Land Forward: Planning for Legal Reforms to Facilitate Land Back and Community-Driven Relocation in Response to Climate Change

Authors

• E. Barrett Ristroph

Library of Congress Authority File

http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79122466.html

Abstract

Indigenous and other place-based communities face the loss of their homes due to climate change. The practices that have led to the current climate crisis have also contributed to the historical dispossession and marginalization of these communities. United States laws and programs already provide for land transfers to federally recognized tribes, home buyouts for households in hazard-prone areas, and community development. But these laws and programs are piecemeal, reactive, and often inaccessible to the communities most in need. They do not provide a streamlined method for tribes to regain lands needed for rematriation and adaptation. Nor do they allow place-based communities that are not federally recognized tribes or municipalities to directly apply for funding.

A “Land Forward” approach is a concept recognizing that federally funded community expansion and relocation is not only a matter of physical survival but also of cultural continuity, climate justice, reparations, and self-determination. Land Forward combines two movements: restoring or augmenting the traditional lands of federally recognized tribes and simplifying the mechanisms for place-based communities to expand and relocate together. This Article favors approaches that maximize community control over newly acquired land as well as land left behind, while recognizing that each community should make its own choices about ownership and management regimes. Fee-simple ownership of the acquired land by the community or households is one approach. Other approaches may involve land-into-trust (for federally recognized tribes), conservation easements, co-management, or community land trusts.

The Article proposes two key areas of reform: one to streamline land acquisitions by federally recognized tribes (regardless of climate hazards), and one enabling tribes and place-based communities to apply for funding and technical assistance for land acquisition and relocation. Many aspects of the latter may be met through current Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Programs with some policy reforms, while programs offered through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) would require statutory and regulatory reforms.

Recommended Citation

E. Barrett Ristroph, Land Forward: Planning for Legal Reforms to Facilitate Land Back and Community-Driven Relocation in Response to Climate Change, 17 San Diego J. Climate & Energy L. 1 (2026)
Available at: https://digital.sandiego.edu/jcel/vol17/iss0/2