Forest Tenure Reform:New Community Rights

in the Age of Climate Change

Anne M LarsonSenior Associate, CIFOR

Workshop: Taking Stock of Smallholder and Community Forestry

Montpellier, FranceMarch 24-26, 2010

Outline of presentation

I. Intro to REDD & communities

II. Research and methods

III. Obstacles to reforms– Statutory rights– Implementation– Access to benefits

IV. Lessons for REDD & communities

I. Intro to REDD & communities

• What is REDD(+)? (strategies for reducing emissions from DD and enhancing C stocks)

• REDD & communities: (1) could leave out, (2) have positive effects on communities or (3) have negative effects

• Right to forests, rights to Carbon, decision-making (rules) about forests

Tenure rights: • REDD is likely to require secure tenure (PES experience, logic of

international markets/ investments)– If communities do not have secure tenure, who will get rights?– If rights are “secured”, who will get them?

Rule-making: • Who makes the rules for meeting REDD requirements?

• Comparative case study, policy advocacy research in over 30 sites in 10 countries

• Countries and sites chosen: – Where a statutory tenure change in favour of communities had

recently occurred or was about to occur– Where there was potential to influence policy

• Rights-based approach in the sense that “local people” were (usually) advocating for tenure rights

• Dynamic study of reform processes• Highly contextualized at various scales: local (single

community), groups of communities, regional, national

II. Research and methods

III. Obstacles to reformA. Statutory rights

• Extent, permanence and security of rights (through what legal mechanisms?)

• Quality and quantity of forests granted

• Rules for resource use• Rights for some may

exclude others with customary claims

III. Obstacles to reformB. Implementation processes

• Foot-dragging by the state (state interest in the resources on those lands?)

• Logistical difficulties (ex. demarcation)• Competing claims (legitimate and not, the role of

the state)• Governance challenges (elite capture,

unaccountable authority)• Time…

III. Obstacles to reform C. Access to benefits

• Accompanying measures (capacity building, access to markets)

• Licenses and permits, complex bureaucracies

• Discretionary powers of forest officers

• Costs, lack of credit• Markets

III. Obstacles for reform: Summary

IV. Lessons: Communities & REDD

Attention to tenure in REDD to date• ‘… many R-PINs suggest a very limited analysis (and in some cases

understanding) of the existing situation with regards to conflicts over tenure and potential obstacles to reform and implementation. Issues such as … the nature of customary practices and indigenous rights are not consistently addressed. Furthermore, few countries address the need to clarify carbon rights within existing tenure systems.’

• ‘Given the strong consensus amongst participating countries that improving tenure security is critical for REDD, a deeper and more practical discussion of how these issues may be resolved will be needed….’ (Davis et al. 2009).

IV. Lessons: Communities & REDD

REDD risks for communities

Tenure rights

• without secure rights, increased risk of REDD failure

• risk of elite capture • risk of conflict• risk of inequity in benefits• with or without secure rights,

who benefits?

…Failure of the state to defend and secure rights for communities

Rules for forest use

• who makes the rules• who enforces them• how do they restrict livelihood

activities• are losses adequately

compensated• who is affected most

…Tendency to centralize decisions, top-down rules

IV. Lessons: Communities & REDD

Questions…• Will states share REDD benefits with

communities? • Will they facilitate community participation?• Will states defend communities against

competing interests? Against elite capture?• Will states protect community livelihoods over

potential national income from C sales?• Will states simply make the rules and expect, or

force, communities to follow them?