Indigenous and local communities regain millions of hectares of land via successful legal effort

Indigenous and local communities regain millions of hectares of land via successful legal effort

Nonette Royo is a lawyer from the Philippines and executive director of The Tenure Facility, a group of "barefoot lawyers" working to secure land tenure for Indigenous, local and Afro-descendant communities across the world. To date, the organization has secured more than $150 million in funding and has made progress in securing land rights covering 34 million hectares (84 million acres) across 35 projects, an area larger than Greece.

Royo joins Mongabay's podcast to discuss the organization's success, its recognition as a finalist for the 2025 Earthshot Prize, and why land rights are so crucial both for cultural survival and slowing the pace of global ecological degradation.

"This work is really about land tenure, and about land and people. And it is very important because at this point in our world, where we are breaching planetary boundaries, we are still hesitating to invest in the people who protect our land, our forests and our diverse systems," she says.

Take a minute to let us know what you think of our audio reporting, which you can do here.

The Mongabay Newscast is available on major podcast platforms, including Apple and Spotify. All previous episodes are accessible on the Mongabay website.

Mike DiGirolamo is a host & associate producer for Mongabay based in Sydney. He co-hosts and edits the Mongabay Newscast. Find him on LinkedIn and Bluesky.

Banner Image: Women of Masaka embark on cassava cultivation. The plantation areas are located in the heart of the community of Mabaka in the Kwango region. Image by Ley Uwera. Courtesy of The Tenure Facility.

----------

Timecodes

(00:00) The 'barefoot lawyers' helping secure land rights

(06:28) How the legal system can protect nature and rights

(10:29) Challenges and successes

(15:36) Better mapping tech is helping

(27:16) Goals and progress of the Tenure Facility

Det här avsnittet är hämtat från ett öppet RSS-flöde och publiceras inte av Podme. Det kan innehålla reklam.

Avsnitt(360)

A 'coalition of the willing' to urge the world to drop fossil fuels

A 'coalition of the willing' to urge the world to drop fossil fuels

A group of 57 nations mostly from the Global South, describing themselves as "coalition of the willing" intent on making the Transition Away From Fossil Fuels, or TAFF, convened in the Colombian city ...

2 Juni 33min

Australia claims it's 'on track' to meet its environment targets. Scientists disagree

Australia claims it's 'on track' to meet its environment targets. Scientists disagree

Australia is one of 17 "megadiverse" countries that account for 70% of Earth's biodiversity. However, Australia is unique in having the highest mammalian extinction rate in the world. That makes cons...

26 Maj 42min

The world must address pandemic threats urgently, says former CDC officer

The world must address pandemic threats urgently, says former CDC officer

"[The]cruel irony here [is] that the world cannot get its act together to address these threats … people are dying, animals are suffering, we're losing rainforest … these are all interconnected threat...

19 Maj 35min

Protest works, but it needs your help now more than ever, veteran activists say

Protest works, but it needs your help now more than ever, veteran activists say

"We are experiencing what some people call sort of a shutdown of the public square in the United States and around the world," says veteran environmental activist André Carothers. Along with the forme...

12 Maj 51min

A new Netflix documentary captures rare mountain gorilla behavior

A new Netflix documentary captures rare mountain gorilla behavior

"That might be something that you see in a decade, not in two years of filming," Tara Stoinksi, CEO of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, tells me. The behavior she's referring to occurs in mountain gorill...

5 Maj 38min

Centering an Indigenous approach to forestry through reciprocity, not extraction

Centering an Indigenous approach to forestry through reciprocity, not extraction

Forester and scientist Suzanne Simard is well known for her landmark 1997 paper, which demonstrated that two distinct species of trees could share resources. At the time, it turned traditional Western...

28 Apr 41min

Across oceans, seabird flyways gain recognition — and a chance at protection

Across oceans, seabird flyways gain recognition — and a chance at protection

The routes taken by migratory birds, known as flyways, often cross vast expanses of ocean. Six of these marine flyways have now been formally recognized by the U.N.'s Convention on Migratory Species,...

21 Apr 28min

The coyotes next door: What we get wrong about America's 'song dog'

The coyotes next door: What we get wrong about America's 'song dog'

Coyotes are now present in almost every major urban-metropolitan area in the United States, yet conflicts between the canines and humans are exceptionally low. Between 1960 and 2006, only 146 docume...

14 Apr 44min

Populärt inom Vetenskap

p3-dystopia
dumma-manniskor
allt-du-velat-veta
kapitalet-en-podd-om-ekonomi
rss-vetenskapsradion
rss-ufobortom-rimligt-tvivel
svd-nyhetsartiklar
rss-spraket
paranormalt-med-caroline-giertz
medicinvetarna
rss-vetenskapsradion-2
halsorevolutionen
det-morka-psyket
sexet
rss-odla
dumforklarat
rss-broccolipodden-en-podcast-som-inte-handlar-om-broccoli
vetenskapsradion
hacka-livet
kvalificerat-hemligt-poddradio