Land is weird. We treat it like a fixed asset, something we can "own" like a pair of shoes or a smartphone, but it outlasts us by millions of years. When people start asking who share the land, they aren't usually looking for a simple real estate list. They’re asking about the deep, often messy reality of how the Earth’s surface is actually divided between massive private estates, indigenous territories, public parks, and those weird "no man's lands" that nobody seems to want.
It’s personal. It’s political. Honestly, it's kind of a miracle we haven't fought more over it than we already have.
Most people think land ownership is pretty straightforward—you buy a plot, you get a deed, you build a fence. But on a global scale, the math is staggering. You’ve got the Catholic Church holding millions of acres, the British Crown technically "owning" vast swaths of Canada and Australia through the concept of the Sovereign, and then you have the nomadic groups who have lived on the same plains for a thousand years without a single piece of paper to prove it. Who really shares the land? The answer depends entirely on who you ask and which map you’re looking at.
The Big Players: Governments and the "Paper Owners"
If you look at the raw numbers, the biggest entity that shares the land isn't a person or a corporation. It’s the state. In the United States, the federal government manages about 640 million acres. That is roughly 28% of the entire country. Most of this is out West—think Nevada, where the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and other agencies handle about 80% of the state’s total area.
But wait. Just because the government "owns" it doesn't mean they aren't sharing it. These lands are a patchwork of competing interests. You have cattle ranchers who lease the land for grazing, mining companies digging for lithium, and hikers just trying to find a quiet trail. This is the ultimate example of how we share the land: a single acre might simultaneously provide a home for an endangered desert tortoise, a paycheck for a miner, and a weekend getaway for a photographer.
The Crown and the Church
Then things get a bit more "Old World." Have you ever looked into how much land the British Royal Family is associated with? While they don't "own" it in the way you own your backyard—meaning King Charles can't just sell off a chunk of Alberta to pay for a new palace—the Crown Estate and the concept of Crown Land are massive. We are talking billions of acres globally that fall under this legal umbrella. It’s a relic of feudalism that still dictates how millions of people live today.
The Catholic Church is another heavy hitter. Estimates often put their holdings at over 170 million acres worldwide. From cathedrals in Europe to massive agricultural holdings in Southeast Asia and schools in the U.S., the Church is one of the largest non-government entities that shares the land on a global scale. It’s a portfolio built over two millennia, and it’s surprisingly difficult to track because it’s held by thousands of different dioceses and orders.
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What Most People Get Wrong About Indigenous Land
There is a common misconception that indigenous land is "empty" or "unowned." This is objectively false. According to a 2018 study published in Nature Sustainability, indigenous peoples manage or have tenure rights over at least 38 million square kilometers. That’s about a quarter of the Earth’s land surface.
These groups share the land in a way that modern Westerners often struggle to wrap their heads around. It isn't always about "exclusive use." In the Amazon or the Arctic, sharing the land means managing it for the long term. Research consistently shows that biodiversity is often higher on indigenous-managed lands than in government-protected parks. Why? Because the people living there have a direct, existential stake in the soil staying healthy. They aren't just "sharing" space; they are sharing a lifecycle.
But here is the catch: legal recognition. While these groups share the land in practice, they often lack the formal titles recognized by central governments. This creates a "gray zone" where land grabs happen. When a government decides to build a dam or a logging road, they often argue that the land is "vacant" simply because there isn't a fence or a digital record in a database.
The Rise of the "Super-Owners"
In the last twenty years, we’ve seen a massive shift in who share the land in the private sector. You might have heard that Bill Gates became the largest private farmland owner in the U.S. He owns about 275,000 acres across dozens of states. To you and me, that sounds like a lot. To a guy like John Malone (the media mogul), it’s small change. Malone owns about 2.2 million acres.
Why are the ultra-wealthy buying dirt? Because they aren't making any more of it.
It’s a hedge against inflation. It’s a play for water rights. It’s about carbon credits. As we move into an era where "carbon sequestration" is a bankable asset, the people who share the land are increasingly those who can afford to keep it "wild" and sell the credits to polluting companies. It’s a weird, modern twist on land sharing: the land stays empty so a factory a thousand miles away can keep running.
