Commonwealth Living Lands Charter

The Commonwealth Living Lands Charter is an agreement by all 56 member countries to:
• safeguard global land resources
• take coordinated action to address climate change, biodiversity loss and land degradation or desertification, and
• promote climate-resilient and sustainable land management.

23%

The Commonwealth spans nearly a quarter of the world's land area, including 11 million km²+ of arable land.

75%

Over three quarters of global land area is degraded. This could surpass 90% by 2050.

The Commonwealth Secretariat recognises that land resources are under triple threat from climate change, land degradation and biodiversity loss.

Evidence indicates the dire need to address these challenges through concerted, co-ordinated and integrated action. There are many opportunities to do this.

Multilateral action on these issues are covered under the three ‘Rio Conventions’: the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the UN Convention on Biodiversity and the UN Convention to Combat Desertification.

The Commonwealth Living Lands Charter focuses on synergies between the Rio Conventions, taking a more harmonised approach to fulfilling the targets under these global commitments.

Action to address land degradation, biodiversity loss, and climate change each present a myriad of co-benefits and contributions to the attainment of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which underscores the 16 Principles contained within the Commonwealth Charter.

The Living Lands Charter: A Commonwealth Call to action on Living Lands (Commonwealth CALL) was officially adopted at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Kigali, Rwanda in June 2022.

Adoption followed nearly two years of intense consultation, engagement and negotiation with member countries, United Nations Rio Conventions, and other relevant stakeholders.

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The Commonwealth Living Lands Charter is implemented around five key thematic and other cross-cutting areas. The key thematic areas are:

Climate Resilient Agriculture for Food Security
Soil and Water Conservation and Management
Sustainable Green Cover and Biodiversity
Carbon Neutral and Climate Resilient Livestock Rearing and Animal Husbandry
Indigenous and Local People and Climate Resilient Development

Across the key thematic areas, targeted technical work is carried out through time-bound working groups led by Member countries. Under each of the themes, support is provided to member countries to enable improved implementation by delivering:

Evidence-Based Analysis and Policy Influence
Financing for Implementation
Technical Assistance and Capacity Building
Institutional Structure and Governance
Knowledge Sharing and Management

Other cross-cutting thematic areas include justice and equity, gender, youth entrepreneurship, health, artificial intelligence, data and innovation. These are integrated into all the work under the Commonwealth CALL.

A range of existing platforms and processes support the work of the Commonwealth Living Lands Charter. This includes Commonwealth Climate Finance Access Hub (CCFAH), regional development agencies and global financial institutions.

The CCFAH is the Commonwealth’s flagship programme to support access to climate finance, particularly for small states and least developed countries. To support the Commonwealth CALL, it will intensify efforts to close the funding gap for all the Rio Conventions, by enhancing member countries' access to climate and other environmental funding.

To date, CCFAH has supported member countries in securing around US$50 million in climate finance, with a robust pipeline of projects worth over US$800m at various stages of development.

Commonwealth Climate Finance Access Hub

Please note: all publications and reports will be added soon.

Publications

Commonwealth Living Lands Charter Implementation Plan: Thematic Areas and Implementation Strategies

Reports

Press Release

Commonwealth adopts historic Living Lands Charter

8.8 million km²

of forest land is located within Commonwealth member countries around the world.

400

endemic species – those restricted to geographical areas – live in our 25 small island developing states.

29%

of the world’s megadiverse countries are members of the Commonwealth, with many in tropical regions.

Contact

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