Devolution of Forest Rights and Sustainable

Forest Management:

Learning from Two Decades of Implementation

Prepared for the Annual World Bank Conference on Land

and Poverty, Washington DC, April 23-26, 2012

Presentation by:

Steven Lawry and Rebecca McLain

Acknowledgements

Research funding

USAID Contract No. EPP-1-0-06-00008-00 with Tetra Tech ARD

(Property Rights and Resource Governance Program).

Design and review

• Rebecca Butterfield (USAID’s Bureau of Economic Growth and

Trade/Natural Resource Management and Forestry)

• Matthew Sommerville and Mark Freudenberg (Tetra-Tech/ARD)

• Tim Fella (USAID’s Bureau of Economic Growth and

Trade/Natural Resources)

Fellow contributors

• Brent Swallow (University of Alberta)

• Kelly Biedenweg (Institute for Culture and Ecology).

Global Forest Tenure Transition*

76

3

15

6

65

4

18

13

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Public - GovernmentAdministered

Public - Reserved forCommunities and

Indigenous Peoples

Private - CommunityOwnership

Private -Individuals/Firms

2002

2008

% Area by Tenure Type

*Source: RRI/ITTO. 2010. Tropical Forest Tenure Assessment. (Data for 30

countries).

• Failed government control

• Devolution/decentralization

Reduced timber rents

• Democratization pressures

• International human rights

Objective: To explore and analyze the general

patterns of the global forest tenure transition within

countries and regions.

Guiding Questions

• What forest governance devolution approaches have been

tried? (And which rights have been devolved)

• How successful have they been relative to improvements

in ecological and livelihood outcomes?

• What interventions might accelerate governance reform?

Research Objective and Guiding Questions

Methods

• Literature review and comparative case analysis

• 16 countries

Latin America Africa Asia

Bolivia Dem. Rep. of Congo India

Brazil Ethiopia Indonesia

Guatemala Ghana Nepal

Mexico Kenya Philippines

Peru Tanzania Vietnam

Zambia

Selection considerations: Size of forest, experience with

devolution, potential for USAID investment

Analytical Framework

Click and add insert graphic here (5”

high x 8.5” wide maximum).

Major Devolution Approaches

FE

W

E

R

RI

G

H

T

S

M

o

r

e

R

i

g

h

t

s

Revenue

Sharing

Short-

term

lease

Long-term

lease or

community

concession

Industrial

concession

with social

contract

Statutorily

recognized

customary

title

Co-

management:

forest agencies

/communities

Indigenous

/community

reserves

Individual /

household

use right

certificate

Regional Overviews

The Forest Tenure Transition in Latin America

Percent Area by Tenure Type

Source: RRI/ITTO. 2010. (8 countries; 82% of Latin America’s tropical forests)

Key Features of Forest Reform in Latin America

• Titles require retention of forest cover

• Forestlands are demarcated and titled as collective or

communal properties; States retain alienation rights

• Emphasis has been on transferring rights to indigenous

and ethnic communities

• Reforms are aimed at addressing conservation,

livelihood, and rights-based goals simultaneously

• Reforms are driven from above and below

• Considerable diversity in tenure models:

– indigenous territories, extractive reserves, agro-extractive and

forestry settlements, community concessions

The Forest Tenure Transition in Africa*

98%

1% 1% 0%

2008 Public - GovernmentAdministered

Public - Reserved forCommunities andIndigenous PeoplesPrivate - CommunityOwnership

Private -Individuals/Firms

99.9

0.1 0 0

2002

Percent Area by Tenure Type

*Source: RRI/ITTO. 2010. Tropical Forest Tenure Assessment. (Data for 8

countries, representing 84% of African tropical forests).

Key Lesson from Africa

Benefit-Sharing Arrangements Fall Short

• Tend to give insufficient attention to reaching

agreement with local beneficiaries on benefit-sharing

formula early in the process

• Because they are administrative rather than rights-

devolution models, government agencies can withdraw

or adjust benefits at their discretion

• Benefit-sharing schemes are often expensive to

administer and generate high transaction costs for

government agencies and village participants alike

• Existing benefit-sharing arrangements must be

assessed for administrative efficiency and delivery of

meaningful benefits to individuals and communities

The Forest Tenure Transition in Asia

Percent Area by Tenure Type

Source: RRI/ITTO. 2010. (8 countries; 90% of Asian tropical forests

but does not include India or the Philippines)

Major approaches:

Benefits sharing, rights recognition, individual and household allotments

Key Lessons from Asia

• Formal recognition of strong bundle of rights makes a

difference (generally positive impacts on ecological

conditions but livelihood outcomes impacts are mixed)