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Small-Scale Sharing: The Community Land Trust
On the flip side, there’s a growing movement of regular people who want to share the land differently. Community Land Trusts (CLTs) are popping up in cities like Oakland, Boston, and London. Basically, a non-profit owns the land, but the people own the houses on top of it. This keeps the land out of the speculative market and ensures that housing stays affordable. It’s a way of saying, "The land belongs to the community, not the highest bidder."
The Invisible Borders: Who Owns the "Wild"?
We like to think of National Parks as "ours," but even that is a form of shared land that is under constant pressure. In many parts of the world, "protected areas" are actually home to thousands of people. This is the "fortress conservation" model, and honestly, it’s kinda failing. By trying to keep people out of the land to protect it, we sometimes destroy the very communities that were keeping the ecosystem in balance.
Take the Maasai in East Africa. They’ve shared the land with lions and elephants for centuries. Now, as more land is carved out for exclusive "luxury safaris" or "national parks," the Maasai are being squeezed. This isn't just a travel issue; it's a fundamental question of who has the right to exist in a landscape. Sharing the land with wildlife is a delicate dance, and we often mess it up by trying to draw too many hard lines.
Why "Sharing the Land" is Getting Complicated
Climate change is literally redrawing the map. As sea levels rise, the land we share is shrinking. As permafrost melts in Siberia and Alaska, land that was once solid is becoming a swamp.
- Managed Retreat: This is the fancy term for "we have to move." People are having to share new land because their old land is gone.
- Resource Scarcity: Water is the big one. If you own the land but not the water underneath it, do you really own the land?
- Digital Land: We’re even seeing "land" being sold in the metaverse. It’s silly, sure, but it reflects our deep-seated human need to "own" space, even if that space is just code.
The reality is that nobody truly "owns" the land in a vacuum. You share it with the microorganisms in the soil that keep the plants alive. You share it with the neighbors who share your watershed. You share it with the future generations who will inherit your mistakes.
The Legal Reality of "Bundle of Rights"
Lawyers like to talk about land ownership as a "bundle of sticks." One stick is the right to build. One stick is the right to sell. Another is the right to exclude others. Often, when we share the land, we are just holding different sticks. Your local utility company might have an "easement" (a stick) to run power lines through your backyard. You can't tell them no. You're sharing your land with the power grid, whether you like it or not.
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Actionable Steps for Understanding Your Land
If you want to know more about who shares the land you live on, or if you're looking to change how you interact with it, there are real things you can do.
Research your local watershed. Most people have no idea where their water comes from or where it goes. Understanding your watershed is the first step in realizing that you share land with everyone "upstream" and "downstream" from you. Use tools like the EPA's "How's My Waterway" to see the health of the land you're sharing.
Look at a "Native Land" map. Use resources like Native-Land.ca to see which indigenous groups traditionally occupied the land you live on. This isn't just about guilt; it's about historical literacy. It changes your perspective on "ownership" when you realize your 0.25-acre lot has a 10,000-year history.
Check your property's "Easements." Go to your local county recorder’s office. You might find that the city has the right to dig up your front yard for a sewer line, or that a neighbor has a right to use your driveway to reach the road. This is the most practical way we share the land every day.
Support Land Trusts. If you’re worried about over-development, look into local land trusts. These organizations buy land or development rights to keep areas green forever. It’s a way for a community to collectively decide that some land shouldn't be "shared" with a shopping mall, but should be shared with the trees and the birds instead.
Understand Mineral Rights. In many parts of the U.S. (especially places like Texas or Pennsylvania), you can own the surface but not the "subsurface." Someone else could literally own the oil or gas under your living room. Knowing who holds those rights is a crucial part of knowing who you really share the land with.
The earth is a finite resource. While we put up fences and sign deeds, the land remains a communal asset in the eyes of biology and geology. We are all just temporary tenants. Understanding the layers of ownership—from the Crown to the local utility company to the indigenous ancestors—helps us move from being "owners" to being "stewards." That’s a small shift in vocabulary, but it’s a massive shift in how we’ll survive on this planet together.
Land isn't just something we have; it’s something we do. Every time we plant a garden, pave a driveway, or vote on a zoning law, we are actively deciding how to share the land. Make sure you’re doing it with your eyes open.