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Publications and Reports
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What future for forest peoples and resources in the emerging world order? - RRG
This report takes stock of the current status of forest rights and tenure globally, assesses the key issues and events of 2011 that shape possibilities to improve local rights and livelihoods, and identifies key questions and challenges that the world will face in 2012 and beyond. |
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Reviewing the Fate of Customary Tenure in Africa Liz Alden Wily, Jeffrey Hatcher - RRG
This five brief series, written by panelist Liz Alden Wily, analyzes the roots of African land tenure systems, recent policy trends and puts the phenomenon of large scale land acquisitions in rich historical context. |
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Les Droits aux Ressources en Crise État des Lieux de la Tenure Coutumière en Afrique Liz Alden Wily, Jeffrey Hatcher - RRG
L’objectif de cette série de cinq essais est d’informer et d’aider à structurer le plaidoyer et les actions contestant la faiblesse juridique des droits fonciers coutumiers dans de nombreux pays africains. |
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Fred Pearce - RRI
Ce rapport fait le point sur l'état actuel des droits forestiers et fonciers au niveau mondial, évalue les enjeux-clés et les événements de 2011 qui témoignent de nouvelles possibilités visant à l’amélioration des droits locaux et des moyens de subsistance, et identifie les questions clés et les défis auxquels le monde devra faire face en 2012 et au-delà. |
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Nepal's Climate Change Policies and Plans Local Communities' Perspective - HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation Nepal
This review examines the provisions in Nepal’s legal framework related to climate change and the local community’s rights. The review starts with the broader international climate change regime, the nuances of the international climate justice, and key aspects of international climate policy. After laying background on the concept and status of global climate change policy, the review delves into the national legislation. The review is meant to provide an in-depth assessment of the issues concerning the communities and how well the climate change related policies and regulations could address adaptation and mitigation options for those expected to be affected the most by climate change. It aims to reflect on their effectiveness and comprehensiveness from the community perspective. In addition, this analysis examines if these policies are just high-level documents, which may fail to acknowledge and address the actual needs and challenges at the local community level. |
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South Asia Forest Tenure Assessment - HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation Nepal
This assessment report follows the conceptual framework developed by the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) in a publication - From Exclusion to Ownership (Sunderlin et al. 2008) for the collection and interpretation of tenure data for the selected South Asian countries, namely Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, and Pakistan. For each country, the country consultants collected data; however, they also used data from RRI and FAO publications to supplement and triangulate their findings. |
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Assessment of Change in Forest Cover in Nepal - HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation Nepal
This study is based on the mapping and analysis of the forest condition in different forest tenure regimes and is expected to benefit everyone who is interested in forest tenure regimes and their effect to environment. This study applied GIS and Remote Sensing as the major tools for the analysis. The study revealed that forests have improved in all tenure regimes. Community forestry did the best by increasing the new forest area by almost 33% and improving existing forest quality by 20%. In comparison, the government managed forest regime increased the new forest area by 17% and improved the quality of forest by 15%. |
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Two decades of Community Forestry in Nepal What have we Learned? Nepal Swiss Community Forestry Project - HELVETAS-Swiss Intercooperation
Development projects conceived now are rarely expected to have a life of more than five years, perhaps ten years at most. Looking back over more than twenty years of project experience in community forestry - itself grounded on an integrated development project of a similar time span - is thus a rare opportunity. Of course trees and forests require a longer establishment period than many other development interventions, and that is part of the rationale for a long time frame – but not the only one. The project has also sought to promote social change in favour of the poor and disadvantaged, and it was recognised both by those involved in the project and by independent evaluators that this is not rapidly achieved. |
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Redd Lights: Who Owns the Carbon Forests and Trees? Carbon ownership as the basis of social accountability: The case of the Philippeans Antonio G.M. LaViña; Owen J. Lynch - Ateno School of Government (ASOG); College of Law, University of the Philippeans
This paper argues in favor of the ownership by indigenous peoples and local communities of carbon in forests and trees and that such ownership could be the basis of social accountability that should be mainstreamed in implementing what is popularly known as the REDD-Plus mechanism. |
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The growing scandal surrounding the new wave of investments in land Bertram Zagema - Oxfam
This paper looks in detail at five land grabs: in Uganda, Indonesia, Guatemala, Honduras, and South Sudan. It seeks: to understand the impact of land grabs on poor people and their communities; to identify the underlying factors between companies, local communities, and host governments; and to examine the roles played by international investors and home-country governments. |
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An economic case for tenure reform in Indonesia's forests Dominic Elson
A new briefing paper by RRI and independent analyst Dominic Elson summarizing the struggle for tenure rights and current measures to decrease deforestation and emissions across the world, with particular reference to Indonesia. The paper takes into consideration the multiple actors at play in government and civil society who are trying to place these changes in political and livelihoods contexts – too often from conflicting vantage points. This analysis draws on information from various sources to present the current “state of play” in Indonesia—which has emerged as a key country in the global effort to reduce forest-based emissions. Much attention has been given in the global debate to the argument that reducing carbon emissions from forests could greatly slow economic growth in developing countries across the globe. This analysis presents provocative evidence showing that, in fact, the opposite may be true: in countries where equitable tenure regimes are supported, new pathways to a “low-carbon” economy emerge. |
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Lessons for REDD+ from Countries where Forest Area is Increasing Hans Gregersen, Hosny El Lakany, Luke Bailey, Andy White - Rights and Resources, University of British Columbia, Faculty of Forestry
In the last decade, countries have committed major resources to reducing carbon emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries (REDD). A debate continues on how REDD financing should include related activities, such as the enhancement of carbon stocks through afforestation, reforestation and rehabilitation of degraded lands. Meanwhile, several countries have added to their net forest area with little fanfare or donor funding. This paper assesses the factors that underpin the transition from net deforesters to net forest growers in China, South Korea, Vietnam, India and Chile. The authors review the literature on forest policy processes and government-led reforestation and restoration programs, and find their success relied on government support at the highest levels, and forest governance reforms (particularly land and resource tenure systems) to incentivize good forest management and tree-planting. However, constraints to wood supply have caused some countries to rely on wood imports and “export” deforestation, diminishing global carbon benefits. The authors argue that the experiences of these reforesting countries carry implications for current REDD countries. Reforestation programs appear to have a clearer benefit for the rural poor in forest areas than REDD programs. However, both depend on improvements to forest governance and forest tenure. Major reforestation activities must be included to effectively confront leakage and additionality issues inherent in REDD. In sum, while debates on REDD implementation continue at the international level, the authors conclude that improving forest stocks is a necessary complement to successful REDD and recommend that national policymakers focus serious effort on these activities.
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Forest Tenure, Governance and Enterprise: Experiences and Opportunities for Asia in a Changing Context - Rights and Resources, ITTO, Ministry of Forestry, Indonesia
This is the final agenda for the conference Forest Tenure, Governance and Enterprise: Experiences and Opportunities for Asia in a Changing Context, taking place 11 -15 July 2011 on Lombok Island, Indonesia. |
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Keynote Addess from the International Conference on Forest Tenure, Governance and Enterprise Kuntoro Mankusubroto - Head of the President's Special Delivery Unit, Indonesia
In this keynote address given at the regional meeting of the leading actors on forests, enterprises and climate change in Lombok, Indonesia, the Head of the President’s Special Delivery Unit, Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, announced the government’s intention to “recognize, respect and protect Adat rights,” implementing a parliamentary decree that has been on the books for 10 years, but rarely implemented. |
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What Rights? Measuring the Depth of Indigenous Peoples and Community Forest Tenure Preliminary Findings from a Legal Analysis of 33 Forest Tenure Regimes in 15 Countries Fernanda Almeida, Jeffrey Hatcher - Rights and Resources
This brief presents some preliminary results of a legal analysis conducted by RRI to provide a fuller picture of Indigenous Peoples and community forest tenure rights globally. This analysis unpacks the collective rights to forestland and forest resources held by communities and codified in law. RRI has developed a database monitoring the dynamics of statutory forest tenure rights over time in approximately 45 forested countries covering more than 90% of the world’s forests. The present legal analysis complements the tenure distribution data by clarifying what legal rights are associated with Indigenous Peoples community forest tenure regimes. |
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Statement from international conference Indonesian Government announces dramatic shift in forest policy; signals commitment to expand rights of communities, indigenous peoples - Rights and Resources
This is a statement covering major speech given on the second day of the international conference Indonesian Government announces dramatic shift in forest policy; signals commitment to expand rights of communities, indigenous peoples taking place 11 - 15 July 2011 in Lombok, Indonesia. |
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LEARNING FROM DIFFERENT LEVELS LESSONS ON HOW TO MAKE PROGRESS AND WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE TO ADVANCE TENURE REFORM Victoria Tauli-Corpuz - TEBTEBBA
Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, Executive Director of TEBTEBBA, presented the attached as the final keynote speaker at the International Conference on Forest Tenure, Governance, and Enterprises in Lombok, Indonesia on July 15, 2011. |
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Unlocking the Potential of Forests through Tenure Reform Key messages and recommendations from the International Conference on Forest Tenure, Governance and Enterprise: Experiences and Opportunities for Asia in a Changing Context - RRI, ITTO, Indonesian Ministry of Forestry, Indonesian CSO Groups
Under the distinguished patronage of the Government of Indonesia, the International Conference on Forest Tenure, Governance and Enterprise: Experiences and Opportunities for Asia in a Changing Context took place at the Santosa Villas and Resort, Lombok, Indonesia. The conference was organized by the Ministry of Forestry of Indonesia, the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) and the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI), with the support of 20 other organizations, including the Global Alliance of Community Forestry (GACF). The opening ceremony was presided by Vice President Boediono and attended by Zulkifli Hassan, Minister of Forestry; Mohammad Nuh, Minister of Education; Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, Minister and Chair of the President’s Delivery Unit for Development Monitoring and Oversight; TGH. M. Zainul Majdi, Governor of West Nusa Tenggara Province; Emmanuel Ze Meka, Executive Director of ITTO; Hedar Laujeng, Chair of the Community Chamber of Indonesia’s National Forest Council; and Andy White, Coordinator of the Rights and Resources Initiative. About 300 participants composed of experts from Indonesia and other countries in the Asia-Pacific region (Australia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Fiji, India, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam), from Europe (Italy, Netherlands, Norway, United Kingdom), Africa (Cameroon, Kenya, Liberia), the Americas (Bolivia, Brazil, Guatemala, Nicaragua, United States), regional organizations (RECOFTC, REFACOF, Samdhana Institute), and international organizations (FAO, GACF, ICRAF, ITTO, RRI, TRAFFIC, UNFF, WRI), representatives of governments, civil society, local communities, traditional authorities, elected officials, and donors (Ford Foundation/Climate and Land Use Alliance, GIZ, EU-EFI FLEGT Asia, JICA, UK Climate Change Unit) took part in this important gathering, worked together to create, and have agreed upon the attached key messages and recommendations from the conference. |
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Compensation for Ecosystem Services: Directions, Potentials and Pitfalls for Rural Communities Susan Kandel, Nelson Cuellar - PRISMA
This policy brief discusses the current thoughts on Payments for Environmental Services (PES) and their potential impact on rural communities. |
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Prioritizing Food Security and Livelihoods in Climate Change Mitigation Mechanisms Susan Kandel, Nelson Cuellar - PRISMA
This policy brief discusses which methods of climate change mitigation are most effective in halting deforestation and promoting sustainable forest management while ensuring the involvement of rural communities in the decision-making process. |
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Tenth RRI Dialogue on Forests, Governance and Climate Change Agenda - Rights and Resources
Agenda for the Tenth RRI Dialogue on Forests, Governance and Climate Change taking place 7-8 September 2011 in The Hague, Netherlands. |
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Global Alliance of Community Forestry (GACF) Lombok Declaration Final Declaration from the GACF Annual Meeting and Workshop Global Alliance of Community Forestry - (GACF)
The Global Alliance of Community Forestry (GACF), after successfully completing its third regional workshop on ” Strengthening Community Forestry Federation/Networks” in conjunction with its annual planning meeting in Lumbok, Indonesia from July 9 – 10, 2011 releases its Lumbok Declaration. This 12-point declaration reflects on and reviews the GACF's previous Kathmandu and Bangkok declarations published in November 2008 & March 2010, respectively. This declaration also outlines potential GACF strategies and was finalized on the workshop floor with the unanimous agreement on the additional strategies and action plans for ensuring the rights of forest-dependent peoples and local communities and promoting their agenda at the local and global levels. |
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- Forest Peoples Programme
This report details the efforts of the Forest Peoples Programme on behalf of indigenous forest peoples during 2010 and the ongoing projects that will remain relevant throughout 2011. |
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International Law and Native/ Aboriginal Title Owen J. Lynch - Rights and Resources
This essay identifies, summarizes and analyzes leading international and national laws and judicial cases recognizing or otherwise supportive of native/aboriginal title. Native/aboriginal titles are community- based property rights (CBPRs) typically held by indigenous peoples and some other original, long-termoccupant local communities. The paper evinces widespread and growing evidence that international law is moving towards (and arguably already is) mandating legal recognition of native/aboriginal title to indigenous territories and ancestral domains. It references decisions of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the Inter-American Court (IAC), and the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights (N.B. Asia has yet to constitute any juridical entity comparable to the IAC or its European and African counterparts). This emerging mandate in favor of native/aboriginal title is also apparent in international conventions and declarations, as well as at least fourteen nation states that are already obliged under domestic law, albeit in differing ways, to recognize indigenous peoples’ and others’ native/aboriginal titles. In addition, since 1968 eleven African nations have recognized customary rights as including property rights in their constitutions and/or land laws, as have major international law conventions, declarations and other instruments that are supportive of native/aboriginal title and are also identified. Finally, the paper summarizes leading cases and instruments in comparative/national (international customary) laws that are likewise supportive of legal recognition. The essay is not intended to be exhaustive; nor can it be one-hundred percent up to date. Rather, it establishes that the trend in international law -- as conventionally understood, as well as customary international law, as evinced in the domestic law of a growing number of nation-states -- is moving towards mandating the legal recognition of native/aboriginal title. |
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REDD+ and carbon markets: 10 Myths Exploded - FERN, Friends of the Earth, The Rainforest Foundation UK, Greenpeace
This report cites RRI's position on the drivers of deforestation as it aims to debunk ten common misconceptions about global carbon markets and their ability to prevent further deforestation. |
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Forest Tenure, Governance and Enterprise: Experiences and Opportunities for Asia in a Changing Context - Rights and Resources
RRI Press Kit for media attending Forest Tenure, Governance and Enterprise: Experiences and Opportunities for Asia in a Changing Context, 11-15 July 2011. |
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Climate Change Jeffrey Hatcher, Luke Bailey - Transparency International, Rigths and Resources
The global response to climate change will demand unprecedented international cooperation, deep economic transformation and resource transfers at a significant scale. Corruption threatens to jeopardize these efforts. Transparency International’s Global Corruption Report: Climate Change is the first publication to comprehensively explore major climate-related corruption risks. The book provides essential analysis to help policy-makers, practitioners and other stakeholders understand risks and develop effective responses at a critical moment when the main architecture for climate governance is being developed. RRI Director of Global Programs, Jeffrey Hatcher and Senior Associate of Policy Analyst, Luke Bailey contributed a chapter on Governance and REDD+ (see chapter 6.2). |
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Indigenous and Tribal Peoples' Rights over their Ancestral Lands and Natural Resources Norms and Jurisprudence of the Inter-American Human Rights System Inter-American Commission on Human Rights - Organization of American States
Indigenous and tribal peoples have unique ways of life, and their worldview is based on their close relationship with land. The lands they traditionally use and occupy are critical to their physical, cultural and spiritual vitality. This unique relationship to traditional territory may be expressed in different ways, depending on the particular indigenous people involved and its specific circumstances; it may include traditional use or presence, maintenance of sacred or ceremonial sites, settlements or sporadic cultivation, seasonal or nomadic gathering, hunting and fishing, the customary use of natural resources or other elements characterizing indigenous or tribal culture. As the Inter‐American Court of Human Rights has pointed out, “for indigenous communities, relations to the land are not merely a matter of possession and production but a material and spiritual element which they must fully enjoy, even to preserve their cultural legacy and transmit it to future generations.” “[T]o guarantee the right of indigenous peoples to communal property, it is necessary to take into account that the land is closely linked to their oral expressions and traditions, their customs and languages, their arts and rituals, their knowledge and practices in connection with nature, culinary art, customary law, dress, philosophy, and values.” The Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has also concluded that indigenous peoples’ territorial rights are unique, and encompass a tradition and a cultural identification of indigenous peoples with their lands which has been generally recognized. |
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Indigenous and Tribal Peoples' Rights over their Ancestral Lands and Natural Resources Norms and Jurisprudence of the Inter-American Human Rights System Inter-American Commission on Human Rights - Organization of American States
Indigenous and tribal peoples have unique ways of life, and their worldview is based on their close relationship with land. The lands they traditionally use and occupy are critical to their physical, cultural and spiritual vitality. This unique relationship to traditional territory may be expressed in different ways, depending on the particular indigenous people involved and its specific circumstances; it may include traditional use or presence, maintenance of sacred or ceremonial sites, settlements or sporadic cultivation, seasonal or nomadic gathering, hunting and fishing, the customary use of natural resources or other elements characterizing indigenous or tribal culture. As the Inter‐American Court of Human Rights has pointed out, “for indigenous communities, relations to the land are not merely a matter of possession and production but a material and spiritual element which they must fully enjoy, even to preserve their cultural legacy and transmit it to future generations.” “[T]o guarantee the right of indigenous peoples to communal property, it is necessary to take into account that the land is closely linked to their oral expressions and traditions, their customs and languages, their arts and rituals, their knowledge and practices in connection with nature, culinary art, customary law, dress, philosophy, and values.” The Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has also concluded that indigenous peoples’ territorial rights are unique, and encompass a tradition and a cultural identification of indigenous peoples with their lands which has been generally recognized. |
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Global trends – implications on the development and use of natural resources Agenda and Description - Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry, Rights and Resources
This is the full description and agenda for the meeting "Global trends – implications on the development and use of natural resources” taking place on 8 June in Stockholm, Sweden. |
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An Asia Regional Analysis (DRAFT) Jeannette Gurung, Kalpana Giri, Abidah Billah Setyowati, Elizabeth Lebow - USAID, WOCAN, USFS
The purpose of this assessment is to provide a summary of gender components of REDD+ programs in Asia, a sub-regional summary of women’s forest use and role in forest management and governance, and recommendations for how upcoming programs can mainstream gender considerations into REDD+ projects by learning from and building upon current regional REDD+ models, to ensure that USAID assistance makes the optimal contribution to gender equality. |
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- International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs
The articles included in this report summarize the status of indigenous peoples' rights around the world, showing that indigenous peoples' participation in decision-making and the right to free, prior and informed consent are at the core of indigenous peoples' rights. |
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Territorial Dynamics in Central America Context and Challenges for Rural Communities Nelson Cuéllar, Susan Kandel, Andrew Davis, Oscar Díaz, Fausto Luna, Xenia Ortiz - PRISMA
This document illustrates the different dynamics in Central American territories that include the Peten and the Northern Transversal Strip in Guatemala; Northern El Salvador; the Honduran Mosquitia; the Northern Autonomous Atlantic Region of Nicaragua and a part of the Rivas department in Nicaragua, as well as Northern Costa Rica. The final section provides a brief discussion of some of the principal challenges for rural communities facing these territorial dynamics. |
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Closing Statement, 40th Session of the ITTC ITTO Civil Society Advisory Group - ITTO CSAG
This is the closing statement given on behalf of the Civil Society Advisory Group to the International Tropical Timber Organization at the 40th Session of the ITTC in Merida, Mexico on June 1, 2006. |
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Plan d'Actions Strategiques 2011 - 2015 REFACOF - REFACOF
This is the draft strategic plan for REFACOF for 2011 - 2015 |
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CSR is Not Enough: RRI Report's "wake-up call" to Global Paper Giat Protects Local Rights in Hepu County, China - Rights and Resources Initiative
A briefing that showcases how an RRI study helped protect Chinese landowners from illegal land grabs by global paper manufacturer Stora Enso.
