RRI was founded in 2005 to address the insecure and unjust land rights of over two billion Indigenous Peoples and local communities living in the forests and drylands of developing countries. These insecure rights undermine global efforts to alleviate poverty, advance women’s rights and gender equity, and reduce illegal logging, conflict, and climate change. 

As a diverse coalition of development organizations dedicated to advancing the land and resource rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities, RRI has fostered the creation and implementation of innovative solutions to land tenure security to advance three global goals:

1. Substantially increase the forest area under local ownership and administration.
2. Prevent all changes to national laws and regulations that weaken the customary and statutory land rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities and simultaneously promote new laws that strengthen customary and statutory rights.
3. Dramatically reduce poverty in the forested areas of the world.

Since its founding, RRI has dedicated itself to rigorously track global progress on and advocate for two targets situated within the framework of the Millennium Development Goals, and now the Sustainable Development Goals. These goals are:

1. At least 50 percent of lower and middle income country forest area is owned or designated for use by Indigenous Peoples and local communities by 2030. By 2015, the world achieved almost half of original target.
2. Indigenous Peoples and local communities have recognized rights to manage, conserve, use, and trade forest products and services in 100 percent of the area under their ownership or designated use, which is customarily at least 50 percent of the world’s land, by 2030.

Mission: RRI supports local and Indigenous Peoples’ struggles against poverty and marginalization by promoting global commitment and action towards policy, legislative, and market reforms that secure their rights to own, control, and benefit from natural resources, especially lands and forests.

Value proposition: With a limited incremental investment in improved coherence and coordination, organizations can dramatically increase their contribution to the rights, dignity, and development of forest dependent people globally as well as to forest conservation and more equitable economic and social development.