Year: 2009
Type: report
Abstract: Key pointsForest tenure reform differs from agrarian reform.• Besides responding to livelihood demands, it also explicitly aims to conserve forests, and is often driven by demands for ancestral or customary land rights.Formal forest-tenure rights have been combined • with burdensome responsibilities to protect forests-based on norms established by the state even when there are effective local customs.Communities expend scarce human and • financial resources in their efforts to defend their new rights from ongoing encroachment.Forest tenure reform has demonstrated its • potential to improve livelihoods and conserve forests; to fully support livelihoods improvement, policy makers can build on community strengths and local rule making, and facilitate community capacity, empowerment and market access, rather than always to impose external norms and regulations. Recognising community rightsThe potential and challenges of forest tenure reform Defining tenure rightsTenure rights to natural resources are usually understood as a bundle of rights ranging from simple rights of access, to use, management, exclusion and alienation.The first two rights, access and use, refer to the right to enter an area and to remove or withdraw resources.The last three are the most important in terms of reforms, because they constitute decision-making rights.Management refers to 'the right to regulate internal use patterns or transform the resource' (Agrawal CIFOR Center for International Forestry Research CIFOR advances human wellbeing, environmental conservation and equity by conducting research to inform policies and practices that affect forests in developing countries.CIFOR is one of 15 centres within the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).CIFOR's headquarters are in Bogor, Indonesia.It also has offices in Asia, Africa and South America.
Authors: Larson A.M., Barry D., Dahal G.R., Colfer C.J.P.
Language: English
Topic: Land Rights and Reforms
Subfield: Soil Science
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: gold
OpenAlex ID: W100999551