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An Alternative Advocacy Tool For Ensuring That Land And Natural Resources Management Are Right, Pro Poor And Tenure Based In Liberia Alfred Lahai Gbabai Brownell, Sr. - Green Advocates
Community Mapping: An Alternative Advocacy Tool For Ensuring That Land And Natural Resources Management Are Right, Pro Poor And Tenure Based In Liberia |
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Programme - Atelier sur la Cartographie Participative et Macro-Zonage en RDC RRI
Programme - Atelier sur la Cartographie Participative et Macro-Zonage en RDC |
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A Critical Assessment of the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility Kate Dooley, Tom Griffiths, Francesco Martone, Saskia Ozinga - FERN UK, Forest Peoples Programme
In December 2007 the World Bank launched its Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) to act as a catalyst to promote public and private investment in ‘REDD’ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation). As the FCPF completed its first year of activities in 2008, FERN and FPP undertook a critical review of the REDD concept notes presented to the FCPF by tropical forest countries. Our review, ‘Cutting Corners’, concluded that the process had been rushed, with little to no consultation with indigenous peoples, local communities or civil society organisations, and failed to meet the Bank’s own standards. This report presents findings of a follow-up review. We have found that the FCPF is still failing to fulfil its social and environmental commitments, while national REDD Readiness Preparation Proposals (R-PPs) lack sufficient plans for policy and legal reforms that would uphold forest peoples’ rights, improve forest governance and reduce deforestation.
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Agenda du 2e Forum International sur les Peuples Autochtones RRI
Agenda du 2e Forum International sur les Peuples Autochtones par RRI |
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Affiche FIPAC 2 : "oui pour la gestion durable des ressources, oui pour la justice et l'équité" RRI
Affiche FIPAC 2 : "oui pour la gestion durable des ressources, oui pour la justice et l'équité" |
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RRI
Affiche FIPAC 2: "Conservation et développement en Afrique Centrale: notre point de vue est incontournable dans la prise de décision" |
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Market-Based Critique and Recommendations - The Munden Project
The Munden Project Report is intended as a market-based critique of REDD’s tacit design for forest carbon markets and provides some broad recommendations for an improved approach to filling REDD’s investment gap. In this paper they examine REDD from a market perspective, using relevant experience in derivatives trading and systems architecture to examine its mechanisms for financing forest preservation through capital invested in forest carbon markets. Taking the perspective of a software developer presented with a new product concept, the Munden Project begins following questions: what is the system intended to achieve? Why is that outcome worth the investment of time, money and effort required not just to produce, but more importantly, to maintain and operate the system? And, most importantly, what impact is that system likely to have? The Munden Project was founded in 2009 to develop solutions for addressing a new breed of complex, systemic issues. |
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Designing a REDD+ Program that Benefits Forestry Communities in Mesoamerica - PRISMA, Grupo Cabal
This paper is an integrated synthesis of the primary results of the project "Designing a REDD Program that Benefits Forestry Communities in Mesoamerica" implemented from October 2009 to September 2010 by Fundación PRISMA and Grupo CABAL. The objective of this project was to orient the actions of the Climate Works Foundation in Mesoamerica, under the concept of a Mesoamerican Program on Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation that includes the equity and social justice concerns of indigenous peoples and forestry communities.
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The value of investing in locally-controlled forestry The economic impacts of scaling up LLS experiences in Africa, Asia & Latin America - IUCN
A report published by IUCN reviewing existing forest use and management data in order to calculate the value of breaking down barriers to locally-controlled forestry in tropical and developing countries throughout Asia, Africa and Latin America. |
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Local Rulemaking, Forest Livelihoods, and Biodiversity Conservation Lauren Persha, Arun Agrawal, Ashwini Chhatre - IFRI
New research highlighted in Science finds that there is a greater likelihood of a forest providing higher subsistence livelihood benefits to local populations, and also having higher levels of biodiversity, when local forest users have a right to participate in forest governance by making rules over the management and use of the forest. Please contact Dr. Lauren Persha (lpersha@umich.org) for a copy of the article. |
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Augusta Molnar, Keith Barney, Michael DeVito, Alain Karsenty, Dominic Elson, Margarita Benavides, Pedro Tipula, Carlos Soria, Phil Shearman, Marina France - Rights and Resources, CIRAD
In 2008, at the same time as the food price crisis pushed the number of hungry over the one billion mark, members of ILC launched a global research project to better understand the implications of the growing wave of international large-scale investments in land. Small-scale producers have always faced competition for the land on which their livelihoods depend. It is evident, however, that changes in demand for food, energy and natural resources, alongside liberalisation of trade regimes, are making the competition for land increasingly global and increasingly unequal. |
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Local Power, Global Realignment - Rights and Resources
If 2009 was the end of the hinterland and the beginning of a new globalized forest era, 2010 was a year of pushback. Worldwide, the news was full of reports of forest communities and Indigenous Peoples pushing back at land grabs and shaping policy at the national and global levels, and of governments countering and trying to contain community rights. Some governments and private investors accepted or even embraced the new players at the table and began to promote fairer business and conservation models. There was also new soaring rhetoric about the centrality of tenure reform to efforts addressing climate change. Unfortunately, none of this added up to significant global progress in the recognition of local land and resource rights.
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Large-Scale Acquisition of Rights on Forest Lands in Africa Alain Karsenty - CIRAD
This report seeks to answer whether timber concessions allocated in Central Africa can be considered as part of the large-scale land acquisition (LSLA) process that is currently the subject of international debate, mainly targeting arable lands. |
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Conferencia Regional Latinoamericana sobre Pueblos Indígenas y Comunidades Locales COICA, CAOI, CICA, AIDESEP, AIPIBT, ACICAFOC, Mixes, et. al.
Declaracion de Pachacamak sobre Politicas y Estrategias de los Pueblos Indígenas y Comunidades Locales de Latino America ante el Fondo de Inversion Forestal, Casa Atinchik – Pachacamac, Lima – Perú, 02 al 04 de febrero de 2011. |
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INDIA: Tribal Movements Score Historic Victory Against Multinational Corporation PUSHBACK report excerpt Rights and Resources Group
Case study excerpt from PUSHBACK: Local Power, Global Realignment. |
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KENYA: New Constitution Ushers in Women’s Land Rights PUSHBACK report excerpt Rights and Resources Group
Case study excerpt from PUSHBACK: Local Power, Global Realignment |
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COLOMBIA: Court Suspends Militarized Mining Operations on Afro-Descendant Lands PUSHBACK report excerpt Rights and Resources Group
Case study excerpt from PUSHBACK: Local Power, Global Realignment |
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MALI: Farmers Resist Land Deals – “Le Mali n’est pas à Vendre” PUSHBACK report excerpt Rights and Resources Group
Case study excerpt from PUSHBACK: Local Power, Global Realignment |
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CHINA: Whither CSR? Illegal Forest Land Grab Shows Limits of Voluntary Standards PUSHBACK report excerpt Rights and Resources Group
Case study excerpt from PUSHBACK: Local Power, Global Realignment |
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INDONESIA: Civil Society Platform for Safeguarding Community Rights in RED PUSHBACK report excerpt Rights and Resources Group
Case study excerpt from PUSHBACK: Local Power, Global Realignment |
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UNITED STATES: Recognizing First Peoples, Past Wrongs, and UNDRIP – But Action Needed to Match Words PUSHBACK report excerpt Rights and Resources Group
Case study excerpt from PUSHBACK: Local Power, Global Realignment |
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Rights and Resources Initiative Informational Brochure RRI
Rights and Resources Initiative Informational Brochure in English. Learn more about RRI, our Partners and the work that we do. |
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Brazil: Spurring a Progressive Forest Policy Framework - Rights and Resources
In celebration of the 5th anniversary of the Rights and Resources Initiative, several briefings have been prepared sharing the impacts that the RRI Coalition has achieved around the world.
Associated Documents |
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The Rights and Resources Initiative: Advocacy for Community Forestry in the ITTO - Rights and Resources
In celebration of the 5th anniversary of the Rights and Resources Initiative, several briefings have been prepared sharing the impacts that the RRI Coalition has achieved around the world.
Associated Documents |
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The Rights and Resources Initiative and Forest Tenure Reform in China - Rights and Resources
In celebration of the 5th anniversary of the Rights and Resources Initiative, several briefings have been prepared sharing the impacts that the RRI Coalition has achieved around the world.
Associated Documents |
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Community Based Forest Management The Extent and Potential Scope of Community and Smallholder Forest Management and Enterprises Augusta Molnar, Marina France, Lopaka Purdy, Jonathan Karver - Rights and Resources Group
CBFEs are truly local institutions; this is one of the reasons for the diversity of models on which they are based. It is also a reason why, as a development strategy, they bypass many of the costs and hurdles other development initiatives face in implementation. Created on the ground by local actors, they are well adapted to local social, cultural, and economic conditions and landscapes. Unlike large export- and commodity-driven business models, CBFEs are intrinsically tied to the communities in which they operate. They therefore provide local communities with many vital opportunities: local employment and revenue, sustainable production and trade of required goods and services, and wealth that stays within the community. To maximize the potential of community-based forest management and CBFEs, concerted action is needed on the part of governments to create a level playing field for communities and smallholders in fiscal policy and regulations, access to technical and financial services, and the marketplace. In many developing countries, CBFEs and other SMFEs are often relegated by statutory law and regulation to an informal economy and a ‘shadow’ marketplace in which they are unable to realize their natural competitiveness. |
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Harmonizing Agriculture, Forests and Rights in the Design of REDD+ Sara J. Scherr, Seth Shames, Courtney Wallace, Jeffrey Hatcher, Andy White, Peter Minang - EcoAgriculture Partners
This brief is an attempt to bring the issue of agriculture and the associated tenure rights implications into the dialogue on REDD+. |
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Transforming Central and West African Forest Tenure and Industry to Improve Sustainable Development, Growth, and Governance Augusta Molnar, Peter Mbile, Solange Bandiaky, Rob Kozak, Kerstin Canby, Marina France - Rights and Resources
This report presents a body of new evidence on the opportunities for a more diverse and equitable forest economy which balances conservation, timber and wood-based production and industry, non-timber production, harvesting and trade and new ecotourism or ecological service enterprise. A renewed forest economy must reconcile the demands for national economic growth and the needs of forest communities and marginalized to remain relevant. This opportunity is linked to a tenure transition that supports strong local governance and forest resource tenure and rights, balancing multiple interests and stakeholders, through legal pluralism and nested, or multi-layered, tenure regimes. |
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CIFOR Info Brief - December, No. 34 L. German, G. Schoneveld, M. Skutch, R. Andriani, K. Obidzinski, P. Pacheco, H. Komarudin, A. Andrianto, M. Lima, A.A.B. Dayang Norwana - CIFOR
A synthesis of six case studies conducted in southeast Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America on the social and environmental impacts of biofuel feedstock expansion. |
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Making the Forest Sector Transparent Annual Transparency Report 2009 - Global Witness
This is a global forestry sector assessment from Global Witness. This report is based on research and assessments up to December 2009. Finalization of the text took place in July 2010. |
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ITTO Civil Society Advisory Group - ITTO CSAG
This is a statement given on behalf of the Civil Society Advisory Group to the International Tropical Timber Organization at the ITTO 46th Session of the ITTO in Yokohama, Japan in December 2010. |
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Side evnet on Gender and Community-Based Forest Management: Forest Tenure and Enterprises Linkages Forty-sixth Session of the International Tropical Timber Council - ITTO CSAG
This is the announcement on behalf of the Civil Society Advisory Group's side event "Gender and Community-Based Forest Management: Forest Tenure and Enterprises Linkages" presented at the 46th Session of the International Tropical Timber Council in Yokohama, Japan on 17 December 2010. |
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A Rapid Land Tenure Assessment Manual for Identifying the Nature of Land Tenure Conflicts Gamma Galudra, Martua Sirait, Gamal Pasya, Chip Fay, Suyanto, Meine van Noordwijk, Ujjwal Pradhan - World Agroforestry Centre
This Manual is not a comparative analysis of different systems and methods, nor is it a theoretical investigation on land tenure approaches. Many rapid appraisal methods share similar global objectives and principles, and different methodological frameworks can be used. The Manual does not intend to provide an overall view of these methods. Instead, the Manual is primarily an educational instrument for readers looking for new, efficient and adapted methods and tools. It aims to obtain immediate results by offering a tried and tested methodology for immediate field use. The Manual offers practical tools developed all over Indonesia in World Agroforestry Centre-South East Asia projects and used by other development agencies in the past few years. It should also contribute, however, to improved investigation and development skills amongst those carrying out field studies. This is even more important because it is also a self-training process for those carrying out the project. |
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Sustainable Forest Management as a Strategy to Combat Climate Change Lessons from Mexican Communities Deborah Barry, David Bray, Sergio Madrid, Leticia Merino, Ivan Zuñiga - Consejo Civil Mexicano para la Silvicultura Sostenible (CCMSS), Rights and Resources
This study presents the results of recent studies of community forest management in Mexico in the belief that it can inspire other countries and peoples to follow similar paths. Devolving rights over forest land and its resources, including carbon, to the local level is not a panacea for deforestation and forest degradation or the only necessary ingredient for forest-based carbon capture.
