Community networks key to forest reform

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 03/24/2010 6:01 PM

Communities linked to their own networks and organizations have the best chance of success in community forestry, a research finds.

The three-year research project, conducted by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), assessed 30 sites in 10 countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America.

“The research focused on communities that had fought for or been granted new statutory rights,” Anne Larson, senior associate at CIFOR said.

The findings were published in a book, Forest for People: Community Rights Forest Tenure Reform, which was launched on Wednesday.

“We aimed at identifying issues and concerns from the perspective of socially and economically vulnerable groups that were seeking tenure reforms,” she said.

Tenure reforms – a change in tenure rights in forested areas – represent a forest reform comparable to widespread agrarian reforms of the mid 20th century.

Although the world’s forests are still primarily public land, more than a quarter of forests in developing countries are now owned by or assigned to communities.

It said that tenure was particularly important in light of the ongoing negotiations on REDD (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation).

For REDD schemes to be successful, clear ownership of forest resources and carbon pools needs to be established so that payments for carbon sequestration can be made. Without having secure rights and clear ownership over carbon pools, communities and indigenous groups may not be able to claim benefits from REDD schemes, and may even be dispossessed.

This would be to the detriment of efforts both to mitigate climate change and to ensure equity, Anne said.