arborvitae

The IUCN Forest Conservation Programme Newsletter Issue 36 2008

News: Liberia’s forest exploitation over the last half-century has ridden roughshod over customary property rights. 4

Perspective: The urban public generally view forest conservation as an unquestionably ‘good thing’ akin to apple pie, motherhood and soccer. 7

Feature: Are the ‘rights of nature’ always consistent with human rights? What about organisms such as viruses which can kill people? 8 Agni Boedhihartono Around the world: Now that the land is ours Rights-based approaches we have to take care of it. 11 to forest conservation

Contents: 2 Editorial 3 Livelihoods and landscapes 4-5 News: News on Liberia’s Community Forest Rights Law and Colombia’s General Forestry Law 6 Legal aspects of the rights-conservation nexus 7 Perspective: Why forest conservation is not good news for local communities 8-9 Feature: Rights-based approaches to forest conservation 10-13 Forest people’s rights around the world: Cases from India, Indonesia, Costa Rica and Guatemala 14 Forest programme partners: Rights and Resources Initiative 15 IUCN Commissions: CEL 16 Reviews

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AV36 Editorial

This arborvitae is the first one The debate on rights-based approaches if the right incentives are in place – and produced solely by IUCN and regular (RBA) to conservation that has emerged whatever happens, there is no guarantee that readers will notice some changes in recently is occurring at a time when people will exercise their rights in ways that both content and style. In addition, conservation thinking is being profoundly preserve the ‘non-instrumental’ values, such from now on, each issue of arborvitae challenged. For over 100 years the as species diversity, that conservationists are will also be available in French and conservation movement has followed the particularly concerned about. Spanish on our website at www.iucn. path set out in the 1872 Yellowstone Act. org/forest/av Its core business has been to ‘set apart Local communities are certainly becoming [wilderness] as a public park or pleasuring more effective in asserting their rights to As always, your comments are ground for the benefits and enjoyments of negotiate and implement decisions about welcome and contributions even the people’ – albeit on many occasions a how conservation and development needs more so! limited, rather elite, subset of “the people”. are balanced across their landscapes – and While there are those who feel that the RBA conservationists need to be able to respond to Readers respond: If you have a comment on something debate takes conservation too far away from this. Indeed, there is a pressing need to translate you have read in a recent issue of its ultimate raison d’être it is, for better or the surfeit of current theory about rights-based arborvitae, we'd love to hear from you. worse, too late to put this particular genie approaches into the practical realities of resource You can send a message to: back in the bottle. The need for conservation management on the ground, particularly in [email protected] to recognise the rights of those people who countries with weak institutions and limited are most directly impacted by global capacity to enforce agreements. For this to Here is an extract of an email conservation initiatives makes rights-based happen, lawyers, social scientists and natural we received about arborvitae 35: thinking not only a question of ethics and resource managers need to start figuring out social justice but also a practical imperative how they can collectively support and work Dear IUCN, for saving species and ecosystems. with emerging grassroots social movements Please add my name to the circulation in many parts of the world, since it is these list for arborvitae. I have recently To be clear, a rights-based approach is not movements which will be driving the forest seen the Dec07 issue on forest about fulfilling a utopian dream of people rights agenda in their own contexts. conservation tools and thought it was and nature living in perfect harmony. When very good. I have just started work at individuals and communities have rights over Stewart Maginnis & Jeff Sayer FAO to coordinate the remote sensing a particular area recognised and enforced, Stewart is Head of IUCN’s Forest component of the next global Forest they may indeed act to safeguard some of its Conservation Programme and Jeff is Senior Resources Assessment 2010 and conservation values. But they will only do so Scientific Adviser to the Programme. found the article by Josef Kellndorfer useful to explain the potential for remote sensing tools in short simple terms for a broad audience. Then Jeffrey Sayer also made some good points and a sobering reminder of the limitations of some of these tools. When we have got further underway with the FRA Remote Sensing work in late 2008 or early 2009 we may be able to contribute a short article on the progress that may be of interest to IUCN members and arborvitae readers. Agni Boedhihartono Regards, Adam Gerrand Livelihoods and Landscapes As mentioned in previous issues of arborvitae, IUCN’s Forest Conservation Programme is working on a new initiative entitled Livelihoods and Landscapes, which examines if forests can really help to reduce rural poverty and how forests can be more effectively used to balance human and conservation needs. The initiative, funded by DGIS, is not about creating new projects but rather scaling up IUCN's ongoing global forest projects in existing and new sites and building on IUCN's expertise in securing the rights and access of forest dependent communities to forests products and markets for those products.

DGIS is the Development Agency Ongoing progress and news from our Livelihoods and Landscapes sites will be featured in of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands arborvitae, through the eyes of IUCN and its members. In this issue, for example, the following article looks at some of the rights-related issues emerging from a Livelihoods and Landscapes site in Tanzania.