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A Case Study on Large-Scale Forestland Acquisition in China The Stora Enso Plantation Project in Hepu County, Guangxi Province Li Ping, Robin Nielsen - Rural Development Institute
This study examines the case of one FDI made by Stora Enso with International Finance Corporation support in forestland plantations in Guangxi, China. Stora Enso is a company which explicitly adheres to CSR principles and committed to gaining Forest Stewardship Council certification by 2007. The study was prompted by prior field visits by Rural Development Institute (RDI) and Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) staff in April of 2006 which identified irregularities in the respect of local rights and the implementation of China’s land laws. RRI and RDI informed Stora Enso of these irregularities and risk of conflict at that time. In 2009 there were a series of conflicts between farmers and Stora Enso’s Chinese partners in Hepu of Guangxi over the compensation these farmers received for the land acquired by Stora Enso in 2009. This study was conducted between December 2009 and June 2010 by a team of legal experts from the Rural Development Institute, a highly respected international research organization on land rights with a strong history of research and advisory to legal reforms in China. The research method included fieldwork, interviews with government, village cadres, and village members, as well legal analysis of documents from communities, local governments and intermediaries. Stora Enso staff in Beijing and Guangxi were contacted in December 2009 to inform them of the study and request interviews and participation in the fieldwork. Unfortunately, Stora Enso staff in Beijing had one meeting with RDI and did not follow-up to supply information to RDI or RRI. They also chose to not be interviewed or participate in the field study.
In brief, the study finds that despite Stora Enso’s good intentions as revealed by its establishment of the “Principles for Sustainable Wood and Fibre Procurement and Land Management” in March 2005 among other CSR principles, there are major limits to their legal due diligence. In effect, this is raising risks for local people to both their rights to land and livelihoods. Since weak governance and limited recognition of local land rights is more the norm than the exception in developing countries, the study points to the continued difficulty of meeting local laws, much less global standards, by foreign investors who hold a commitment to CSR.
Contact Information:For more information or to request an interview, please contact: Coimbra Sirica: +1-301-943-3287 or csirica@burnesscommunications.com Stora Enso has asked RRI to provide contact information for a company representative. Please write to Mr. Lauri Peltola for more information, Lauri.Peltola@storaenso.com.
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Mesoamerican Regional Dialogue on Forests, Governance and Climate Change - Rights and Resources, CCAD, ACICAFOC, PRISMA
This is the final report of the Mesoamerican Regional Dialogue on Forests, Governance and Climate Change which took place in San Salvador, El Salvador on 8 September 2010. |
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Dr. Allassane Ba, Bintou Nimaga
Final study on gender, rights and tenure dimensions in land and forest resources in Mali. |
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Mapping Communities, Mapping Rights Participatory Community Mapping as Rights Contestation in Cameroon René Oyono, Peter Mbile, Marina France, Solange Bandiaky - World Resources Institute, , Rights and Resources
This article describes the importance of forest mapping to establishing the tenure rights of local Cameroonian communities. |
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Diálogo Regional Mesoamericano con Seguimiento por Internet Programa preliminar - Rights and Resources, CCAD, ACICAFOC, PRISMA
Programa preliminar por el Diálogo Regional Mesoamericano con Seguimiento por Internet “Bosques, Gobernanza y Cambio Climático.” |
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How communities manage forests Selected examples from around the world - Intercooperation, FORZA, Swiss Confederation
This publication provides readers with an introduction to community forestry, taking eight country examples from Europe and Asia. In each example the legislation and organizational forms are described, and environmental, economical and social aspects discussed. The publication is intended for forestry students, forestry practitioners and policy makers, and interested members of the general public. |
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Poverty, governance and conservation in the Gran Chaco of South America Janis B. Alcorn, Alejo Zarzycki, Luis Maria de la Cruz - Rights and Resources, Fundación Yangareko, Fundación para la Gestión e Investigación Regional (FUNGIR)
The Gran Chaco is the second largest ecosystem in the Plata basin of South America, after the Amazon rainforest. The high biological and cultural diversity offer diverse opportunities for conservation, despite development threatening both of them. The greatest concentration of biodiversity remain in areas of northern Argentina and southern Bolivia where levels of poverty are very high, and indigenous peoples and poor criollo cattle raisers coexist. By improving informed governance, it is possible to stabilize biodiversity levels and provide a basis for poor local people to collaborate, and to improve their situation in the face of threats from development. In this study we analyze the ongoing processes being applied in two Gran Chaco cases - from the Upper Parapeti Basin (upriver from Kaa Iya National Park) in Bolivia, and the Lower Pilcomayo in northern Argentina (a dynamic internal delta ecosystem where a tri-national biosphere reserve is being considered). Watershed management, when adapted to local ecological, cultural, social and political contexts, is shown to be an effective tactical strategy to activate moribund governmental institutions in response to local constituencies. In the two cases presented, NGO-facilitated processes enriched local people´s ability to take their own actions and to assess and frame their problems and goals for dialogue with their governments. The NGOs also offered technical assistance with land-use zoning, reforestation and alternative income-generation activities in collaborations that shifted government engagement. The methods used differ from the standard conservation and development projects, and their success offers lessons in building social network systems and civic science that improve conservation and reduce poverty. We close with a reflection on the framing of poverty alleviation and sustainability in conservation discourse. |
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Conflict over forests and land in Asia Impacts, causes, and management Yurdi Yasmi, Lisa Kelley, Thomas Enters - The Center for People and Forests (RECOFTC)
Conflict over forests and land in Asia is widespread. Competition for land for investment, resource extraction, and conservation is becoming more common, and with it, community–outsider conflict is believed to have increased in both number and severity. This conflict, which takes place between local actors (communities and indigenous peoples) and external actors (such as Government agencies and developers), has received considerable attention in the popular press but little analytical attention. Debates among scientists, practitioners, and governments on how to mitigate, manage, and transform this conflict have suffered accordingly. This Issues Paper aims to shed more light on how conflict begins; how it affects actors involved; and how it can be successfully managed.
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Louise Henson: - Forest Peoples Programme
Baka, Bagyeli and Bakola forest people – together with their local support NGOs – have been conducting consultations in southern Cameroon to inform their communities about potential REDD projects. The Government of Cameroon is seeking funding from the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) to establish these projects which are intended to Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD).
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The Situation of the Térraba Indigenous People of Costa Rica: A Request for Consideration under the Early Warning and Urgent Action Procedures of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination - Forest Peoples Programme, Asociacion Cultural Indigena Teribe, Asociacion de Mujeres Orcuo dBon, Museo Comunitario, Movimiento de Juventud Naso Lokes, Enrique Rivera Rivera., Kus Kura S.C
According to the most recent census, the Térraba people number approximately 750 persons. In 1956, they were granted title to part of their traditional territory. However, this title was amended and considerably reduced, without any form of notice or consultation, in 2004 by excising the General River, roads, land used by State services (e.g., schools), and water springs. This caused the fragmentation of the titled lands into a number of discrete blocks. At present, close to 90 percent of this titled area is illegally occupied by non-indigenous persons with the tacit or formal approval of the State. As discussed below, the Committee has expressed concern about this same situation on two prior occasions. |
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Submission to the International Finance Coorporation Review of the Sustainability Policy, Disclosure Policy, and Performance Standards - Forest Peoples Programme
The three year review of the International Finance Corporation’s (IFC) sustainability framework provides an important opportunity to reflect and incorporate revisions to strengthen the existing framework. While the framework did establish some steps towards greater accountability within IFC-funded activities, a number of improvements are needed to increase compliance and remedy several serious gaps and weaknesses in the IFC’s sustainability Framework. |
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Trade-offs and synergies between carbon storage and livelihood benefits from forest commons Ashwini Chhatre, Arun Agrawal - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Michigan
A synthesis of this paper was presented at the Asia Dialogue on Community Forests and Property Rights in the Context of Climate Change on 11 August 2010 |
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Forests and Climate Change after Copenhagen An Asia-Pacific Perspective - RECOFTC
The 15th Conference of Parties (COP15) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was held 7-18 December 2009, in Copenhagen, Denmark. The spotlight fell on forests, forestry and REDD+ and although no legally binding agreement was reached, some significant outcomes were achieved. Following Copenhagen, forestry stakeholders in the Asia-Pacific have raised many questions about the meaning of COP 15 for people, forests, and forestry. In this context, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, in collaboration with RECOFTC – The Center for People and Forests, convened a meeting on 3 February 2010, in Bali, Indonesia. The meeting had two aims: 1. To discuss and answer questions that forest stakeholders have been asking following the COP15 negotiations. 2. To debate the key issues that foresters and forestry institutions will face in developing climate change policies and strategies. Twelve regional and international experts attended, along with 29 observers affiliated with the Responsible Asia Forestry and Trade Program’s REDD Learning Network. This report presents the experts’ answers to a dozen key questions. |
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Vietnam: Why REDD+ Needs Local People People Forest and Climate Change Mitigation - RECOFTC
With much of Vietnam’s forest area already actively managed by local people, and given Vietnam’s early engagement in REDD+ readiness initiatives, the country is emerging as a global leader in community-led climate change mitigation in the forest sector. To do so, however, a number of critical issues still need to be addressed. Here we outline why the active engagement of local communities and indigenous peoples is so crucial, and what challenges still need to be overcome. We then summarize the critical actions required to ensure the future success of Vietnam’s REDD+ program.
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Opening Remarks at Conference on Forest Tenure and Regulatory Reforms: Experiences, Lessons and Future Steps in Asia Andy White - Rights and Resources
These are the opening remarks to participants at Conference on Forest Tenure and Regulatory Reforms: Experiences, Lessons and Future Steps in Asia. The remarks were given on 24 September 2010 in Beijing, China. |
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Moving Forward for People and Forests - RECOFTC
This briefing note REDD+ 2010: Moving Forward for People and Forests overviews progress made on REDD+ at the December 2009 Copenhagen climate talks. Designed to meet the needs of national stakeholders with a working knowledge of REDD, it continues to be shared with national-level networks and at our REDD workshops. |
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- RRI
The agenda for the 6th MegaFlorestais meeting, held 20-23 September, 2010. |
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- RRI
The agenda for the 6th MegaFlorestais meeting, held 20-23 September, 2010. |
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Part I Eugenia Katsigris, Jintao Xu, Andy White, Xiaojun Yang, Weng Qian
A report focusing on how forests in China currently benefit incomes, and, in particular, what the role of forests is for the incomes of the poor.
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The REDD Opportunities Scoping Exercise (ROSE) for Ghana ROSE Expert Workshop Report Michael Richards - Forest Trends
The Ghana REDD Opportunities Scoping Exerceis was one of three ROSE country case studies conducted in 2009. It has provided the Katoomba Incubator with a solid basis for strategic engagement with REDD+ in Ghana, both at the project or sub-national level, and at the national or policy level. The ROSE study consisted of two main stages; a two-day key informant or expert workshop, and an analysis of legal and policy constraints by a small in-country team. This report focuses on the first part of the ROSE methodology, the expert workshop; a second Ghana ROSE report, entitled “REDD Opportunities Scoping Exercise: Implications of the Legal and Policy Framework for Tree and Forest Carbon in Ghana”, goes into greater depth on the legal and policy issues surrounding the development of REDD+ in Ghana. |
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H.E. Dr. Thomas Gass - Embassy of Switzerland and Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Kathmandu, Nepal
The opening remarks of the 2010 RRI Asia Dialogue on Community Forests and Property Rights in the Context of Climate Change were delivered by H.E. Dr Thmoas Gass, Ambassador of Switzerland to Nepal on 11 August 2010 in Kathmandu, Nepal. |
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Forest Peoples Programme Press Release: World Bank palm oil strategy is reckless, say NGOs Annabelle Galt - Forest Peoples Programme
In advance of a major international meeting about World Bank investments in palm oil, a consortium of indigenous peoples’, oil palm smallholders’, and non-governmental organisations is demanding the World Bank maintains its current freeze on funding the sector until it has a credible strategy to address the sector’s manifold problems. |
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Annabelle Galt - Forest Peoples Programme
Forest Peoples Programme is deeply concerned for the Dongria kondh people whose lands and future are threatended by the plans Vedanta Resources and the Orissa Government to mine thier sacred mountain for bauxite. |
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- Forest Peoples Programme, Sawit Watch
It is our view that the weaknesses and omissions of the current draft are so great that it must be substantially revised to address these matters in detail and to develop a comprehensive strategy to guide WBG involvement in the palm oil sector. There will then need to be further consultations to ascertain if the revised draft is adequate. In the meantime, the moratorium on WBG funding of the sector should be retained.
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Statement to the Third session of the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Presentation under Agenda Item 4 - Indigenous Peoples Links, Forest Peoples Programme, Asian Indigenous Peoples Pact, Foundation for Aboriginal and Islander Research Action, Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North, Organizacions de Naciones y Pueblos Indigenas en Argentina, Middlesex University Department of Law.
This intervention will focus on the implementation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, specifically on the responsibilities of specialized agencies of the UN under Articles 41 and 42 of the Declaration. These articles require that specialized agencies actively contribute to the realization of the Declaration, through financial support, technical assistance and promotion of the Declaration. Importantly, Article 41 of the Declaration also draws specific attention to the issue of participation, stating that “[w]ays and means of ensuring participation of indigenous peoples on issues affecting them shall be established.” |
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The emergence of the REDD Hydra An analysis of the REDD-related discussions and developments in the June session of the UNFCCC and beyond Francesco Martone - Forest Peoples Programme
A new round of UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) talks and meetings of the AWG-LCA (Ad Hoc Working Group on Long Term Cooperative Action) and the AWG-KP (Ad Hoc Working Group on the Kyoto Protocol), as well as of the two subsidiary bodies SBSTA (Subsidiary Body on Scientific and Technological Advise) and SBI (Subsidiary Body on implementation) took place in Bonn, from May 31-June 10, 2010. In general terms, while progress on some aspects has been registered, the key outstanding issue, i.e. the way C02 emissions reduction will be achieved and ensured still represents the main obstacle to a final deal in Cancun. Annex 1 countries have repeatedly tried to undermine the Kyoto protocol, watering down binding rules and obligations to reduce their emissions, and rather push for a “pledge and review” approach that extends the burden to reduce and mitigate emissions to developing countries. Annex I countries have insisted in pushing for a “merger” of the two negotiation tracks (notably AWG-LCA and AWG-KP) and for the inclusion of key elements of the controversial Copenhagen Accord into the new text for negotiation at the AWG-LCA.
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Olivia Woodburne, John Nelson - Forest Peoples Preogramme
The Congo basin contains the second largest rainforest in the world and has become a target for a developing set of policies that seek to fight climate change by reducing deforestation and forest degradation, best known under its acronym ‘REDD.’ The basic idea of REDD is to compensate nations who manage forests well and protect their forests from degradation, with the goal of preserving the carbon stored within them. It is argued that this approach could be a relatively costeffective way of tackling climate change,1 and a number of REDD projects are being developed in the Central African Republic targeted particularly to the 3.8 million hectares of dense forest in the south-west region. These forests are home to many local and indigenous communities who rely upon forest hunting and gathering, agriculture, fishing and livestock raising. Forest hunting and gathering are the primary economic activities of indigenous BaAka communities whose customary territories overlap most of the remaining forest in the southern forest zone. Since 1988 an integrated conservation and development project has been operating in the south-west tip of the Central African Republic (CAR) called the Dzanga-Sangha Protected Area Complex (DPAC). New REDD pilot interventions linked to carbon trading have already been proposed by NGOs like WWF to help protect these forests.2 Most local and indigenous people living in the Dzanga-Sangha Reserve remain unaware of these REDD proposals that will affect how their forests are managed in the future. There is a need to inform indigenous peoples and forest-dependent communities about REDD as soon as possible so that they can assert their rights in line with international standards. This briefing highlights some key issues that need to be addressed to ensure REDD planning is sustainable and is done in a way that respects human rights.
