In many countries, only a small fraction of community forestland is recognized by national law, and even less is protected and securely held. Evidence is growing that tenure-secure community forests are closely associated with reducing deforestation and providing other ecosystem-service benefits. (World Resources Institute, 2015). Given the importance of secure land tenure for the development of forest communities, the first online, interactive global platform to map lands collectively held and used by Indigenous Peoples and communities, called Landmark was launched in November 2015 as a beta version. The platform was created to fill a critical gap in indigenous and community rights and make clear that these lands are not vacant, idle or available to outsiders. These communities often lack the legal rights to their land, which makes them vulnerable to external pressures.
The LandMark initiative was welcomed by Abdon Nababan, Secretary-General of the Indonesia's Indigenous Peoples' Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN), who said: “To us, the detailed mapping of our ancestral territories, led by local indigenous communities, help us articulate our constitutionally recognized rights, but these maps do us no good unless they become public knowledge and indigenous rights are recognized by all who have ambitions to grab our lands, and these rights are actively protected by government. LandMark is an important tool for us in the process of gaining legal recognition of our constitutional rights.”
LandMark compiles data from hundreds of sources and shows detailed boundaries for thousands of indigenous and community lands in countries around the world, with many more to be added as data becomes available. In addition to the boundaries of indigenous territories and community lands, the platform features the percentage of national land held and used by Indigenous Peoples and communities, and a detailed overview of the legal security of indigenous and community lands rights in many countries around the world.
LandMark maps of indigenous and/or community maps are a work in progress. New maps and information are continuously added to the platform, but many gaps remain. The absence of data does not indicate the absence of indigenous or community land. Users are invited to provide any information on indigenous and community lands which would improve the completeness of the platform. The data is constantly updated and the latest updates are shown in the following table:
| Date updated | Country | Description |
| 7 April 2016 | Nigeria, Rep. of Congo, South Africa | Indicators of the Legal Security of Indigenous and Community Lands |
| 14 April 2016 | Mexico | Indigenous lands (comunidades); Community lands (ejidos) |
| 14 April 2016 | Vietnam, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, PNG, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Laos, NZ, Nepal | Indicators of the Legal Security of Indigenous and Community Lands |
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