature thrives.
I am deeply honoured that Tenure Facility has been recognised as a Finalist for the prestigious Earthshot Prize, but this recognition is not ours alone – it belongs to the Indigenous Peoples and local communities who have fought tirelessly to defend their lands, forests, and ways of life.
Their courage and wisdom inspire everything we do at Tenure Facility. This moment shines a light on their leadership and reinforces that securing land rights is not only a matter of justice, but also one of the most powerful solutions we have for protecting our planet.