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on Forests Governance and Climate Change - Rights and Resources Initiative
Brief agenda synopsis and list of presenting organizations. |
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Why REDD+ Needs Local People - The Center for People and Forests (RECOFTC)
This briefing paper outlines why the active engagement of local communities and indigenous peoples is so crucial, and what challenges in the REDD+ processes still need to be overcome. A summary of the critical actions required to ensure the future success of Vietnam’s REDD+ program is also included.
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Conference Purpose and Concept Note - RRI, Office of Prime Minister of Haiti, Office of the Special Envoy for Haiti, Forest Trends
This is the English Purpose and Concept Note for the Strategies for Integrated Watershed Management, Environmental Restoration and Sustainable Development in Haiti Conference, 16 - 17 June 2010. |
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Ordre du Jour - RRI, Office of Prime Minister of Haiti, UN Office of the Special Envoy for Haiti, Forest Trends
Ordre du Jour pour le colloque « Politique et stratégies de gestion intégrée des bassins-versants: Restauration de l’environnement et développement durable » - 16 - 17 juin 2010. |
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Does the Opportunity Cost Approach Indicate the Real Cost of REDD+ ? Rights and Realities of Paying for REDD+ Hans Gregersen, Hosny El Lakany, Alain Karsenty, Andy White - Rights and Resources
The focus of this paper is that the contextual issues influencing the adequacy and appropriateness of opportunity cost as a proxy for payments required to get successful REDD+ can be major ones in most tropical developing countries; and resolving them can be expensive and time consuming.
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Realising Rights, Protecting Forests: An alternative vision for reducing deforestation - Accra Caucus on Forests and Climate Change
In this report the Caucus proposes an alternative vision for achieving the objective of reducing deforestation, arguing for policies and actions that would tackle the drivers of deforestation, rather than focusing exclusively on carbon. Drawing on case studies from organisations with experience of working with forest communities, the report highlights problems linked to the implementation of REDD and suggests ways in which policies to reduce deforestation can actually work on the ground. Through case studies from selected countries the report highlights three critical components: full and effective participation (Indonesia, Ecuador, Democratic Republic of Congo); secured and equitable land rights (Brazil, Cameroon, Papua New Guinea) and community-based forest management (Tanzania, Nepal).
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Securing Tenure Rights and Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) Costs and Lessons Learned Jeffrey Hatcher - World Bank, Rights and Resources
This Social Development Working Paper attempts to contribute to the discussion of scaling-up the recognition of tenure rights within the efforts to reduce forest carbon emissions and to put the costs of recognizing tenure rights in a broader perspective. It is organized into three sections: first, an examination of the role of tenure in reducing forest carbon emissions and enhancing carbon sequestration capacities; second, an overview of lessons learned from legally recognizing customary tenure rights, and; third, an analysis of the costs of recognizing tenure and the projected costs of an international REDD scheme. |
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RRI Workshop on Systems of Standards, Safeguards, and Recourse Mechanisms for Forests and Climate Agenda - Rights and Resources
This is the agenda for the RRI Workshop on Systems of Standards, Safeguards, and Recourse Mechanisms for Forests and Climate held 12 May 2010 in Washington, DC, USA. |
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Case of the "Moringa Growers Cooperative" (Rwanda) Cleto Ndikumagenge, Marie Jose Bigendako, Diomede Manirakiza, Thadee Habiyambere, Chantal Wandja - IUCN
This brief focuses on the "Moringa Growers' Cooperative" in the context of Rwanda's legislation and SMFEs. |
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Forests and climate change after Copenhagen An Asia-Pacific perspective - The Center for People and Forests (RECOFTC), FAO
In this context, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, in collaboration with RECOFTC – The Center for People and Forests, convened a meeting on 3 February 2010, in Bali, Indonesia. The meeting had two aims: 1. To discuss and answer questions that forest stakeholders have been asking following the COP15 negotiations. 2. To debate the key issues that foresters and forestry institutions will face in developing climate change policies and strategies. Twelve regional and international experts attended, along with 29 observers affiliated with the Responsible Asia Forestry and Trade Program’s REDD Learning Network. This report presents the experts’ answers to a dozen key questions. |
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FECOFUN Forest Caravan 2010 campaign Day 1 Update (4 April 2010) - FECOFUN
This is the first update from FECOFUN's April 2010 community forestry rights campaign.
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outcomes on REDD+ and rights Francesco Martone - FPP
Forest Peoples Programme has produced this information note at the request of some Indigenous Peoples’ Organizations to provide some background and analysis of the outcomes of REDD negotiations in Copenhagen, and to suggest options for further action. |
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Marcus Colchester's introduction to RRI's 4th Dialogue on Forests, Governance and Climate Change Marcus Colchester - FPP, Rights and Resources
These are the opening remarks delivered by Marchus Colchester, FPP Director, at RRI's 4th Dialogue on Forests, Governance and Climate Change, Stationer's Hall, London, 6th April 2010. |
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Does REDD+ Threaten to Recentralize Forest Governance? Jacob Phelps, Edward L. Webb, Arun Agrawal - University of Singapore, University of Michigan
This briefing paper highlights the possibility for REDD to interrupt the promising trend toward decentralized forest management. |
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Who Owns Carbon in Rural China? An Analysis of the Legal Regime and Practices with Preliminary Policy Recommendations Zhu Keliang, Darryl Vhugen, Nathan Hilgendorf - Rural Development Institute, Rights and Resources
To ensure the long-term success of China's carbon sequestration programs while addressing welfare of the affected rural poor, it is essential for China to continue its reform efforts on several fronts. Most importantly, the security of farmers’ rights over forestland and trees should be bolstered and adequate compensatory regimes established for farmers affected by carbon sequestration programs. This report covers these topics in depth. |
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Moving Forward for People and Forests - The Center for People and Forests (RECOFTC)
The COP15 climate conference in Copenhagen saw continuing negotiation on the shape of a potential REDD+ mechanism, and further clarifications on the draft agreement text. This summary provides an overview of the major developments and their implications for stakeholders.
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National strategy and policy options Arild Angelsen , Maria Brockhaus, Erin Sills, William D. Sunderlin, Sheila Wertz-Kanounnikoff - CIFOR
This book draws lessons from research and experience to inform national REDD+ strategies and policies. Our audience is those who are developing strategies and formulating and implementing national level policies and demonstration activities at all levels. The book should also provide a useful reality check to those working to design the global REDD+ architecture. |
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ITTO Tropical Forest Update - Volume 19, No 2 Owning Africa's forests Alastair Sarre, Eduardo Mansur, Steve Johnson - ITTO
In May 2009, ITTO, the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI), and the Cameroon Government combined to host, in Yaoundé, Cameroon, the International Conference on Forest Tenure, Governance and Enterprise: New Opportunities for Central and West Africa. The aim was to catalyze new, wide-ranging actions by governments and civil-society organizations towards securing land and forest tenure in Central and West Africa. This special edition of the tfu reports on the conference: its key messages, discussions, conclusions, and recommendations. All conference presentations and working-group notes are available at www.rightsandresources.org. |
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Forests, Conflict and Climate Change Rights and Resources Group Staff, Liz Alden Wily, David Rhodes, Madhu Sarin, Mina Setra, Phil Shearman, - Also available in Spanish, French and Indonesia Bahasa. - Rights and Resources, The Centre for People and Forests, Forest Peoples Programme, World Agroforestry Centre
Forests have long been a hinterland: remote, “backward” areas largely controlled by external, often urban, actors and seen to be of little use to national development or the world except as a supply of low-valued natural resources. 2009 marks the beginning of the end of this era: Forest lands are booming in value for the production of food, fuel, fiber and now carbon. New global satellite and communications technology allow the world to peer into, assess the value of, and potentially control forests from anywhere in the world. More than ever, forests are bargaining chips in global climate negotiations and markets. This unprecedented exposure and pressure, and risk to local people and their forests, is being met by unprecedented levels of local organization and political influence, providing nations and the world at large tremendous opportunity to right historic wrongs, advance rural development and save forests. But the chaos in Copenhagen at COP15 laid bare the looming crises that the world will face if the longer-term trends of ignored rights, hunger, and climate change remain inadequately addressed in 2010. While the era of the hinterland is ending, the future of forest areas is not yet clear. There will be unparalleled national and global attention and investment in forests in 2010—but who will drive the agenda and who will make the decisions? Will forest areas remain controlled from beyond? On whose terms will the hinterland be integrated into global markets and politics? This report takes stock of the current status of forest rights and tenure globally, assesses the key issues and trends of 2009, and identifies key questions and challenges that we will face in 2010.
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A report commissioned by Green Advocates, Monrovia, Liberia P. L. Shearman - Remote Sensing Centre, Univeristy of Papua New Guinea, Green Advocates, Rights and Resources
This report provides an overview of the history of overestimation of extractable timber volumes and forest areas and its implications for the management of the Liberian forestry sector. |
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From simple rules to systems to promote best practices and compliance Hans Gregersen, Arnoldo Contreras - Rights and Resources
This paper returns to the particular issue of regulatory frameworks: the rules and systems put in place to encourage best practice and compliance with the official rules. It argues that in many countries the regulatory framework needs to be rethought, and rethought on the basis of today’s political, social and market contexts; recognizing that today’s world is much different than when the forest regulations were designed decades, or in some cases, centuries before. Fortunately, there are examples of redesigned, and successful regulatory approaches that are combined with incentives and partnering approaches to create coherent systems for guiding and controlling forest activity. We can learn a lot from looking at the experiences gained with these systems. |
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Impacts and implications for choice, conservation, and climate change Jintao Xu, Andy White, Uma Lele - Peking University, Rights and Resources
Global concern with climate change has brought new focus to the problem of unclear land tenure both as a driver of deforestation and a prerequisite for effective forest protection and restoration. In this report, China’s recent forest land reforms provide a valuable case study for this global challenge. The reforms have increased forestry’s contribution to household income and reforestation. As such, they have improved China’s ability to mitigate and adapt to climate change. More reforms are necessary to establish adequate protection for household and community land rights and the regulation of the emerging land market.
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Getting to the Crux of the Natural Resources Crisis Liz Alden Wily - Rights and Resources
As the world's governments and international enterprise become increasingly interested in land acquisition for food production, the importance of legal customary tenure recognition becomes more apparent. This presentation was given to a Public Meeting at the Overseas Development Institute, London, 26 November 2009, to launch Uncharted Territory: Land, Conflict and Humanitarian Action, ed. Sara Pantuliano, Practical Action Publishing, 2009. |
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Recognizing Rights to Natural Resources in Mozambique Brief for the Rights and Resources Initiative Paul De Wit, Simon Norfolk
This report analyzes the current state of legal recognition of natural resource rights under current land and forestry legislation in Mozambique.
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Capitalism Meets Common Property David Barton Bray
In the remote mountain forests of Oaxaca, Mexican Zapotec communities have combined ancestral styles of decision making with modern, eco-conscious forest management. |
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Lessons learned from the application of rights based approaches to natural resource governance in Ghana, Uganda and Nepal Tom Blomley, Phil Franks, Maksha Ram Maharjan - CARE Danmark, FECOFUN, Forest Watch Ghana, Rights and Resources
This paper provides a retrospective review of a new RBA-centred approach that has been applied in practice, particularly in three countries: namely Uganda, Ghana and Nepal. In contrast to many international NGOs working with RBA, CARE has chosen to focus on the application of procedural rights—rather than a more confrontational approach to the adoption of substantive rights. An approach that promotes procedural rights is seen as a useful entry point to issues of power, governance and equity, within the broader framework of sustainable natural resources management. |
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What the (carbon) market cannot do... Perspective: Issue No. 1 Alain Karsenty - CIRAD
This is the first issue of CIRAD's new publication - Perspective.
Associated Documents |
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Key Recommendations of State Level Consultation on Forest Rights Act Community Forest Rights: Scope, Challenges & Prospects - VASUNDHARA
This document summarizes the key recommendations which emerged from a State Level Workshop on Forest Rights Act with a specific focus on the recognition of community forest rights, organized by Vasundhara at DRTC, Bhubaneswar, India from 1st to 3rd September 2009. |
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Redressing ‘historical injustice’ through the Indian Forest Rights Act 2006 A Historical Institutional analysis of contemporary forest rights reform Oliver Springate-Baginski, Madhu Sarin, Soumitra Ghosh, Purnamita Dasgupta, Indranil Bose, Ajit Banerjee, Kailas Sarap, Pradeep Misra, Sricharan Behera, M. Gopinath Reddy, P.Trinadh Rao - Reserach Programme Consortium for Improving Institutions for Pro-Poor Growth, School of Environment & Development University of Manchester
The issue of forest rights in India is a major concern by any measure. It affects forested landscapes that cover over 23% of the country, and the livelihoods of perhaps 200 million citizens, as many as 20% of the population in a democratic polity. Forest landscape dwelling populations, located mainly in a tribal belt across central and eastern areas of the country, are amongst the poorest of the poor. Their poverty reflects a history of institutionalised disenfranchisement; having their customary forest land expropriated, and use rights negated by feudal states, by the colonial state and subsequently by the independent Indian government. The issue of forest rights has been highly contentious for at least a century and a half, and has intensified in recent years. This paper analyses the historical origins of forest rights deprivation and contemporary processes through which local people are seeking to restore their forest rights, taking the case of the Indian Forest Rights Act 2006 (FRA hereafter) as an example to illustrate wider issues in historical institutional theory. The paper explores how the colonial state’s decision to ‘territorialise’ forest landscapes in 1864 through formation of the Imperial Forestry Service represented a critical juncture establishing institutional structures depriving forest people of their customary rights which have shown remarkable persistent ‘path dependency’ despite 50 years of Independence, until the present time. Although the FRA appears to be a fundamental reform, indeed perhaps a new ‘critical juncture’ in the relationship between forest peoples and the state - the depth and durability of this reform remains uncertain, due primarily to the ‘path dependent’ behaviour of the powerful existing state forest bureaucracies, which remain a major obstacle to realising the pro-poor potentials. |
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International Conference on Community Rights, Forests and Climate Change Final Report - Teri, Rights and Resources, Defra
This Final Report presents the key messages, points and recommendations from the International Conference on Community Rights, Forests and Climate Change which was held in New Delhi, India from 17-18 August 2009. |
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The World Bank’s Forest Investment Programme (FIP): core elements and critical issues Rights, forests and climate briefing series – October 2009 - Forest Peoples Programme
This analytical brief focuses on the future structure and operation of the Forest Investment Programme (FIP). |
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Indonesia: indigenous peoples and the Kampar Peninsula Rights, forests and climate briefing series – October 2009 - Forest Peoples Programme
This analytical brief focuses on land-use plans concerning indigenous lands of the Kampar Peninsula. |
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Rights, forests and climate briefing series – October 2009 - Forest Peoples Programme
This analytical brief focuses on accountability issues relating to the World Bank's Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF). |
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Forests, landscapes and governance multiple actors, multiple roles Jane Carter, Kaspar Schmidt, Patrick Robinson, Thomas Stadtmüller, Arjumand Nizami - Intercooperation
This report comes out of a series of meetings organized by Intercooperation and Helvetas on Forests, Landscapes and Governance. It brings together the views and experiences of practitioners working in many different countries. |
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NSCFP Discussion Paper No. 7 Dr. Bharat K. Pokharel, Sarah Byrne - Intercooperation
This paper outlines options for rural communities to participate in climate change mitigation and adaptation activities in the forest sector in Nepal. It looks at the various institutional barriers that would need to be overcome, as well as the existing institutional opportunities, particularly in relation to tenure rights. |
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Rights Contestations through Community Mapping in Cameroon Peter Mbile - ICRAF
A look at the role and types of community mapping in the analysis of community rights in Cameroon.
