Forest ownership – community rights on the rise

Around 80 percent of the world’s poorest people depend on forest resources. Over time, forest people have influenced environments often perceived as untouched. This perception has begun to change - the important role of local people in forests is starting to be acknowledged. Meanwhile, indigenous peoples’ rights movements have grown. Preserving areas by fencing them off is no longer affordable or practicable. These trends have all contributed to the growth in community-owned and community-managed forests, especially in developing countries.

Researchfrom Forest Trends, USA, has collected the available information on foresttenure around the world to measure this trend. Two major categories for tenure areused: private and public ownership. Public tenure is government-owned land,which may either be administered by government or set aside for communitymanagement. Private land is legally owned, either by a community or a privateindividual or company.

Using data from 24 of theworld’s most heavily forested countries, an estimateof ownership of the forests around the world shows that:

• 77% of the world’s forest is administered by government;
• at least 4 percent of public forest isreserved for communities;
• at least 7 percent is owned by localcommunities; and
• approximately 12 percent is owned byindividuals.

When the focus is narrowed todeveloping countries only, however, community ownership is far greater:

• 71percent is administered by governments;
• 8 percent of public land is reserved for community and indigenousgroups;
• 14 percent is owned by communities; and
• 7 percent is owned by individuals or firms.

Although governments retainmost of the ownership of forests, the picture is changing in developingcountries. Community management and ownership is growing fast. Three trends areidentified in the transfer of rights to communities:

• The legaltransfer of ownership to indigenous groups or other local communities meansgovernments no longer have any rights to interfere with management of the forest.
• Withco-management schemes, governments transfer responsibility to local people.Resource rights do not always come with responsibility and can be taken away ifgovernment so chooses.
• The reform ofgovernment logging concessions means private companies may partner withcommunities in a commercial enterprise, or concessions may be granted directlyto the community.

Experiencesuggests that community land is often better managed than that administered bygovernment. However, the process of change must be made carefully, over timeand using the best experience available. To succeed, certain needs must be met:

• Better data onthe state of forest tenure is necessary for policy makers and others to achievesuccessful reform.
• Information onexperience and best practice to date in managing the transition must becollected and made available.
• Funds are neededto meet high transition costs for assessing community claims, mapping tenure,reforming legal frameworks and establishing new forest rights enforcement mechanisms.
• Rights to land,resources and ecosystem services must be clarified so that local people arecompensated for the environmental services that benefit other groups.
• Efforts must bemade to organise the support of international donors and institutions,conservation organisations, socially responsible businesses and investors tosupport this transition

Datais limited and restricted to that provided by governments. However, a cleartrend is visible. The doubling of community forest land between 1985 and 2000is expected to be repeated by 2015. This process should be encouraged andsupported economically and technically by those concerned with improved foreststewardship.