Land is at the center of international debates on how to reduce carbon emissions, but land and its resources – forests, biodiversity, water, and agriculture – are also highly complex systems. Not only are land-based carbon stocks and emission rates difficult to measure and monitor, they are often owned or claimed without clear definitions of rights. This conference takes a broad interdisciplinary approach to how we can obtain better knowledge on these complexities in developing countries and it will bring together social and natural scientists around the nexus of carbon storage, land management and property issues.