Associated Documents |
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Customary Practices and Forest Tenure Reforms in Africa - Status, Issues and Lessons Edmund Barrow, Kamugisha-Ruhombe Jones, Isilda Nhantumbo, Rene Oyono, Moumini Savadogo - IUCN
Lessons and findings regarding customary practices and Africa's forest tenure reform process |
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Monthly Information Bulletin of the Forest Conservation Programme (FCP) of the Central and West Africa Regional programme of The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN-PACO) - IUCN
This is the inaugural newsletter from the the Forest Conservation Programme (FCP) of the Central and West Africa Regional programme of The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN-PACO). The newsletter will serve as a regional dialogue tool focused on forestry activity. |
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Special Edition: Equity in Community Forestry - Insights from the North and South. Jeff Campbell, K. Schreckenberg, C.M. Danks, A. Diop, R. Fraser, D. Brighton, M.H. McDermott, C. Luttrell, V.G. Vyamana, M.R. Maharjan, R. Ram Dakal, Suresh K. Thapa, S. Maanty, J. Guernier, Y. Yasmi, A. Lawrence, B. Anglezarke, B. Frost, P. Nolan, R. Owen - Commonwealth Forestry Association, DfiD, RECOFTC - The Center for People and Forests
This is a Special Issue of the International Forestry Review focusing on Equity in Community Forestry - Insights from the North and South. |
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July 2009 - World Agroforestry Centre - West and Central Africa Region
World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF)- Bilingual Monthly Newsletter- ICRAF/West and Central Africa Region, July 2009 Edition |
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July 2009, Issue No 1 - ACICAFOC
This is the inaugural news bulletin from the Coordinating Association of Indigenous and Community Agroforestry in Central America (ACICOFOC). |
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An introduction to the forest tenure transition in Asia, 2002-2008 - Rights and Resources
In recent decades there has been a shift away from government control of forest land towards increasing access and ownership for indigenous groups, communities, individuals, and firms. This brief highlights this transition in statutory forest tenure from 2002-2008 in Asia. The brief focuses on forest land tenure, but tenure over other forest resources (timber, non-timber forest products, carbon, sub-soil mineral ores, etc.) is often just as important. Moreover, although the focus is only on tenure in this analysis, the regulatory framework is also critically important because it specifies the rules regarding land use and who gets access to what resources.
Associated Documents |
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Pueblos indígenas vs. Estado en Latinoamérica Pablo Ortiz-T., Alberto Chirif - Indigenous Territories and Governance Programme
¿Podemos ser autónomos? Pueblos indígenas vs. Estado en Latinoamérica reúne dos documentos: el primero, “Dilemas y desafíos de la autonomía territorial indígena en Latinoamérica” de Pablo Ortiz hace un balance de los procesos de autonomía indígena en la región a partir de cinco de los casos más significativos (Panamá, Nicaragua, Colombia, Ecuador y Bolivia); en el segundo, “Situación y amenazas actuales contra los indígenas amazónicos - El caso del Perú”, Chirif analiza la problemática de su país y la coyuntura reciente, que desemboca en Bagua. |
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Alternative Tenure and Enterprises in Ghana Gene Birikorang, Kwesi Bedu Mensah, Yaw Poku, Mercy Owusu Ansah - Hamilton Resources and Consulting
The present Ghana context study is part of a larger body of research on alternative tenure and enterprise models (ATEMs) for Central and West Africa which includes case studies from seven countries and two country context studies. As such, it provides a broader context for the individual case studies, as it analyzes the current status of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) at national level and considers their opportunities in domestic as well as regional or international markets. |
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The Gambia: Alternative Tenure and Enterprise Models Brief Kanimang Camara - National Consultancy on Extension Services and Training
The present Gambia context study brief is part of a larger body of research on alternative tenure and enterprise models (ATEMs) for Central and West Africa which includes case studies from seven countries and two country context studies. As such, it provides a broader context for the individual case studies, as it analyzes the current status of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) at national level and considers their opportunities in domestic as well as regional or international markets. |
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Payments for Environmental Services and Poverty Reduction Risks and Opportunities Erica Lee and Sango Mahanty - RECOFTC
This paper analyzes the linkages between PES, forests, and poverty, defining poverty not only in terms of deprivation and livelihood flows, but also in terms of social and political marginalization, as well as vulnerability to social and environmental risk. Emerging evidence on how PES impacts the livelihoods of the rural poor suggests that livelihoods are not just about securing financial assets but also human, social, and physical assets. Blindness to social welfare could fuel the risk of adverse social outcomes, and could mean foregoing opportunities to improve the circumstances of the rural poor. |
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Patrice Pa'ah, Marike Michel - CAFT, AGFC
Une étude sur l'appui institutionnel sur la foresterie communautaire au Guatemala. |
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Updated Version Tom Griffiths, Francesco Martone - Forest Peoples Programme
Governments will decide by the end of 2009 how developing country forests will be included in global efforts to mitigate climate change as part of a new post-2012 climate regime. Current negotiations seek consensus on the most effective methods and incentives for ‘reducing emissions from deforestation and for degradation’ (REDD), under which Northern countries would pay Southern countries for forestry practices within their national borders. One proposal is to give them aid money for the purpose. Another is for Southern countries to sell the carbon locked up in their forests to the North to allow Northern industries to continue polluting as usual under a global system of carbon trading. Other proposals recommend a combined public fund and market approach. In parallel with the global climate negotiations, agencies like the World Bank and UN as well as donors like Norway have established a series of large international forest and climate initiatives to support governments to design REDD strategies and implement ‘demonstration’ activities. Donors are under pressure to generate early results and developing country governments are scrambling to secure REDD funds. At the same time, there is a rapid proliferation of voluntary REDD initiatives run by conservation NGOs, local governments and carbon finance companies seeking to make profits out of carbon in standing tropical forests. |
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Tropical Forest Tenure Assessment Trends, Challenges and Opportunities - Rights and Resources, International Tropical Timber Organization
The goal of this report is to present and analyze the state of forest tenure in much of the world’s tropical forests. Secure forest tenure is not only important for climate change mitigation – it is a basic building block of economic growth, social cohesion, personal well-being and environmental protection. While this report highlights evolutions in the geographical extent of forest ownership distribution, it also identifies some of the main challenges to the highly qualitative concept of tenure security and points out several opportunities to capitalize on recent transitions to widen the reach of local community tenure and to deepen the exercise of tenure rights.
Associated Documents |
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Alternative Tenure and Enterprise Models in Ghana A Country-Level Study - Hamilton Resources and Consulting, Accra, Rights and Resources
This research reflects new Terms of Reference (case study and country context protocols) for analyzing the alternate tenure and enterprise models in CWA building on the background analyses and on work that Civil have developed on recognition of alternate tenure rights and civil society institutions. Based on this background work and African policy maker and civil society requests, a detailed work program has been developed to identify and promote alternative tenure and enterprise model (ATEM) alternatives to African livelihoods, economies, and the environment, and engage policy makers and civil society in advancing such pro-poor and rights-based models. |
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Alternative Tenure and Enterprise Models in Ghana Brief Kwesi Bedu Mensah, Yaw Poku, Mercy Owusu Ansah, Gene Birikorang - Hamilton Resources and Consulting
This Ghana context study brief is part of a larger body of research on alternative tenure and enterprise models (ATEMs) for Central and West Africa which includes case studies from seven countries and two country context studies. As such, it provides a broader context for the individual case studies, as it analyzes the current status of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) at national level and considers their opportunities in domestic as well as regional or international markets. |
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Frances K. Colee - Green Advocates
This Liberia context study brief is part of a larger body of research on alternative tenure and enterprise models (ATEMs) for Central and West Africa which includes case studies from seven countries and two country context studies. As such, it provides a broader context for the individual case studies, as it analyzes the current status of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) at national level and considers their opportunities in domestic as well as regional or international markets. |
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Belmond Tchoumba, Cécile Ndjebet - Centre pour le développement et l'environnement, Ecologie Cameroun
Une introduction aux reformes entreprises par le gouvernement de la Colombie Britannique pour reconnaître les droits des peuples autochtones et pour mieux faciliter la foresterie communautaire. |
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Alternate Tenure and Enterprise Models in Cameroon Community Forests in the Context of Community Rights and Forest Landscapes Peter Mbile, Gilbert Ndzomo-Abanda, Anicet Misouma - World Agroforestry Centre, Ngovayang Forest Project, Cameroon, Regional Delegate Ministry of Forest and Wildlife, Cameroon
The present Cameroon context study brief is part of a larger body of research on alternative tenure and enterprise models (ATEMs) for Central and West Africa which includes case studies from seven countries and two country context studies. As such, it provides a broader context for the individual case studies, as it analyzes the current status of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) at national level and considers their opportunities in domestic as well as regional or international markets. |
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Land Rights and the Forest Peoples of Africa Historical, Legal and Anthropological Perspectives Valérie Couillard, Jérémie Gilbert, Justin Kenrick, Christopher Kidd - Forest Peoples Programme, Middlesex University, University of Glasgow
A series of five country studies, plus a broad overview, examining indigenous peoples' land rights in the forested countries of Africa.
Associated Documents |
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Improving Equity and the Means of Subsistence in Community Forestry in Burkina Faso Bocar Kante - CIFOR
This brief is part of a series of case studies conducted on Alternative Tenure and Enterprise Models.
Associated Documents |
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- IUCN, CEESP, WXPA, TILCEPA, TGER, WAMP, GTZ, GEF, Genesta, GEM-CON-BIO
Indigenous and community conserved areas (ICCAs) have emerged as a major new phenomenon in formal conservation circles, though their existence is as old as human civilisation itself. International policies and programmes, notably those under the Convention on Biological Diversity, require countries to provide them with recognition and support. There is precious little guidance, however, on how to do this in ways that strengthen the governance of indigenous people and communities, rather than undermining their initiatives. This Briefing Note attempts to provide some tips towards sensitive recognition and support of ICCAs. It addresses governmental and non-governmental organizations, indigenous peoples and local communities willing to engage in exchanges of experiences and mutual learning and active support. |
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Kalpavriksh Newsletter - April 2009 - Issue 7 Tracking the Forest Rights Act Arshiya Bose, Ashish Kothari - Kalpavriksh
This is the 7th issue of the newsletter from Kalpavriksh, which tracks the progress and implementation of the Forest Rights Act in India. |
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Who Owns the Forests of Africa? An introduction to the forest tenure transition in Africa, 2002-2008 - Rights and Resources
In recent decades there has been a shift away from government control of forest land towards increasing access and ownership for indigenous groups, communities, individuals, and firms. This brief highlights this transition in statutory forest tenure from 2002-2008 in Africa. The brief focuses on forest land tenure, but tenure over other forest resources (timber, non-timber forest products, carbon, sub-soil mineral ores, etc.) is often just as important. Moreover, although the focus is only on tenure in this analysis, the regulatory framework is also critically important because it specifies the rules regarding land use and who gets access to what resources.
Associated Documents |
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- Forest Peoples Programme
Given that indigenous peoples are the traditional owners of a large percentage of the world’s remaining forests, to what extent should or must the various proposals for REDD or AD account for and respect indigenous peoples’ rights? As a way of thinking about this question, this note looks at a case decided by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (“the Court” or “the Inter-American Court”) in November 2007, the Saramaka People v. Suriname case. It concludes that attention to indigenous peoples’ rights is not only desirable as a means to improve the effectiveness and sustainability of climate change mitigation measures, but, also, that these rights must be viewed as part of the applicable legal framework for conceiving and implementing such measures. Failure to do so undermines the rule of law and will expose REDD proponents and investors to a series of serious risks. |
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Tenure Rights and Beyond: Community Access to Forest Resources in Latin America Anne M. Larson, Peter Cronkleton, Deborah Barry, Pablo Pacheco - CIFOR
This occasional paper is the result of research carried out from 2006 to 2008 on the effects of new tenure rights for forest-based communities in Latin America on access to forest resources and benefits. |
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Kalpavriksh Newsletter - Issue 6, February 2009 Tracking the Forest Rights Act Arshiya Bose, Ashish Kothari - Kalpavriksh
This is the 6th issue of the newsletter from Kalpavriksh, which tracks the progress and implementation of the Forest Rights Act in India. |
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Strategy Note Phil René Oyono, Martin Biyong, Iris Flore Bayang, Calvin Sahmo - Cameroon Ecology
This report is a part of a series of studies focused on Alternative Forestry Tenure and Enterprise Models.
Associated Documents |
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Cas de la coopérative “moringa growers” (Rwanda) Cleto Ndikumagenge, Marie Jose Bigendako, Diomede Manirakiza, Thadee Habiyambere, Chantal Wandja - IUCN
Ce rapport prend pour objet d'etude le cas des "Moringa growers' cooperative" au Rwanda, afin d'explorer les PMEF dans le contexte legislative rwandaise. |
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Case of the Traditional Medicine Practitioners Association of Burundi (ATRAPRABU) Cleto Ndikumagenge, Salvator Ndabirorere, Diomede Manirakiza, Chantal Wandja - IUCN
This brief focuses on the ATRAPRABU and SMFEs in the context of Burundian law and markets. |
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Cas de l’association des tradipraticiens (ATRAPRABU) du Burundi Cleto Ndikumagenge, Salvator Ndabirorere, Diomede Manirakiza, Chantal Wandja - IUCN
Ce rapport prend pour objet d'etude le cas de l'ATRAPRABU du Burundi pour examiner les marches et le contexte legislatif burundais. |
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- Rights and Resources, Rainforest Foundation Norway
Moving towards Copenhagen, governments party to the UNFCCC are preparing plans that will include forests in a global framework for addressing climate change mitigation. In this pivotal moment, it is critical to recognize, protect and strengthen the rights of indigenous peoples and forest communities — their full participation will be essential to the success of climate intervention strategies designed here.
Associated Documents |
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Simone Lovera - CEESP Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policies - IUCN, TGER Theme on Governance Equity and Rights - IUCN, TILCEPA Theme on Governance, Communities, Equity and Livelihoods in relation to Protected Areas - IUCN
This discussion paper is a contribution to the debate about policies and incentives to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD). It focuses on the potential of governance of forests by indigenous peoples and local communities, and discusses implications of envisaged REDD regimes for local rights. The note discusses why equity and community engagement should be a paramount consideration of REDD regime and highlights opportunities as well as potential complications and pitfalls. It argues that crucial links need to be drawn between effective REDD regimes, biodiversity conservation and human rights instruments like the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. |
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Chinese Collective Forestlands: Contributions and Constraints Guangping Miao, Anders West
This paper describes the key policy and institutional dimensions of China's collective forests and how collective forest property rights are defined by the law. |
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Chip Fay - World Agroforestry Centre
The Southeast Asia office of the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) worked with current RRI partners and selected individuals in the Asia region in the development of this regional overview of the main legal and regulatory questions concerning the ownership or access to and management of land-based natural resources. The following eight country studies were carried out as background material for RRI members and others interested in getting a relatively quick picture of the situation in each country. The format was designed to be consistent in order to facilitate information flow and uniformity. |
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Kalpavriksh Newsletter - Issue 5, December 2008 Tracking the Forest Rights Act Arshiya Bose, Ashish Kothari - Kalpavriksh
This is the 5th issue of the newsletter from Kalpavriksh, which tracks the progress and implementation of the Forest Rights Act in India. |
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Peter Leigh Taylor, Peter Cronkleton, Deborah Barry, Samantha Stone-Jovicich, Marianne Schmink - CIFOR, Colorado State University-Fort Collins, University of Florida, Gainsville
Communities are making unprecedented gains worldwide in forest resource access and management rights. A new conservation actor, the forest steward community, is emerging in Central America as an effective collaborator in forest conservation. How best to support and strengthen this community-based conservation actor while minimizing external dependency? This paper discusses an experience with innovative participatory research in Guatemala and Nicaragua that aimed to strengthen community capabilities in natural resource management. The Grassroots Assistance Project trained community members to document and critically reflect upon local experience with forest management and external assistance. Together with regional context studies undertaken by professional researchers, these local ‘autosystematization’ studies made possible comprehensive documentation of the multiple dimensions of communities’ resource management, identification of their strengths and vulnerabilities and discussion of future strategies. Their endeavours also reveal an emerging alternative ‘accompaniment’ approach to technical assistance, which promotes a high level of partnership between communities and external institutions, in contrast to traditional assistance, which often creates dependency. Technical ‘accompaniment’ emphasizes long-term social processes, shared learning, community empowerment, validation of local knowledge and continual strengthening of organizational capabilities. It also suggests organizing assistance to pursue closer proximity to communities and their processes, flattening of technical staff hierarchies, flexible response to community input, more horizontal information exchange, and incorporation of social process indicators into assessment. Employed in combination with more traditional assistance approaches, the technical ‘accompaniment’ approach holds promise for strengthening communities’ capabilities as key allies in protecting and managing the environment for the future.