• Build on local institutions but recognize their weaknesses

(chronic issues with elite capture, underrepresentation of

women and ethnic minorities)

• Recognize the limits of benefit-sharing arrangements

(forestry officials often dominate planning; onerous

management plan requirements; corruption of officials)

• Having a right in law isn’t enough; safeguards are needed

to ensure rights can be exercised (Example: 2006 India’s

Forest Rights Act)

ASIA

Major Devolution Approaches

FE

W

E

R

RI

G

H

T

S

M

o

r

e

R

i

g

h

t

s

Revenue

Sharing

Short-

term

lease

Long-term

lease or

community

concession

Industrial

concession

with social

contract

Statutorily

recognized

customary

title

Co-

management:

forest agencies

/communities

Indigenous

/community

reserves

Individual /

household

use right

certificate

AFRICA

LATIN AMERICA

Rights Commonly Devolved

• Clarification or expansion of use rights

• Longer duration of rights

• Expansion of management rights

• Expansion of forest product marketing rights

• Expansion in rights to exclude outsiders

Key Limitations of Many Devolution Efforts

• Onerous benefit-sharing and management plan

requirements

• Limited devolution of rights

• Use, access, and management access rights are

often granted through administrative orders and

are thus subject to suspension or cancellation by

forest or natural resource agencies

Keys to Positive Joint Outcomes

Forest tenure systems that provide user group

members with an adequate share of benefits

relative to the costs of forest management

Systems that permit user groups to organize

themselves in ways that are adapted to their

circumstances

Presence of well-organized user groups with

strong connections to national and international

networks who can advocate on their behalf

Supportive government policies and forest

departments at both local and national levels.

Conclusion and Recommendations

Evidence in support of the conservation and livelihood

benefits of forest rights devolution is considerable (Hajar et

al. 2012; Persha et al. 2011; Porter-Bolland et al. 2011)

Civic activism and reform-minded public officials, locally,

nationally, and internationally, have helped several

countries adopt forest rights reform legislation.

However, implementation of adopted legislation has often

been slow and uneven.

We’ve identified two factors that explain arrested progress.

A focus on these issues might expedite reform processes.

Ambiguity and Conflicts in

Land and Forest Reform Laws

• Kenya’s Forest Act of 2005 established Community

Forest Associations (CFAs), with limited range of rights

but retains for the Forest Service discretion over

approval of forest management plans as condition for

CFA establishment. Approval of plans has been slow.

• Tanzania’s Village Land Act empowers the government

to transfer village forest lands to foreign investors in

REDD+ projects. Moreover, Village Land is often not

legally recognized by government, “especially Village

Land that has not yet been demarcated or for which

there is not a land use plan.” (Veit et al., 2012)

Poor Execution of Reforms by Forest Agencies

• Forest agencies have been slow to redefine

their missions and reorganize and retrain staff

in ways that recognize communities as owners

and users as opposed to despoilers

• Shifting from policing function to facilitators of

community ownership and management is

essential to successful rights reform. The

organizational changes needed are rarely

recognized or undertaken purposefully.

References

Hajjar, R.F., R.A. Kozak, and J. L. Innes. (2012). Is decentralization leading to “real” decision-

making power for forest dependent communities? Case studies from Mexico and Brazil. Ecology

and Society 17(1).

Persha, L., A. Agrawal, and A. Chhatre. (2011). Social and ecological synergy: Local rulemaking,

forest livelihoods, and biodiversity conservation. Science 331:1606-1608.

Porter-Bolland, L., E.A. Ellis, M.R. Guariguata, I. Ruiz-Mallen, S. Negrete-Yankelevich, V. Reyes-

Garcia. (2011). Community managed forests and forest protection areas: An assessment of their

conservation effectiveness across the tropics. Forest Ecology and Management.268: 6-17.

Rights and Resources Initiative/ International Tropical Timber Organization. 2010. Tropical forest

tenure assessment: Trends, challenges, and opportunities.

Sunderlin, W.D. Forthcoming. The global forest tenure transition: Background, substance, and

prospects.

Veit, P.G., D. Vhugen, and J. Miner. (2012). Threats to village land in Tanzania: Implications for

REDD+ benefit-sharing arrangements. In Naughton-Treves, L. and C.Day (editors). Lessons

about land tenure, forest governance, and REDD+. Case studies from Africa, Asia, and Latin

America. Madison, WI: UW-Madison Land Tenure Center. Pp. 11-22.