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to allocate land between communal Forest restoration, rights and private uses without the need for much recourse to higher authority. The redistributive power of village-level and power: what’s going government was one of the best aspects of Ujamaa village management carried over and enshrined in Tanzania’s village wrong in the ngitili forests land laws. So landlessness ought not to be possible, and village authorities ought to of Shinyanga? be taking responsibility for designating land as ngitili land for communal users. If the situation in this village is becoming true more widely, it would seem that village leaders are allowing land-grabs rather than carrying out their responsibilities as they should.

This case illustrates the way in which rights-based approaches to forest conservation need to go beyond the creation or enshrining of rights to own, use or sell forest resources. In the case of Tanzania, those rights were already crystal-clear and of long standing. Rights-based approaches must also ensure that people have the ability to claim their rights or entitlements and to seek redress when just rights are denied, as is happening here. In this case, village leaders are not acting as umpires as they should, and the poor have no other advocate, so rights give way to power.

As we have seen in Nepal and elsewhere, the creation of improved forest resources creates renewed interest in those resources. Better forests and a better income from Gill Shepherd them provoke new governance challenges, The poor women’s focus group in Busongo village and helping to strengthen recourse to justice may end up being as important a Gill Shepherd looks at a sobering case of how forest restoration task for organizations such as IUCN as has helped spark the erosion of rights of the poor. was supporting forest restoration in the first place.

Various reforms in Tanzania have encouraged However, averages do not always tell the Monela, G. C., S. A. O. Chamshama, the large-scale restoration of small woodlands full story. When the Poverty-Forests Toolkit R. Mwaipopo, and D. M. Gamassa. (ngitilis) in Shinyanga region, generating was applied in Busongo village in Shinyanga 2005. A Study on the Social, Economic, a significant increase in their value. It was in 2006, poor women explained to us (in and Environmental Impacts of Forest estimated in 2003 that benefits from these the privacy of their own focus-group) that Landscape Restoration in Shinyanga woodlands added an average of US$14 per wealthy men were rapidly acquiring land for Region, Tanzania. Forestry and person per month to local incomes (Monela private ngitili forests (for grazing their Beekeeping Division of the Ministry et al., 2005). This is almost double cattle) while too little land was being set of Natural Resources and Tourism, Tanzania’s estimated basic needs per capita aside for communal ngitilis for the needs of United Republic of Tanzania, and IUCN. poverty line of US$7.6. Communities and poorer users. Indeed, complete landlessness Eastern Africa Regional Office, Dar es individuals have invested some of the was now growing among the poor, as poor Salaam, Tanzania. increased income in local school buildings, men also told us.

and in paying for school fees and pupils’ Contact: Gill Shepherd, gillshepherd@compuserve. uniforms. Shinyanga has been much cited This is depressing news. Tanzania is one of com. Gill is the Poverty and Landscapes cross-cutting theme leader in IUCN’s ‘Livelihoods and Landscapes’ as a shining example of village-based forest the few countries in the world with a system Initiative, and is also active in IUCN’s Commission on restoration, not least by IUCN. of village tenure which allows village leaders Ecosystem Management.

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Liberia’s Community Forest Rights Law: what will it look like?

rights. It failed, for instance, to provide for community consent to logging on community lands. Liberia’s legislature recognized this concern and committed to developing a Community (Forest) Rights Law. The local NGO sector, with support from international conservation initiatives, has played a prominent role in researching local conditions and drafting the new community rights law. A lead input has been made by the Sustainable Development Institute (winner of the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2006) sponsoring an in-depth analysis of forest tenure by this author (see So Who Owns the Forest: An investigation into forest ownership and customary land rights in Liberia, available at www.fern.org.)