Associated Documents |
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Convergence of food, fuel and fibre markets: driving change in the world’s forests Don Roberts, Andy White, Sten Nilsson - CIBC World Markets Inc., Rights and Resources, IIASA
Don Roberts, Andy White and Sten Nilsson set out the main factors responsible for the growing pressure on land, and forests in particular. |
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Social Policies of Forest Concessionaries in West and Central Africa Alain Karsenty, Chloé Jégou, Benjamin Singer - French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development, Sciences Po Grenoble
This report cites a limited number of companies for their achievements in social relations within the enterprise and with local populations. Those companies operate also in a small number of countries, namely Gabon, Congo-Brazzaville, Ghana, Cameroon and DRC. On one hand, this recurrence reflects the heterogeneity of practices amongst the companies, most of which still have few social achievements to speak of, thus limiting the instances of progressive behaviour deserving to be cited. On the other hand, this report might not be equitable with some companies which may have made genuine efforts on social issues but which are not cited here due to the authors’ inability to contact them at the time of the study – many of the messages sent remain unanswered. |
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Social Policies of Forest Concessionaires in West and Central Africa Alain Karsenty, Chloé Jégou, Benjamin Singer
National legislation has required the implementation of comprehensive social policies by concessionaires for over a decade in some of the region’s countries, yet it is only in the past few years that such changes have actually taken place – mostly as a result of a recent rush to FSC certification. This partly explains why the proliferation of social policies in timber concessions continues to be spearheaded by a small number of large, and mostly European, firms. So far, there is little sign that such policies are being generalised to other companies which are not seeking FSC certification, notably Asian ones. Further research is therefore needed to assess both the effectiveness of these new social policies on the ground, and their potential spillover effects to other companies involved in the sector. |
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Local Rights and Tenure for Forests Opportunity or Threat for Conservation? Jeffrey Sayer, Jeffrey McNeely, Stewart Maginnis, Into Boedhihartono, Gill Shepherd, Bob Fisher - IUCN, Rights and Resources
Conservation organizations are becoming increasingly aware of the need to deal equitably with local peoples’ rights to forest land and forest resources. “Rights-based” approaches to conservation are being widely promoted.1 In many situations these “Rights-based Approaches” are evolving alongside major forest governance reform initiatives. These two trends might be expected to seek similar goals – greater equity and certainty over who can use forests and for what purpose. The reality is that the processes of governance and rights reform are revealing underlying tensions between the needs to husband the local values of forests versus the need to conserve the so-called public goods values that accrue to society at large. Reconciling the trade-offs between local and public goods values will be a major challenge for resource managers in coming decades.
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Climate Change and Governance in the Forest Sector An overview of the issues on forests and climate change with specific consideration of sector governance, tenure and access for local stakeholders Carmenza Robledo, Jürgen Blaser, Sarah Byrne, Kaspar Schmidt - Intercooperation, Rights and Resources
Using forest options for addressing climate change requires a serious improvement in governance of forest resources that goes beyond traditional notions of governance and that includes issues regarding the public sector, the private sector, and civil society. Good governance of forest resources is critical for addressing climate change. Therefore, major efforts are needed for improving transparency, accountability, and equity within and among the public sector, the private sector, and civil society. For the achievement of good governance, clarification of forest tenure and use rights in favor of local forest-dependent stakeholders is a priority. Because of their nature, climate change options in forestry will always require high standards for implementation, monitoring, and evaluation. Thus, high governance standards are an ultimate requirement. Unless robust and proactive steps are taken to clarify and strengthen the property rights of rural and forest peoples, future climate change initiatives will benefit only a few, primarily wealthy elites and will reinforce existing social and economic disparities.
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Beyond Timber: Certification and Management of Non-Timber Forest Products Patricia Shanley, Alan Pierce, Sarah Laird, Dawn Robinson - CIFOR, Forest Trends
Forest certification is a market-based instrument that aims to encourage sustainable forest management for the multiple values of the forest beyond timber, to include non-timber forest products (NTFPs) and services, social and cultural values and future options. To date, there are over fifty commercial NTFPs for which certification standards have been approved and on-going evaluations of original products in new countries and forest types. Thus far, the share of certified timber in the marketplace makes up less than 1 percent of the total forest area and less than 3 percent of the total timber trade value, although it is growing significantly. The share of the commercial value of certified NTFPs is even smaller, as NTFP certification is still in its infancy. |
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Kalpavriksh Newsletter - Issue 4, October 2008 Arshiya Bose, Ashish Kothari - Kalpavriksh
Issue 4 of the monthly newsletter from Kalpavriksh which tracks the progress and implementation of the Forest Rights Act in India. |
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The African Human Rights System A Guide for Indigenous Peoples Treva Braun, Lucy Mulvagh - Forest Peoples Programme
This guide provides an overview of the African system for the promotion and protection of human and peoples’ rights, as developed under the umbrella of the African Union (AU). Established in 2001, the AU is an inter-governmental organisation of which all African countries except Morocco are members. It replaced the former Organisation of African Unity (OAU). In addition to its broad mandate on economic issues, socio-political development, and peace and security, the AU has as one of its objectives “To promote and protect human and peoples’ rights in accordance with the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and other relevant human rights instruments”. While still in its infancy in terms of the promotion and protection of indigenous peoples’ rights, the African system is comprised of a number of legal norms and mechanisms that may be of use to indigenous peoples and organisations in Africa. This guide is intended to be used as a reference tool by indigenous peoples and organisations working to defend the rights of indigenous peoples in Africa, but should not be considered as a complete explanation of the relevant law or processes. |
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Carmenza Robledo, Jürgen Blaser - Intercooperation, UNDP
This paper introduces the key issues and challenges arising from the discussions on Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its Kyoto Protocol. It provides: • An overview of LULUCF activities, including challenges in the past and present negotiations; • A review of data and information on the key mitigation options in the LULUCF sector, with particular reference to forestry; • A summary of the main LULUCF issues currently under negotiation. |
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Aborvitae 36: Rights-based approaches to forest conservation Gill Shepherd, Liz Alden Wily, Eugenia Ponce de Leon, Annalisa Savaresi Hartmann, Janis Bristol Alcorn, Bob Fisher, Gonzalo Oveido, Madhu Sarin, Arturo Santos, Julian Orozco, Evelyn Chaves, Marcus Colchester, Augusta Molnar, Andy White, Arvind Khare, William Sunderlin, Nii Ashie Kotey, Paulo de Tarso de Lara Pires, Thomas Greiber - IUCN
The debate on rights-based approaches to conservation is occurring at a time when conservation thinking is being profoundly challenged. The need for conservation to recognize the rights of those people who are most impacted by global conservation initiatives makes rights-based thinking not only a question of ethics and social justice, but also a practical imperative for saving species and ecosystems.
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Forest Tenure Reform in Vietnam Case Studies from the Northern Upland and Central Highlands Regions Nguyen Quang Tan, Nguyen Ba Ngai, Tran Ngoc Thanh, William Sunderlin, Yurdi Yasmi - RECOFTC, Rights and Resources
This paper is part of a study by RECOFTC that aims to acquire a better understanding of the situation of forest tenure and the implementation of Vietnam's forest tenure policies. |
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Forestry and Poverty Data in Viet Nam: Status, Gaps, and Potential Uses Nguyen Ba Ngai, Nguyen Quang Tan, William D. Sunderlin, Yurdi Yasmi - Rights and Resources, RECOFTC, Viet Nam Forestry University
This paper is a key output from the Transforming China’s Forests Impacts in
Southeast Asia: Advancing Pro-Poor Market Reform for Sustainable Livelihoods and Forests project, conducted by RECOFTC and the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI). The project aim is to advance policy and market reforms in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand, and Viet Nam. |
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People, Forests and Human Well-Being Managing Forests for People in a Period of Rapid Change Mary Hobley - RECOFTC
A synthesis report on the outcomes of the Asia Pacific Forestry Week’s Social Session, organized by RECOFTC with support from AFN and FAO. |
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From Exclusion to Ownership? Challenges and Opportunities in Advancing Forest Tenure Reform William D. Sunderlin, Jeffrey Hatcher, Megan Liddle - Rights and Resources
In 2002 "Who Owns the World’s Forests?: Forest Tenure and Forests in Transition" reported that in recent decades governments had begun to reduce their legal ownership and control of the world’s forests. The aim of this report is to measure whether this forest tenure transition continued in the 2002 – 2008 period, and to assess the implications of statutory forest tenure change for forest peoples, governments, and the global community.
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- Rights and Resources
Forest areas have an integral role in the development agenda of the next several decades because of the myriad challenges that converge within their landscapes. Donor agencies and policy-makers can change historical patterns of forest governance and management as a first and critical step toward addressing the impending global challenges of climate change, ongoing conflict and persistent poverty.
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Kalpavriksh Newsletter - Issue 3, July 2008 Tracking the Forest Rights Act Arshiya Bose - Kalpavriksh
Issue 3 of the monthly newsletter from Kalpavriksh which tracks the progress and implementation of the Forest Rights Act in India. |
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Beyond Tenure: Rights-Based Approaches to People and Forests Some lessons from the Forest Peoples Programme Marcus Colchester - Forest Peoples Programme, Rights and Resources
This analysis from Forest Peoples Programme and RRI concludes that forest tenure reforms must take into account a wide range of human rights beyond solely security of property rights. Effective forest tenure reforms must include respect for the broad range of social, political and economic rights protected in international human rights treaties but frequently absent from narrow sectoral decision-making about forests.
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Free, Prior and Informed Consent and Sustainable Forest Management in the Congo Basin A feasability study conducted in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo and Gabon regarding the operationalisation of FSC Principles 2 and 3 in the Congo Basin Jerome Lewis, Luke Freeman, Sophie Borreil - Intercooperation, Society for Threatened Poeples, Anthroscape
This document is the result of a study into how the notion of free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) can be put into practice in forestry concessions in the Congo Basin. FPIC is a concept that is gaining acceptance as a way of defining and regulating contractual relationships. It is applied in contexts such as medical intervention, social welfare, and, in this case, resource management. |
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Whose Land Is It? Commons and Conflict States Why the Ownership of the Commons Matters in Making and Keeping Peace Liz Alden Wily - Rights and Resources
This paper addresses the tenure fate of three commons: the 30 million hectares of pasturelands of Afghanistan which represent 45 percent of the total land area and are key to livelihood and water catchment in that exceedingly dry country; the 5.7 million hectares of timber-rich tropical forests in Liberia, 59 percent of the total land area; and the 125 million hectares of savannah in Sudan, half the area of that largest state of Africa. All three resources have an uncountably long history as customary properties of local communities. They also share a 20th century history as the property of the state. Of course there is nothing unusual in this contradiction. Between one and two billion people on the planet today are tenants of the State (CLEP, 2008, Alden Wily, forthcoming (b)). They live on and use traditional properties on which, in the eyes of the national laws of those countries, they are no more than lawful occupants and users. When their expansive collectively-owned forest, pastoral and swamp lands are taken into account, up to five billion hectares are involved, potentially one third of the world’s total land area. |
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Kalpavriksh Newsletter - Issue 2, June 2008 Tracking the Forest Rights Act Kothari - Kalpavriksh
Issue 2 of the Kalpavriksh newsletter on the Forest Rights Act implementation in India. |
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Pro-Poor Land Tenure Reform and Democratic Governance Discussion Paper 3 - Oslo Governance Centre Ruth Meinzen-Dick, Monica di Gregorio, Stephan Dohrn - CAPRi, UNDP
This discussion paper provides a review of how different forms of land tenure reform relate to decentralization and local governance, in theory and practice. It will guide readers who are familiar with decentralization and local governance approaches to understand the main issues and challenges posed by land tenure reforms to achieve pro-poor impact. Because land tenure reform assigns control over resources that are critical for both identity and livelihood, it will be contentious. It is, therefore, important to distinguish among four different types of land tenure reform and critically assess the political economy context and the type of decentralization as well as national-local governance relationships in which land tenure reform will be implemented. It is equally important to understand the implications of various land tenure reform types for democratic governance and social inclusion / cohesion. |
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Kalpavriksh Newsletter - Issue 1, May 2008 Arshiya Bose, Ashish Kothari - Kalpavriksh
Issue 1 of the monthly newsletter from Kalpavriksh which tracks the progress and implementation of the Forest Rights Act in India. |
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Whose Forest Tenure Reform Is It? Lessons from Case Studies in Vietnam Nguyen Quang Tan, Nguyen Ba Ngai, Tran Ngoc Thanh - RECOFTC, Rights and Resources
This Policy Brief presents some of the major findings of a study conducted to determine how forest tenure reform in Vietnam has worked in practice and how it has affected local people's livelihoods. The policy brief focuses on four issues: actual control over forest resources; local people's confusion about their rights; impacts of forest tenure reform on poverty alleviation; and the ability of local people to manage forests. |
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Collective Forest Tenure Reform in Southwest China- English Experiences and Challenges Su Yufang, Zhao Yaqiao, Gan Tingyu, Xu Wei, Ren Xiaodong - World Agroforestry Centre-China
This research aims to provide policy guidance on the ongoing implementation of collective forest tenure reforms in southwest China.
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Indigenous and Traditional Peoples and Climate Change Issues Paper Mirjam Macchi, Gonzalo Oviedo, Sarah Gotheil, Katharine Cross, Agni Boedhihartono, Caterina Wolfangel, Matthew Howell - IUCN
Indigenous peoples around the world will bear the brunt of climate change – but they are also armed with the traditional knowledge to survive its effects. |
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The Forest Carbon Partnership Facility Facilitating the weakening of indigenous peoples' rights to lands and resources - Forest Peoples Programme
There are key shortcomings in the draft Charter and background documents for the World Bank's Forest Carbon Partnership Facility, including failure to provide for full participation from indigenous peoples, lack of consultation to-date, and failure to include commitments to upholding human rights.
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Supporting Small Forest Enterprises - A Cross-sectoral Review of Best Practice Duncan Macqueen - IIED
This report reviews the growing consensus on best practice in small enterprise support, both within and outside the forest sector. It describes how a framework known as ‘market system development’ unites attempts to: strengthen enterprise associations, facilitate better provision of financial and business development services, and improve the business environment. It concludes with specific recommendations for support to SMFEs. |
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Duncan Macqueen, Annie Dufey, Ana Patrícia Cota Gomes, Nelda Sanchez Hidalgo, Maria Regina Nouer, Ruben Pasos, Luis Alfonso Argüelles Suárez, Vaithehi Subendranathan, Zazil Ha García Trujillo, Sonja Vermeulen, Mauricio de Almeida Voivodic, Emma Wilson - IIED
This report assesses demand for a mechanism that brings together forest certification and fair trade in the timber market. Timber buyers from 21 countries were surveyed as part of this study - with more detailed value chain analysis in 4 country case studies. The report concludes that there is indeed both demand and practical options to do more for community forest producers. A historic opportunity exists to bring together forest certification and fair trade in the interests both of communities and the forests on which they depend. |
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Environmental Governance and the Emergence of Forest-Based Social Movements Peter Cronkleton, Peter Leigh Taylor, Deborah Barry, Samantha Stone-Jovicich, Marianne Schmink - CIFOR
This occasional paper is based on the results of a three-year project examining the emergence of forest-based grassroots movements in Latin America. The project focused on four noteworthy cases in Central America and Brazil, each representing ‘successful’ broad-based collective action to defend local control and use of forest lands. |
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Forest Governance in Countries with Federal Systems of Government Lessons and implications for decentralization Arnoldo Contreras-Hermosilla, Hans M. Gregersen, Andy White - CIFOR, Forest Trends, Rights and Resources
This study examines the experience of federal countries in managing their decentralized systems of forest governance.
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Impacts, Links and Measures to Mitigate Ruben de Koning, Doris Capistrano, Yurdi Yasmi, Paolo Cerutti - CIFOR, RECOFTC, Rights and Resources
Forest-based conflict is one of the major global challenges for the international forestry agenda together with poverty, climate change, conservation, and biofuels. In this paper, we will estimate the scope of the problem for people and forests, identify the role of forest rights and tenure as part of the cause of and solution to conflict, and project future challenges. We will recommend a set of actions that donors, govern¬ments, and civil society organizations should embark on to fight corruption, to tackle power imbalances, to clarify rights, to improve corporate responsibility, and to engage communities in resource management.
