This brief calculates the cost of securing Indigenous Peoples’ and community rights to the tropical forests where they live, arguing that secure land tenure is a prerequisite for the success of climate, poverty reduction and ecosystem conservation initiatives.

It concludes that there is an unprecedented opportunity to secure the customary land and resource rights of millions of marginalized peoples, and  that securing these rights yields multiple globally relevant benefits. The brief argues that new social and technological capacities make it possible to vastly increase the amount of land recognized, and the costs to do so are reasonable, even in relation to the scale of funds invested in initiatives, such as REDD+, for which secure tenure is a prerequisite for success.