Land ambitions encounter entrenched injustices

Land is a powerful resource to combat climate change, holding unique potential to mitigate ever-intensifying climate impacts. Carbon sequestration through nature-based solutions, accelerating biodiversity conservation, and restoring land all hinge on land use.

But land demands have reached new heights. For example, governments have committed over 1 billion hectares of land to meet global climate pledges. While these pledges reflect an extraordinary commitment and promising step towards creating a healthy and safe planet for all, additional demands on land can also create novel challenges for women around the world.

Land ownership is highly concentrated, reflecting unjust power dynamics. Just one percent of large farms control 70 percent of farmland globally. Yet 84 percent of small farms hold only 12 percent. This means that the vast majority of small farmers and food producers have less and less access to productive land. For women, this dynamic amplifies pre-existing inequalities. While women produce 50 percent of the world’s food, they own less than 15 percent of land.

Global commitments and national plans, especially those requiring farmlands to be converted to forests, can often overlook the implications such land-based measures may have on local communities and Indigenous Peoples who rely on land as a lifeline, yet lack the rights to land they need to survive. Women, in particular, are already routinely denied land rights on discriminatory legal and cultural grounds. A lack of secure tenure coupled with additional pressure on land resources can cause women to face even greater risk of displacement, marginalization, economic loss, and violence.

Violet Shivutse at UNCCD COP16, World Soil Day. ©Joanna Trimble

Local innovations reach the global stage

Studies continue to show that secure land tenure forms the foundation of an enabling environment to support women’s socioeconomic advancement and their efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Women who depend on land are armed with invaluable knowledge of local plants, ecosystems, and sustainable farming practices, making them—and their voices—critical yet missing pieces of advancing climate action on the ground.

“Grassroots women are innovating daily, finding practical solutions through their struggles. [They] continue to play a vital role in addressing challenges like food security and climate adaptation,” says Violet Shivutse, Founder and Director of a women-led grassroots organization in Kenya, Shibuye Community Health Workers. Violet has dedicated much of her career to both empowering women in her community with agricultural and land access support and bringing their voices to the forefront of climate policy.

“[Women’s] contributions need amplification and integration into broader development and climate action plans. Elevating these women as agents of change, rather than mere beneficiaries, is crucial to creating inclusive and sustainable solutions. It’s essential to amplify their voices globally.”

To make this ambition a reality, TMG Think Tank for Sustainability, the Robert Bosch Stiftung, grassroots network, the Huairou Commission, and the three UN Rio Conventions—the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) — have united through the Women’s Land Rights Initiative.

The Women's Land Rights Initiative workshop in June 2024. ©Manuel Frauendorf

Stronger together

The Women’s Land Rights Initiative comprises a network of more than 60 partners spanning the political spectrum. From local land rights advocates and grassroots organizations, to soil, biodiversity and climate experts, to governments, and UN agencies: all have come together to anchor women’s land rights within three UN Rio Conventions.

“Everything we do relies on land,” says Olivier Rukundo of CBD. “When we talk about land in the context of CBD, we find that most of the 23 targets are linked to land and land rights. However, we need to navigate the complexity and ambiguity to bring land issues into the discussions in all three Conventions, because if we don’t, there will be consequences for local communities already using the land, and then we will have failed.”

UNCCD stands out among the Rio Conventions for its explicit prioritization of secure tenure rights for women as critical to achieving its goals. For example, UNCCD recognizes that land rights can substantially empower women in their role as land stewards: a powerful step towards fostering the resilient communities needed to combat land degradation and promote sustainable development. This commitment must be systematically mirrored across the sister conventions.

Through strategic coordination, knowledge sharing, and advocacy, the Initiative ensures that decisions made at the global level can sufficiently prioritize women’s robust contribution to advancing the Conventions’ goals on the ground. “When women’s full and equal rights and participation in decision-making are ensured, they become powerful actors in protecting and restoring the land,” said Tarja Halonen, UNCCD Ambassador and former President of Finland, at the Women’s Land Rights Workshop in July 2024. “Partnership and collaboration are needed more than ever to advance women’s empowerment and secure land rights for women.”

The Initiative sets grassroots organizations as its compass for decision-making. Rooted in deep community engagement, they champion solutions that reflect the realities and ambitions of local land users to drive more equitable solutions. “Local organizations like mine are also at the forefront of this,” adds Violet. “Our communities, especially the women, must be included in shaping these workplans. And this presents a great opportunity to forge a way forward with like-minded partners, so our voices ring out in this space.”

UNCCD COP16, Ghana leads the Africa group in the latest UNCCD land tenure decision. ©Joanna Trimble

From policy to action

2024 was the year of triple COPs for the Rio Conventions. UNCCD’s COP16 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia echoed once again their leadership on land tenure, following decision 28/COP.16 spearheaded by the Africa group for countries to nominate a dedicated focal point for land tenure, which would help operationalize prior tenure decisions.

The Initiative will carry out a thorough analysis of all COP outcomes related to gender and land tenure. It then sets its sights on establishing a robust and diverse knowledge foundation to build an advocacy roadmap for stakeholders to spearhead change across the local, national, and global levels. With another workshop upcoming in 2025, the Initiative aims to harness the collective momentum built over the last two years to advance discussions around coordination and alignment of National Focal Points, advocating through Rio Conventions’ Women’s Caucuses, and enhancing access to finance for grassroots actors in the context of climate action.

Integrating land rights into Rio Conventions’ agendas is both an anticipatory step to prevent challenges before they occur and a practical pathway to unlocking new solutions to problems that persist. The time to act is now.

Watch the latest video below or on YouTube to learn more about the Initiative and its goals!