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An Ear to the Ground: Tenure Changes and Challenges for Forest Communities in Latin America Deborah Barry, Peter Leigh Taylor - Rights and Resources, CIFOR
The Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) “Listening, Learning and Sharing Launch” (LLSL) was designed as an “ear to the ground” for hearing the assessments and concerns of NGOs, community organizations,
politicians, scholars, and governments in lowland tropical forest countries around the world. With limited financial and human resources dedicated to this, the exercise attempted to gather these inputs, concerns and perspectives to help shape the unique effort ‘under construction’ in RRI to bring the voices, experiences and current issues of communities and social movements to planning ways to break the logjam that is
impeding progress in improving management of the worlds forests. We realize the sense of urgency, as we are at a time when the world is faced with global climate change and needs to maintain and expand forest coverage while protecting the local livelihoods that also contribute to protecting global ones.
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The Boomerang - When Will the Global Forest Sector Reallocate from the South to the North? Sten Nilsson - IIASA
This paper examines the commonly held notion that the forest sector in the south will dominate in the future by addressing issues such as climate change, increasing demands for food as global development accelerates, and the pursuit of alternative fuel sources. |
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A Field Report Keith Barney
This report documents the contemporary ecological, social and economic transformations occurring in one village in Lao PDR’s central Khammouane province under multiple sources of development-induced displacement. Rural development policy in Laos is focused on promoting rapid rural modernisation, to be achieved through foreign direct investments in two key resource sectors: hydropower and plantations. Laos’ land reform program is also a key component of the changes underway in the countryside, as swidden (or shifting) upland cultivation is targeted for stabilisation and elimination. |
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Alain Karsenty - CIRAD
Concessions in Africa have a long history and mixed records. From the 1980-90’s onwards, concessions were gradually requested to bear new responsibilities, previously carried out by governments, such as the management of production forests and the oversight of some parts of the territories where forest concessions are prominent. The concessions sector is still dominated by the Europeans, but with an increasing prominence of Asian companies, which are already dominant in Equatorial Guinea, CAR and South-Congo. There is, however, a room and a need for diversification of forest tenure models, which might be seen as complementary rather, at least for the foreseeable future, than alternatives competing with the current system. |
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Small and Medium Forest Enterprises: Instruments of Change in the Developing World Robert Kozak - University of British Columbia, Rights and Resources
Small and medium forest enterprises (SMFEs) are seen important elements of strategies aimed at pro-poor economic growth in developing regions. They are characterized by a diverse range of stakeholders, actors, businesses, structures, networks, products, and services. Unfortunately, little has been done in the way of quantifying the contributions of these enterprises to economic growth and employment. This report recommends that concerted research efforts be undertaken to better understand the size, scope, characteristics, and dynamics of this sector and that this information be used to inform civil society, development agencies, and governments on devising and implementing appropriate interventions and policy reforms aimed at reducing poverty in the forest dependent communities of the developing world. |
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An investigation into forest ownership and customary land rights in Liberia Liz Alden Wily - SDI Liberia, FERN
This landmark study sets out the confusions and conundrums of forest tenure in Liberia today and develops clear recommendations towards solving potential conflicts over natural resources. |
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Community-Based Forest Enterprises in Tropical Forest Countries: Status and Potential Augusta Molnar, Megan Liddle, Carina Bracer, Arvind Khare, Andy White, Justin Bull - ITTO, Rights and Resources, Forest Trends
Like all forest enterprises, community forestry enterprises (CFEs) have a mixed record, with numerous cases of successes as well as failures. As the experience in developed countries attest, SMEs can emerge and flourish where the tenure and policy frameworks allow them to exist legally and compete fairly with large-scale enterprises. Unfortunately, only a few tropical countries have had favourable conditions in place for a sufficiently long time to enable their development or viability. This study identifies some shared trends for the emergence and development of CFEs in a range of different tropical countries that indicate a high level of promise overall.
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Transitions in Forest Tenure and Governance: Drivers, Projected Patterns and Implications - Rights and Resources
Major shifts in the global economy, as well as in social, political and ecological systems are affecting forests and forest livelihoods such that future challenges in the forest sector will be quite distinct from those faced in the past. The forest sector is now more embedded in the global economy than ever before, and the influence of other sectors on forests, forest peoples and forest industry will similarly be much greater in the future than in the past. This paper briefly presents our perspectives on: (1) major drivers shaping forest tenure and governance, (2) projected patterns by 2020 and (3) the implications of these transitions for those concerned with forest livelihoods and conservation today.
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The Poverty of Forestry Policy Double standards on an uneven playing field Jesse Ribot, Anne M. Larson
This article examines how forestry policy and implementation maintain double standards in a manner that excludes the rural poor from the natural wealth around them. |
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Convergence of the Fuel, Food and Fiber Markets - Summary A Forest Sector Perspective Don G. Roberts - CIBC World Markets, Rights and Resources
The biofuels sector will continue to experience significant growth over the coming decades, and over time its development will lead to a convergence of the markets for fuel, food and fiber (e.g. wood). This is a summary of the full paper prepared for the conference "Towards a New Global Forest Agenda", held in Stockholm in October 2007. |
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Poverty, Rights and Tenure on Forest Lands Priority Actions for Achieving Solutions William D. Sunderlin - Rights and Resources
A background paper for the conference "Towards a New Global Forest Agenda", held in Stockholm in October 2007. |
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The Dispute Resolution Process in Relation to Logging Permits in China Li Ping - Rural Development Institute
This paper examines the dispute resolution experiences in the US, UK and Ireland with respect to denial of applications for logging permits, and its possible application to China. |
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The Impact of Regulatory Takings by the Chinese State on Rural Land Tenure and Property Rights Li Ping - Rural Development Institute
This paper will introduce and discuss regulatory takings laws in the US and some European countries. It makes a series of recommendations on legislative reforms in China’s regulatory takings regime taking into account the unique characteristics of China’s property rights institution. |
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The Trouble with Tenure Security in Laos Keith Barney - TERRA
The extension of land reform and titling programs into upland zones is currently being debated in Lao PDR. However, these reforms are advancing a version of tenure security that promotes market-oriented forestry development and legitimates neoliberal approaches to poverty alleviation. |
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Community-Based Forest Enterprises in Tropical Forest Countries - Full Report with Annexes Augusta Molnar, Megan Liddle, Carina Bracer, Arvind Khare, Andy White, Justin Bull - ITTO, Rights and Resources, Forest Trends
Like all forest enterprises, community forestry enterprises (CFEs) have a mixed record, with numerous cases of successes as well as failures. As the experience in developed countries attest, SMEs can emerge and flourish where the tenure and policy frameworks allow them to exist legally and compete fairly with large-scale enterprises. Unfortunately, only a few tropical countries have had favorable conditions in place for a sufficiently long time to enable their development or viability. This study identifies some shared trends for the emergence and development of CFEs in a range of different tropical countries that indicate a high level of promise overall.
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Land, Forest and People: Facing the Challenges in South-East Asia Listening, Learning and Sharing Asia Final Report Marcus Colchester, Chip Fay - Forest Peoples Programme, World Agroforestry Centre
Over the past 20 years, the region reviewed in this report - South East Asia stretching from Laos across to Indonesia - has experienced major changes in forest cover, social development and forest policy. Natural forests have shrunk dramatically and continue to be degraded and cleared at startling rates. Forest areas set aside for protection have increased. At the same time large areas of land and forest have been ‘converted’ to timber plantations and estate crops. During the same period, both for better and for worse, the forest peoples who inhabit these areas have also been through tumultuous changes. |
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07 Poverty Reduction and Forests: Tenure, Market and Policy Reforms Proceedings of an International Conference Bob Fisher, Sango Mahanty, Cor Veer - RECOFTC, Rights and Resources
A great deal of discussion in recent years has focused on the role of conservation, and more specifically, sustainable forest management, in contributing to poverty reduction. A number of conferences and workshops have picked up on this theme including the International Conference on Poverty Reduction and Forests: Tenure, Market and Policy Reforms. The importance of policies that support rights to forest resources and reforms to markets has been recognized as essential to enabling more effective contributions from forests to poverty reduction. Recognition of the need for such policy reforms led to the establishment of the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI), a coalition of organizations working together to encourage greater global action on forest policy and market reforms, with the aim of increasing household and community ownership, control, and benefits from forests. RECOFTC and other RRI partners proposed this Conference because we recognize the need for exploring real experiences in connecting forest policy reforms and poverty reduction, both by giving positive examples and examining the constraints. The Conference provided a valuable opportunity to share the experiences from practitioners throughout the world, with cases from Asia and the Pacific, Africa, and Latin America. These proceedings contain selected papers from the Conference and convey much of the richness of the discussions in Bangkok. On behalf of RECOFTC and the RRI partners, we would like to congratulate the authors on their thoughtful contributions. We are sure that these proceedings will contribute to further discussion, policy reform, and other necessary action to ensure sustainable forest management reaches its potential to contribute to poverty reduction. |
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Li Ping, Zhu Keliang - Rural Development Institute, Rights and Resources
Based on extensive desk research and fieldwork in three provinces, this paper reviews and analyzes the development of the Chinese regulatory frameworks that govern forest tenure. Special attention is paid to farmers’ rights to collective forestland and forest products, and a particular focus is given to the current legal regime on farmers’ tenure rights to forestland. |
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Conservation’s engagement with human rights: “traction”, “slippage”, or avoidance? Janis Bristol Alcorn, Antoinette G. Royo
Human rights (HR) have become a smoking-gun issue threatening conservation’s public legitimacy and long-term funding. Globally there are rising frustrations that large conservation non-governmental organizations (NGOs) do not seem to be collaborating with civil society movements promoting democratization. They rather appear to associate closely with governments and other actors with poor HR records. HR abuses or allegations of abuse that arise in conservation contexts include violation of due process, massive forcible resettlements, destruction of property and farms, torture, and extrajudicial killings. In addition, conservation agents are increasingly perceived as HR ‘duty bearers’ that do not fulfil their responsibilities. Many biodiversity hotspots overlap with poverty hotspots where HR abuses occur, and in such areas conservation organizations have an excellent opportunity to act towards addressing such abuses. Their responsibilities are guided by international and domestic law, yet their record of action is uneven. In some local cases, conservation agencies have demonstrated ‘traction’ in supporting HR. Evidence of ‘slippage’ and avoidance in assuming HR responsibilities, however, suggest that the biodiversity conservation community has yet to mature towards a commitment to HR, which would require systematic changes at multiple levels. This paper places unspoken issues on the table and encourages their open discussion, hoping to promote the positive changes essential for sustainable conservation. |
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Organization and Governance for Fostering Pro-Poor Compensation for Environmental Services Carina Bracer, Sara Scherr, Augusta Molnar, Madhushree Sekher, Benson Owuor Ochieng, Gaya Sriskanthan - Forest Trends, Ecoagriculture Partners, Rights and Resources, Centre for Ecological Economics & Natural Resources, African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS), IUCN
To increase potential for pro-poor outcomes of CRES, the opportunity for local conditions to define the supporting institutional structures and norms that surround CRES is critical. There are a wide range of institutional models of CRES that can benefit the poor, and these tend to include features such as: building upon and strengthening existing institutions of the poor, allowing flexibility in land use options and in the timeframe for adoption and adaptation of land use, simplification of monitoring and reporting to fit local capacity, and orientation and training of intermediary organizations who serve as brokers to the poor and help them to aggregate supply of CRES services. |
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Where in the world is there pro-poor forest policy and tenure reform? Mary Hobley
The purpose of this paper is to provide the Rights and Resources Initiative with an analysis of the opportunities and threats to increasing pro-poor tenure and policy reforms in the global forest sector over the next decade. The analysis examines the international, national and local arenas and the drivers of change at these different levels. It questions the extent to which there is already pro-poor policy in place. It examines critically the nature of poverty as a basis from which to assess the extent to which changing ownership and access patterns are bringing greater livelihood security to the rural poor. It uses poverty as the starting point for looking at forest policy rather than looking at forestry and seeing how it can be made to accommodate a more pro-poor approach. |
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Local forest-based enterprises Supporting the livelihoods of the poor? - Info Resources
The development of local forest-based enterprises represents an opportunity for strengthening the livelihoods of poor, forest-dependent people, at the same time providing an economic incentive to conserve forests through sustainable management. Is this potential being put into practice? |
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Where in the world is there pro-poor forest policy and tenure reform? Mary Hobley
Many countries are now recognizing community ownership and devolving forest responsibilities to local jurisdictions. This transition in ownership is both a response to rights-based movements to increase local ownership and access to forest resources and a strategic policy shift responding to the widespread failure of governments to avoid deforestation, control illegal activities or generate the desired equity of benefits under systems of state forest ownership and control. This transition varies from one country to another based on the biophysical, economic, social or historical reality. Yet there is much that one country and citizenry can learn from the experience of others regarding policy choices and the pace or strategy of reform. |
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- The Rainforests Foundation, Forests Monitor
This report addresses the issues surrounding sustainability and the impacts of the industrial logging concession system in several Central African countries and elsewhere. Based on the contributions of experts from various backgrounds (NGOs, research bodies, government organizations), the report aims to bring these issues to the attention of national decision-makers and international community representatives, highlighting the system’s pitfalls as well as the policy options available that could avert or remedy some of these problems. |
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Duncan Macqueen, Annie Dufey, Bindi Patel - IIED
The great expansion in community ownership and management of forests presents a historic opportunity. Communities now own or manage one fourth of the forests in developing countries. Certification, eco-labelling and social auditing have all been set up to improve the forest sector. High hopes for forest livelihoods and poverty reduction have surrounded their use but each has had its limitations. It is now time to examine other complementary instruments. Fair trade may be one such instrument. An alliance of institutions interested in promoting fair trade timber is beginning to form. This report outlines some of the options for building on this momentum and enhancing local returns from responsible forestry. |
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Towards Wellbeing in Forest Communities a source book for local government - CIFOR
Governments in many countries are decentralizing to give more control over decision-making and budgets to local administrators. Decentralization is especially significant to forest communities, which have historically benefited little from government services and poverty reduction programs. This source book was written for local governments and their partners who hope to respond to the needs of forest communities and improve their wellbeing. |
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Multi-country analysis of spatial association and proposed policy solutions William D. Sunderlin, Sonya Dewi, Atie Puntodewo - CIFOR, World Agroforestry Centre, Rights and Resources
This paper examines poverty and deforestation in developing countries as linked problems and focuses on policies that can favour poverty alleviation in forested regions. The paper encompasses two elements: analysis of the spatial coincidence between poverty and forests, and proposed policy options for reducing poverty in forested areas.
