Tenure and management rights in tropical forests

Description

Secure tenure rights are fundamental to the sustainable management of the world’s tropical forests. By determining the depth of rights and consequent decisions actors can make, tenure regimes allow present-day considerations of future values, thus incentivising investments in the sustainable use and management of forests, including their conservation and restoration. While legally recognized community forests tend to have lower rates of deforestation, store more carbon and benefit more people than forests managed by either public or private entities, over two-thirds of forestlands remain locked in the hands of governments—a significant portion of which is contested by the communities that traditionally use, govern and protect these ecosystems. Using longitudinal tenure data and analysis of global trends in forest ownership developed by the Rights and Resources Initiative, this chapter details the distribution of statutory forest rights across the world’s most forested low- and middle-income countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Table of contents

1 Introduction 2 Trends in 33 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) in Africa, Asia and Latin America 3 Regional trends 4 Implications 5 Conclusions 6 References