Who owns the forests
Clarification and enforcement of forest ownership and user rights for local communities and indigenous peoples are important for the development of forest certification - especially in the tropical zones.
The report From Exclusion to Ownership? Challenges and Opportunities in Advancing Forest Tenure Reform, recently published by the organisation Rights and Resources Initiative, looks into changes in forest ownership among the world's 25 most forested countries during the past six years. A follow-up to a similar analysis published in 2002, its overall conclusion is that progress towards a greater recognition of user and tenure rights of local communities is happening - but at a slower overall rate than expected.
The report notes that there are great regional differences in the progress made over the past 6 years, and in some countries the development has been more impressive. It points out that "...just eight countries (Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Cameroon, Colombia, India, Sudan, and Tanzania) account for almost all of the net increase in the area of lands designated for and owned by communities and indigenous peoples. Brazil alone accounts for most of the net increase in the area of forest owned by individuals and firms. In most other countries in the 2002–2008 period, there has been no progress towards allocating forest lands to communities and indigenous peoples".
Although critical of the slow progress, the report also highlights signs that the development may speed up. In particular, policy changes and formalization of indigenous peoples' and local communities' tenure rights are taking place in many countries. It is also foreseen that climate change issues will provide forest peoples with a stronger bargaining power.
References
Sunderlin, William D.; Hatcher, Jeffrey and Liddle, Megan. 2008. From Exclusion to Ownership? Challenges and Opportunities in Advancing Forest Tenure Reform. Published by Rights and Resources Initiative.