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Conserving What and for Whom? Why Conservation Should Help Meet Basic Human Needs in the Tropics David Kaimowitz, Douglas Sheil
For hundreds of millions of people, biodiversity is about eating, staying healthy, and finding shelter. Meeting these people’s basic needs should receive greater priority in the conservation agenda. |
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Better access and secure rights for poor people - DFID
This paper demonstrates the importance of land tenure in livelihoods and development, and outlines the British Department for International Development's approach to land issues. The document details that if land and property are clear and secure, they can help to boost economic growth, tackle inequality and reduce poverty. |
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- SIDA
This paper outlines Sida’s position on natural resource tenure and provides guidance for activities where tenure issues are at stake. Rather than providing solutions, the paper aims to support Sida staff and partners in their own analysis and dialogue, and in their development and implementation of policies and programmes. |
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Compensation and Rewards for Environmental Services in the Developing World Framing Pan-Tropical Analysis and Comparison Brent Swallow, Mikkel Kallesoe, Usman Iftikhar, Meine van Noordwijk, Carina Bracer, Sara Scherr, K.V. Raju, Susan Poats, Anantha Duraiappah, Benson Ochieng, Hein Mallee, Rachel Rumley - World Agroforestry Centre, IUCN, Forest Trends, Ecoagriculture Partners, Institute for Social and Economic Change, Corporación Grupo Randi Randi, United Nations Environment Programme
This introductory paper begins with a review of the recent historical development of compensation and reward mechanisms within a broader context of changing approaches to conservation and environmental policy. Conservation approaches have moved from a sole focus on protected areas, to integrated conservation and development projects, to landscape management approaches, and now, consideration of conservation contracts. At roughly the same time, there has been a general relaxation of government enforcement of environmental regulations towards more multi-stakeholder forms of governance in which non-governmental and international organizations play roles and a variety of market-based and negotiation approaches have come to the fore. That dynamic context is fostering greater interest in mechanisms for compensation and reward for environmental services in the developing regions of the world. Later sections of the paper clarify key concepts and present a conceptual framework for characterizing different types of mechanisms and the internal and external factors affecting those mechanisms. The penultimate section summarizes experience and perceptions of compensation and reward for environmental services. The concluding section postulates the alternative motivations that are shaping compensation and reward mechanisms in the developing world. |
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The Conditions for Effective Mechanisms of Compensation and Rewards for Environmental Services Brent Swallow, Beria Leimona, Thomas Yatich, Sandra J. Velarde, S. Puttaswamaiah - World Agroforestry Centre
This paper considers the conditions that determine the effectiveness of compensation and reward mechanisms. The paper takes deductive and inductive approaches to addressing the question. A series of 11 hypotheses are derived from theories of institutional change, environmental policy diffusion, and the co-dependence between different types of policy instruments. Eight case studies, all of which were considered at regional workshops on compensation for environmental services, are reviewed in the latter part of the paper. The cases, from Latin America, Africa and Asia, cover a range of environmental services and policy contexts. Overall the results suggest the following conditions to be important in many of the cases: (1) market opportunities and localized scarcity for particular environmental services; (2) international environmental agreements, international organizations, and international networks; (3) government policies and public attitudes toward government environmental responsibility, security of individual and group property rights, and markets; and (4) the strength of the regulatory regime affecting the environment. |
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Sara J. Scherr, Jeffrey C. Milder, Carina Bracer - Ecoagriculture Partners, Cornell University , Forest Trends
The development of Compensation and Rewards for Environmental Services (CRES) will have differential impact on poor resource managers and poor consumers depending upon the characteristics of the resource itself, the financial and other values for different beneficiaries, and the design of payment and market systems. In this early stage of CRES development, there are significant opportunities to shape that development in ways that will have greater benefits for the poor and for poverty reduction. The purpose of this paper is to explore the relative importance of different types of CRES in shaping poverty and ecosystem services across the developing world, as they are likely to evolve over the next two decades. |
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Land and Resource Alienation in Cambodia Shalmali Guttal - Focus on the Global South
Ask any Cambodian what s/he considers to be the foundation of society and life in Cambodia and the answer is likely to be “land.” As in most other places, land is an extremely important economic resource or asset in Cambodia. Land is livelihood. But equally, land is valued as an emblem of rootedness, belonging and stability, and is widely regarded as the very basis of social organisation in the country. Today, at least a third of Cambodia's peoples - rural and urban - are being systematically alienated from their lands, homes and livelihoods. In many instances communities are losing lands and access to natural resources because of economic and demographic pressures. But equally, people are being dispossessed from their lands by those with political power and money. This paper attempts to provide an overview of the growing crisis of land and resource alienation in Cambodia. |
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Memperkokoh pengelolaan Hutan Indonesia Arnoldo Contreras-Hermosilla, Chip Fay - Forest Trends, World Agroforestry Centre
The purpose of this analysis is to help policy makers and the many stakeholders in Indonesia develop a vision and a plan to advance tenure reforms and strengthen forest management systems. Its intention is to contribute to ongoing efforts to formulate a new paradigm for forest management in Indonesia. It focuses primarily on the fundamental question of the legal and biophysical rationale upon which the concept of the State Forest Zone is based. This analysis addresses the question of land ownership and sustainable forest resource management. It challenges the widely accepted view that the government, through the Department of Forestry, has jurisdiction over land administration within the Forest Zone. Bahasa version of November 2005 report, translated by the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) |
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between poverty alleviation and market forces Jean-Laurent Pfund, Patrick Robinson - Intercooperation
Non Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) are increasingly recognized for their important roles in forest management around the world. While generally associated with protection, biodiversity and recreation in the North, NTFPs play significant roles for local communities in the South and East, including home consumption and production for local or regional markets. These articles draw on experiences from around the world to examine the relationship of NTFPs to development, poverty alleviation and conservation. |
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Strengthening Forest Management in Indonesia through Land Tenure Reform Issues and Framework for Action Arnoldo Contreras-Hermosilla, Chip Fay - Forest Trends, World Agroforestry Centre
The purpose of this analysis is to help policy makers and the many stakeholders in Indonesia develop a vision and a plan to advance tenure reforms and strengthen forest management systems. Its intention is to contribute to ongoing efforts to formulate a new paradigm for forest management in Indonesia. It focuses primarily on the fundamental question of the legal and biophysical rationale upon which the concept of the State Forest Zone is based. This analysis addresses the question of land ownership and sustainable forest resource management. It challenges the widely accepted view that the government, through the Department of Forestry, has jurisdiction over land administration within the Forest Zone. |
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Poverty and Conservation Landscapes, People and Power R.J. Fisher, Stewart Maginnis, W.J. Jackson, Edmund Barrow, Sally Jeanrenaud - IUCN
Integrated approaches to conservation and development cannot promise perfect win-win solutions. Pure conservation-focused interventions seldom deliver perfect conservation outcomes either. It is time to look for the best possible outcomes, bearing in mind principles of equity. This implies genuine shared decision-making and participation by local communities in land-use decisions. Participatory decision-making involves the willingness of outsiders to negotiate land-use objectives and ways to meet those objectives. |
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Forests in Landscapes: Ecosystem Approaches to Sustainability Jeffrey Sayer, Stewart Maginnis - IUCN, Earthscan
Edited by Jeffrey Sayer and Stewart Maginnis. Throughout the world there has been a re-examination of who makes decisions about forests and how these decisions are made. Attempts have been made to establish a global regulatory framework for forests through existing and proposed intergovernmental agreements, principles and broadly-accepted criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management. In parallel there has been a strong tendency towards more participatory, localized decision-making. |
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Recent Experience in Collaborative Forest Management CIFOR Occasional Paper No. 43 Jane Carter, Jane Gronow
Collaborative forest management (CFM) is loosely defined as a working partnership between the key stakeholders in the management of a given forest—key stakeholders being local forest users and state forest departments, as well as parties such as local governments, civic groups and nongovernmental organisations, and the private sector. The paper reviews worldwide experience in CFM to date, considering the forms that it takes in different tenure situations. Overall, mechanisms of CFM are diversifying, reflecting a greater recognition of the need for partnerships in forest management. |
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The role of informal institutions in the use of forest resources in Latin America Pablo Pacheco, Deborah Barry, Peter Cronkleton, Anne M. Larson - CIFOR
This study adopts an institutional approach to analyze the way in which informal rules, in their interaction with formal rules, shape the use of forest resources by diverse types of smallholders and communities (i.e., indigenous people, agro-extractive and traditional communities) in Latin America. |
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Understanding the Chinese Forest Market and Its Global Implications Xu Jintao, Andy White
Introduction from the special edition of the IFR on forestry in China |
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A Study for Linking Poverty Reduction with Forest Conservation in Lao PDR Jason Morris, Emily Hicks, Andrew Ingles, Sounthone Ketphanh
Recent studies have shown that rural villagers derive nearly half their income from the sale of NTFPs, including rattan, bamboo and yangtree oil. NTFPs also play a vital role in food security, particularly at the end of the dry season and during times of harvest failure. Forest tubers, bamboo shoots, mushrooms, a range of forest plants, fish, turtles and snails are all collected for food. In many parts of the lowland plains, fish and other living aquatic resources provide between 70 and 90 per cent of the animal protein in the diet of local people. |
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Strengthening Community Tenure Security and Community Livelihoods Lynn Ellsworth, Andy White - Ford Foundation
This paper highlights the distinct sets of actors who can become engaged in activities designed to improve tenure security; they include activists and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), public law groups, community development and training organizations, policy groups, and government agencies. The range of actions that they undertake include mapping and demarcating lands, mobilizing around their legalization, bringing suits in support of the residents on the lands, lobbying for legislative changes, and building the capacity of local groups to undertake many of these activities. |
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A Review of the Global Debate on Tenure Security Lynn Ellsworth - Ford Foundation
This paper illustrates that there is no single form of tenure, no particular pattern of property rights, that is uniquely associated with the most effective management of forest lands. In fact, underlying property ownership regimes have been changing continuously in most countries over long periods of time. Of particular importance is her assertion that the increasingly influential neoliberal property rights school of analysis “over-emphasizes” the virtues of property rights defined in terms of market trading. Effective markets for land are often nonexistent or flawed. |
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Who Conserves the World's Forests? Augusta Molnar, Sara J. Scherr, Arvind Khare - Forest Trends
The dramatic and continued shift in forest and landscape boundaries and in tenure and customary rights, combined with emerging new markets for forest products and ecosystem services, creates new challenges as well as new opportunities for people and for forest conservation. Enabling communities to conserve implies new management approaches, new research models, new models of organization and capacity-building and new relations between local people and the state. But creating an enabling environment also has a large payoff, both in conservation and in community well-being.
Associated Documents |
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A New Agenda for Forest Conservation and Poverty Reduction Making Markets Work for Low-Income Producers Sara J. Scherr, Andy White, David Kaimowitz - IUCN, Forest Trends, CIFOR
The future of the world's forests and the future of millions of the world's poorest people are inextricably linked. The dominant models of forest management and protection are increasingly inappropriate in the face of this reality. A fundamental re-assessment of the role of forests in rural development, and the role of local people in forest conservation, is urgently needed. |
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Andy White, Alejandra Martin - Forest Trends
This growing global recognition of the importance of property rights is mirrored by longstanding preoccupation with rights issues at local levels. The questions of who owns the forests, who claims them, who has access to them and further, who should own them, are hotly contested in many forest regions of the world. These are often the primary concerns of local people most directly dependent on forest resources. |
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A Survey of Indigenous Land Tenure A Report for the Land Tenure Service of the Food and Agricultural Organization Marcus Colchester, Fergus MacKay, Tom Griffiths, John Nelson - Forest Peoples Programme
This study provides a concise overview of the information available on the land rights of indigenous peoples, with a focus on those in developing countries and countries with economies in transition. Successive chapters summarise the rights of indigenous peoples in international law and then examine how these rights are being recognised, or not, in Latin America, Africa and the Asia-Pacific. A final chapter reviews the findings of the survey and identifies key issues to be considered in making policy decisions about indigenous land rights. |
The Greener Side of REDD+
Sisi REDD+ Yang Hijau Rimbun
RRI Press Kit
RRI Press Kit
Dampak RRI Cerita
New Report Says Forest Land Reform Stagnating, Posing Risks to Global Efforts to Combat Climate Change, Hunger and Poverty
Resistencia y Transformación Social
Penolakan
Résistances
Dampak RRI Cerita
Dampak RRI Cerita
Dampak RRI Cerita
El Manejo forestal sostenible como estrategia de combate al cambio climático 
Press Summary
Press Release
Report on Messaging, Training, and Media Efforts for RRI and Community Forest Management at COP16
PRESS RELEASE: Fertile Ground for Land Grab in China as Local Middlemen and Global Paper Company Flout Farmers’ Land Rights
大规模获取中国林地的案例研究
Conflict Biography
Forest Peoples Programme communiqué de presse: REDD au Cameroun - Consultation des collectivités et Atelier de la société civile
Việt Nam: Tại sao REDD + cần người dân địa phương
Forests and Incomes in China 
County-Level Charts 
Village-Level Charts
Scatter Charts of Income
Exhibits of Government Data
Forests and Incomes in China
Forests and Incomes in China 
Komentar dari Masyarakat Adat, Petani Sawit dan NGO tentang naskah konsultasi ‘Kerangka Kerja Kelompok Bank Dunia untuk Keterlibatan dalam Sektor Minyak Sawit’
L’émergence de l’hydre REDD
La Emersión de la hidra REDD
Sauvegarder les droits communautaires dans les programmes de protection du climat et des forêts en République centrafricaine
Việt Nam
Does the Opportunity Cost Approach Indicate the Real Cost of REDD+?
Implementando derechos y protegiendo los bosques: una perspectiva alternativa para reducir la deforestación
Respecter les droits, protéger les forêts: une vision alternative pour réduire la déforestation
FECOFUN Forest Caravan 2010 campaign 
FECOFUN Forest Caravan 2010 campaign 
FECOFUN Forest Caravan 2010 campaign
FECOFUN Forest Caravan 2010 campaign
REDD+ 2010
El Final de las Tierras Baldías
La Fin de l'Hinterland
Berakhirnya Daerah Pedalaman
China’s Forest Land Tenure Reforms: Impacts and Implications for Choice, Conservation and Climate Change
Reconhecer Direitos sobre os Recursos Naturais em Moçambique
Ce que le marché (carbone) ne peut faire...
Conflits de Droits et Cartographie Communautaire au Cameroun
Siapa pemilik hutan di Asia? 
Key data from “RRI-ITTO Tropical Tenure Assessment”
Land Rights and the Forest Peoples of Africa: Burundi
Land Rights and the Forest Peoples of Africa: Cameroon
Land Rights and the Forest Peoples of Africa: DRC
Land Rights and the Forest Peoples of Africa: Rwanda
Land Rights and the Forest Peoples of Africa: Uganda
Amélioration de l'équité et des moyens de subsistance dans la foresterie communautaire au Burkina Faso
À qui appartiennent les forêts d’Afrique ?
Etat, communautés locales et changement du statut des Forêts. Dualisme légal exclusif dans le littoral camerounais
Bases para la Efectividad
Fondations pour l’Efficacité
Si lo vieras con mis ojos
Rights, Tenure, Governance and a More Pro-poor Vision for Conservation - Summary
Climate Change and Governance in the Forest Sector - Summary
Arborvitae 36: Les approches à la conservation forestière basées sur les droits
Arborvitae 36: La conservación forestal con un enfoque de derechos
From Exclusion to Ownership? - Summary
Seeing People Through the Trees - Summary
Beyond Tenure: Rights-based Approaches to Peoples and Forests - Summary
Collective Forest Tenure Reform in Southwest China- Chinese
El Fondo cooperativo para el carbono de los bosques (FCPF)
Le Fonds de partenariat pour le carbone forestier
Forest Governance in Countries with Federal Systems of Government - Brief
Forest Related Conflict: Impacts, Links and Measures to Mitigate - Summary
LLSL Country Case Study: Forest Tenure and Poverty in Bolivia
LLSL Country Case Study: Forest Tenure and Poverty in Colombia
LLSL Country Case Study: Guatemala
LLSL Country Case Study: Honduras
LLSL Country Case Study: Nicaragua
LLSL Country Case Study: Panama
LLSL Country Case Study: Forest Tenure and Poverty in Peru
LLSL Country Case Study: Forest Tenure and Poverty in Venezuela, R.B.
LLSL Country Case Study: Forest Tenure and Poverty in Brazil 
2007 CFE Conference - Case Study Agrofort
2007 CFE Conference - Amani Butterfly Forest-based Enterprise
2007 CFE Conference - Civil Society for Arbol Verde Development
2007 CFE Conference: Including the Excluded
2007 CFE Conference - Case Study of the Agro-forestry Cooperative of the Tri-National
2007 CFE Conference - Community Forest Development in Guatemala
2007 CFE Conference: Supporting Livelihoods through Employment
2007 CFE Conference - A Brief History of the COATLAHL Cooperative
2007 CFE Conference: One Small Peasant Village’s Grand Forest Industry
2007 CFE Conference - Community Forest Enterprises: A Case Study of the Gambia
2007 CFE Conference: Forest Management in the Community Enterprise of Santa Catarina Ixtepeji
2007 CFE Conference - Community Forestry Benefits Customary Landowners
2007 CFE Conference: Payments for environmental services in San Nicolas, Colombia
2007 CFE Conference: Country Case Study, Quintana Roo, Mexico
2007 CFE Conference: PingShang Bamboo Group
2007 CFE Conference - Behind the Fragile Enterprise
2007 CFE Conference - Community Based Forest Enterprises in Cameroon
2007 CFE Conference: From subsistence harvesters to market players
2007 CFE Conference - Case Study of Mamiraua, Brazil
2007 CFE Conference: The New Oil Economy of the Rural Poor
2007 Conferencia ECF: Breve Historia de la Cooperativa COATLAHL 
2007 Conferencia ECF: El ejido El Balcon. El caso de una pequena aldea campesina mexicana duena de una gran industria forestal
2007 Conferencia ECF: El Manejo Forestal de la Empresa Comunitaria de Santa Catarina
Transitions in Forest Tenure and Governance - Summary
Empresas Forestales Comunitarias en Países Forestales Tropicales: Situación Actual y en Potencia
Entreprises forestières communautaires dans les pays forestiers tropicaux: Situation et potentialites
Infobrief: Poverty and Forests
¿Quién Conserva los Bosques del Mundo?
