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  • Publication | 2024

How Green Grabs Undermine Biodiversity and Communities

Global Food and Nutrition Security

As the world grapples with the biodiversity and climate crises, an alarming trend is emerging: green grabbing. These threaten to displace local communities and Indigenous Peoples, erode food security, and damage biodiversity – under the guise of environmental progress. 

Green grabbing has the potential to become “the biggest land grab in history” – jeopardizing not only livelihoods but also the biodiversity these groups help protect. 

Green grabs occur when land is repurposed for projects like carbon offsetting, biodiversity reserves, afforestation, or clean energy production. 

With governments increasingly turning to these methods to meet climate and biodiversity goals, we must scrutinize their real impacts. 

A call for community-led solutions

As the CBD Parties gather for COP16, the need to challenge these misguided conservation and offsetting approaches is urgent. Governments must reject land grabs and offsetting schemes in favour of community-led conservation models and agroecological practices.