Land Back — Climate Words

Land Back

RESEARCH
Research by Estelle Ngoumtsa
Fact-checking by Hailey Basiouny

Research June 23, 2026

At its most literal level, Land Back is a social, political, and environmental justice movement, specifically referring to the return of Tribal ancestral homelands to Tribal stewardship or the undoing of large-scale displacement of tribes from their lands.
Beyond this, the movement also acts as a “meta-narrative” that works to build the collective power, sovereignty and self-determination of Indigenous peoples, communities and Nations. It is a unifying term that ties together many different struggles including climate justice, police brutality, and the wealth gap – all pointing to the loss of Indigenous lands as the root cause. (1) (2)
The struggle for land return has existed for centuries, but this specific phrasing has gained significant traction over the last decade and is now widely recognised in Australia, New Zealand, the US, Canada, and many island nations. (3) (4)
The ‘Land Back’ term is important as it helps connect local crises, like environmental damage in the Amazon or urban poverty in Minneapolis, to a single root cause: the historical theft of land. To unify these impacts allows it to be presented as part of a wider global issue, helping isolated grassroots show up as powerful and coordinated global forces. (5)
It’s important to note that ‘Land Back’ is a relatively recent umbrella term amongst a vast global array of Indigenous-led efforts that may be operating under different names – reclaiming land and stewardship has been continuous for centuries.
Successful responses to the Land Back movement involve a diverse range of legal, financial, and institutional strategies that prioritize Indigenous sovereignty and territorial stewardship, including literal title transfers via federal trust status or state legislation, as well as tribes utilizing their own economic resources to buy back territories to ensure they remain the ultimate decision-makers without external restrictions. (6)
Beyond the explicit transfer of legal title, Land Back practically manifests through co-management agreements for public lands and conservation easements that restore perpetual Indigenous stewardship and cultural access. (7)
On a broader systemic level, success involves redistributing power and wealth through voluntary mechanisms, which allow non-Indigenous residents to symbolically acknowledge historical land theft while financially supporting the caretakers of the land. It also requires a fundamental shift in how institutions measure success, moving toward "decolonizing evaluation" by relinquishing Western standards in favor of Indigenous-led worldviews and methods. (8)
A key part of true sovereignty is to respect Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC), which upholds the right of Indigenous Nations to decide or say “no” to projects affecting their ancestral territories. It also involves the “Rights of Nature”, a legal framework that treats ecosystems as living beings with their own rights (granting them personhood) to be protected from exploitation, rather than just resources to be sold. (9)
Historical dispossession of Indigenous lands catalyzed the overexploitation of resources and the current climate crisis. As a result, the Land Back movement is crucial to achieving climate justice. Modern policy increasingly acknowledging that tribal stewardship is essential for global conservation because Indigenous worldviews are inherently grounded in a moral responsibility to protect the environment for future generations. (10) (11)
The Land Back movement endeavors to restore sacred matrilineal bonds through rematriation and achieve climate justice through Indigenous stewardship of 80% of biodiversity, treating land as a living relative rather than a commodity. (12) (13)

1
Racehorse, Vanessa, and Anna Hohag. "Achieving Climate Justice through Land Back: An Overview of Tribal Dispossession, Land Return Efforts, and Practical Mechanisms for #LandBack." Colorado Environmental Law Journal 34, no. 2 (2023): 175–212.
2
Pieratos, Nikki A., Sarah S. Manning, and Nick Tilsen. "Land Back: A Meta Narrative to Help Indigenous People Show up as Movement Leaders." Leadership 17, no. 1 (2021): 47–61.
3
BBC World Service. "What Is the Land Back Movement?" YouTube video, 8:44. July 1, 2021.
4
Pieratos, Nikki A., Sarah S. Manning, and Nick Tilsen. "Land Back: A Meta Narrative to Help Indigenous People Show up as Movement Leaders." Leadership 17, no. 1 (2021): 47–61.
5
Pieratos, Nikki A., Sarah S. Manning, and Nick Tilsen. "Land Back: A Meta Narrative to Help Indigenous People Show up as Movement Leaders." Leadership 17, no. 1 (2021): 47–61.
6
Belfi, E., and N. Sandiford. "Land Back Movement — Community-Based Global Learning Collaborative." The Community-Based Global Learning Collaborative. 2021.
7
Racehorse, Vanessa, and Anna Hohag. "Achieving Climate Justice through Land Back: An Overview of Tribal Dispossession, Land Return Efforts, and Practical Mechanisms for #LandBack." Colorado Environmental Law Journal 34, no. 2 (2023): 175–212.
8
DeLancey, Debbie. "Decolonizing Evaluation of Indigenous Land-Based Programs: A Settler Perspective on What We Can Learn from the LANDBACK Movement." Journal of MultiDisciplinary Evaluation 19, no. 44 (2023): 172–82.
9
Osborne, Tracey, Sylvia Cifuentes, Laura Dev, Seánna Howard, Elisa Marchi, Lauren Withey, and Marcelo Santos Rocha da Silva. "Climate Justice, Forests, and Indigenous Peoples: Toward an Alternative to REDD+ for the Amazon." Climatic Change 177, no. 128 (2024).
10
Belfi, E., and N. Sandiford. "Land Back Movement — Community-Based Global Learning Collaborative." The Community-Based Global Learning Collaborative. 2021.
11
Racehorse, Vanessa, and Anna Hohag. "Achieving Climate Justice through Land Back: An Overview of Tribal Dispossession, Land Return Efforts, and Practical Mechanisms for #LandBack." Colorado Environmental Law Journal 34, no. 2 (2023): 175–212.
12
Racehorse, Vanessa, and Anna Hohag. "Achieving Climate Justice through Land Back: An Overview of Tribal Dispossession, Land Return Efforts, and Practical Mechanisms for #LandBack." Colorado Environmental Law Journal 34, no. 2 (2023): 175–212.
13
The Land Back Foundation. "Our Purpose." The Land Back. 2025.

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