GNV News, March 11, 2026

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has released a report stating that more than 1.1 billion adults worldwide, about 23% of the global adult population, feel insecure about the land they own and are highly likely to lose some or all of their rights to land or housing within the next five years. According to this report, only 35% of the world’s land currently has ownership, tenure, or usage rights formally documented.

Meanwhile, looking at the structure of land ownership worldwide, much of the land is said to be administered by states. The same report reveals that states legally own about 64% of the world’s land. In contrast, land owned by individuals and companies accounts for only about 26%. The remaining 10% is said to have unknown owners. Focusing on farmland, the report also points out that the top 10% of the largest landholders operate nearly 90% of the world’s arable land, indicating that land use is concentrated in the hands of a limited number of actors.

The report also points out that land tenure systems differ greatly by region. For example, in sub-Saharan Africa, about 73% of land is under customary tenure, but only 1% is formally recognized, and much of it is treated as state land without proper documentation. Furthermore, Indigenous peoples and others with customary land tenure occupy 5.5 billion hectares—about 42% of the world’s land area—yet clear ownership rights are officially recorded for only 1 billion hectares, just 8% of the total. In addition, in almost every country, men are more likely than women to have rights to access land.

The FAO is also conducting a detailed study of customary land systems managed by groups such as Indigenous peoples. This study covers diverse ecosystems including forests, grasslands, wetlands, and fishing grounds, and has mapped 4.2 billion hectares—about 32% of the world’s land area excluding Antarctica. These customary lands are said to be threatened by human activities such as urbanization, large-scale agriculture, and resource extraction.

Learn more about environmental defenders → “Latin America: Environmental Defenders Under Threat”

Learn more about environmental issues → “Malaysia: Can Deforestation Be Stopped?”

Farmland spreading along the coast (Photo: Quang Nguyen Vinh / Pexels [Free to use])