Corey Creedon is Landesa’s Sustainable Land Use & Livelihoods Specialist based in the United States. Corey began working for Landesa in 2022.

What are your core responsibilities?

In my role as a member of Landesa’s Climate Change Program, I am working to support our stated goal “to improve outcomes and opportunities for communities through guidance on strengthening land tenure and sustainable land management policies and practices to advance climate mitigation and adaptation.” I provide climate change technical support and leadership, and my main responsibilities are focused on research and analysis, developing policy recommendations, capacity building, project management and coordination, securing project funding, and stewarding key relationships with partners, governments, and donors. My efforts work toward addressing climate change challenges, climate justice, sustainable land use and livelihoods, and land rights in the context of land-focused international development projects and programming in Africa (Liberia and Tanzania), South Asia (Nepal, India, Bangladesh, and the Maldives), and Southeast Asia (Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, and Indonesia). Two of the largest responsibilities and projects in my portfolio include serving as the Technical Lead for our Women-led Collective Advocacy for Climate Action and Coastal Livelihoods and Mangroves projects, with a primary focus on the South Asia region.

What brought you to Landesa?

Landesa’s mission and work associated with securing land rights, providing opportunities, and promoting social and climate justice all resonated with my own background and aspirations. My prior work focused on the intersection of social justice and environmental management. These experiences have included domestic efforts such as managing local-level community development and urban greenspace projects in New Haven, Connecticut as well as providing research, policy recommendations, and coordination for a federal interagency working group focused on managing coastal wetlands. My previous work also afforded me opportunities to focus internationally by leading climate change and water security programming in South America (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia) and researching and analyzing community resistance to controversial mining projects in a protected area in the Andean cloud forest in Ecuador. Additionally, and perhaps most relevantly, my prior work has involved supporting, critically analyzing, and improving climate change and forest conservation initiatives in the Amazon Rainforest in Peru and in the Atlantic Forest in Paraguay, with a strong focus on land rights, land titling, and climate action in collaboration with Indigenous Peoples and rural communities. I am grateful for my work with Landesa, as it offers me the opportunity to continue to contribute to the intersecting fields of social justice, human rights, and environmental management.

What is the most rewarding part of your work at Landesa?

The most rewarding aspect of working at Landesa is having the chance to contribute to progress being made in the intersecting fields of land rights, human rights, social justice, sustainable development, environmental management, and climate action. Through my work, I have the privilege of collaborating with colleagues and partners from diverse contexts and backgrounds who are all extremely bright and motivated to make a positive difference.

How do you spend your time when you’re not working?

I enjoy spending time outdoors—going for walks, hikes, runs, and bike rides, swimming, and kayaking—and spending time with friends and family.

Describe your vision for a better world.

My vision for a better world involves one which is centered on achieving and maintaining social and environmental justice (and the absence of injustice), including with an emphasis on land rights, human rights, and climate change action—and a future in which our species more profoundly recognizes our interconnectedness with the natural world and lives in harmony with it, thereby achieving both human and ecological health and wellbeing. This better world would also feature more love and less hate.