The International Land and Forest Tenure Facility is the first and only international, multi-stakeholder institution exclusively focused on securing land and forest rights for Indigenous Peoples and local communities. It provides grants to implement tenure rights under existing law and policy and shares the knowledge, innovations and tools that emerge. Launched in 2014 by the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI), the Tenure Facility is dedicated to scaling up recognition of collective land and forest rights globally. This helps reduce conflict and further the achievement of global human rights, environment, and development goals. The Tenure Facility is an international foundation registered in Sweden.

Goal

At the Tenure Facility, their goal is that Indigenous and local communities thrive and expand the sustainable management and protection of their forests and lands across the developing world — for the betterment of themselves and the global society. They aim to achieve two outcomes: 1) The land and forest rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities are made more secure by governments in targeted developing countries; and 2) Practical approaches for implementing land and forest tenure reforms are shared and leveraged by practitioners and stakeholders to enable greater support and investment in securing the land rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities.

Services

The Tenure Facility provides grants and technical assistance directly to Indigenous Peoples’ and local communities’ organizations to support initiatives that:

Scale up implementation of land and forest tenure reform policies and legislation by:
– Providing support to establish legitimate tenure rights in areas where traditional communal rights are not formally recognized
– Providing support for community mapping, demarcation, and registration efforts
– Strengthening the capacity of national organizations to provide land tenure related services to reach disadvantaged and vulnerable groups

Enable governments and communities to test new models, strategies and approaches by:
– Testing practical solutions to implementation challenges
– Assisting governments and communities to overcome administrative obstacles to land rights recognition and titling
– Building capacity of government agencies responsible for titling and protecting indigenous and community rights