The potential for change Drafting of the new law by a local lawyer working closely with a multi-agency working group began at the end of last year and is nearing completion. A recent workshop in Monrovia elaborated ways in which the final drafting may unambiguously devolve forest governance to the local level, thereby reshaping the role of the central Forest Development Administration as technical adviser and ultimate regulator. The law is designed to empower the IUCN Photo Library © IUCN/Jim Thorsell many forest-owning communities as lawful managers of their A logging truck in Liberia forest assets. The new law would also restructure commercial forest use, discouraging the issuing of overly large Liz Alden Wily gives a preview of Liberia’s concessions and encouraging private sector-community new legal instrument for reinstating partnerships and community-based forest enterprises. community rights in the forest sector. A series of watch-points from international experience were elaborated including the need for simple procedures to maximize uptake and minimize cost, the need to keep user A history of neglect groups and community management entities as constructs While Liberia’s natural forest resource has made a major and the overriding need to position communities as rights- contribution to the country’s economic development holders and the sources of conservation and sustainable use (providing 20 percent of GDP in 2003), its exploitation has regulation, not beneficiaries of state benevolence. been far from responsible. By the end of the Charles Taylor regime (1997-2003), more than twice the total forest area A land rights-based approach within reach had been allocated to some 70 (mainly foreign) companies. There was general agreement as to the way forward. The In addition, timber sales were found to be contributing to final draft of the law was expected to be ready by the end of arms purchases including support to rebels in neighbouring May this year. Regional participants were particularly forceful Sierra Leone. A post-Taylor review resulted in the in exhorting the Forest Development Authority to take the cancellation of all concessions by President Ellen Johnson changed orientation fully on board, warning of the costs of Sirleaf in early 2006, and no concessions have been re- failing to properly democratize forest governance, as seen in issued, pending comprehensive reforms of the forest sector. their own countries. Adopting a land rights-based approach, they argued, is necessary not just for sustainable conservation In addition, Liberia’s forest exploitation over the last and management of forests but also for accountability and half-century has ridden roughshod over customary property equitable economic returns in the sector. They look forward rights as rural communities have been denied their right to anxiously, they said, to Liberia setting the example in the harvest or use timber, and widespread human rights abuses region where so little tenure based forest governance has by concession staff, including rape, have been reported. been achieved.

Unfortunately, a new National Forest Reform Law enacted Contact: Liz Alden Wily, [email protected]. Liz is an independent in late 2006 did not adequately address forest property tenure and natural resources governance specialist.

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Colombia’s new forest law rejected

Eugenia Ponce de León of the Externado University of Colombia reflects on a successful legal challenge to a forest law that neglected community rights.

A successful protest An established protection small, disjointed articles with no legal In January this year, Colombia’s Much of Colombia’s natural forest force. Furthermore, the law abolished Constitutional Court ruled that the is on lands within, or adjacent to, controls on the sale of forest products country’s General Forestry Law, enacted the territories of the country’s from commercial plantations and made two years ago, was unconstitutional. indigenous and Afro-Colombian illegal logging of natural forests all the This move follows an intensive campaign groups. Colombian legislation more easy. All this meant that the law by a coalition of NGOs, environmental recognizes these communities’ entailed a change of vision for the and legal experts and representatives of property rights over the forests – country’s forests and the abandonment ethnic groups and forest communities, rights that apply not only to the of their integrated regulation within who opposed the law on the grounds trees, but to the land itself. In addition, an ecosystem approach that had been that it violated the rights of Indigenous as a signatory to the ILO Convention established in Colombia’s environmental People and Afro-Colombians. As an 169 de 1989 on Indigenous and policies. environmental lawyer, I was closely Tribal Peoples, Colombia is committed involved in the opposition to the law. to undertaking consultation with these Without a doubt, this A national policy paper that I wrote groups “whenever consideration is was signed by many of the campaigning being given to legislative or decision sets a very groups and sent to Congress and to administrative measures which may the relevant government authorities. affect them directly” (Article 6). important precedent This was in addition to the many letters This legal obligation on the part of for the rights of these and petitions sent by a whole range of the government to consult with the groups, formally requesting consultation indigenous and Afro-Colombian groups in Colombia. on the law and modification of its communities had already been articles. confirmed in previous rulings of the A wise decision Constitutional Court, as an important For the Constitutional Court, the First and foremost, the requirement to enable these groups violation of the ILO Convention to become fully informed of emerging was enough to warrant the axing of failure to consult with legislation and to participate in its the forestry law. The Court concluded development. that since the subject of the law these groups during deeply affected the cosmovision of the preparation of the A backward law the indigenous and Afro-Colombian The enactment of the General Forestry communities and their relation with law meant that their Law represented a major backward the Earth, there was no alternative step in Colombia’s environmental but to declare it unconstitutional and legal rights had been legislation and a threat to the rights unenforceable. Without a doubt, breached. In addition, of the country’s indigenous and this decision sets a very important Afro-Colombian populations. First precedent for the rights of these the law treated and foremost, the failure to consult groups in Colombia. forests as simply with these groups during the preparation of the law meant that Contact: Eugenia Ponce de León, sources of wood to be their legal rights had been breached. [email protected]. In addition, the law treated forests exploited, rather than as simply sources of wood to be exploited, rather than as ecosystems as ecosystems that that provide a wide range of goods and provide a wide range services. With its overriding emphasis on forest exploitation, the law of goods and services. relegated the issues of conservation, restoration and resource protection to

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Human rights and forest conservation: what does the law say?

study ‘Conservation with Justice: A Rights-Based Approach’, edited by Dinah Shelton and due for publication later this year (see more details on page 16).

Regulations on access and allocation of forest resources must comply with the human rights of all affected subjects. Although these rights are often recognized in domestic constitutions and international human rights treaties, they are rarely taken into account in forest decision-making. As indigenous and other communities enjoy tenure rights over a large and increasing percentage of the world’s forests, it is necessary to ensure the protection of their rights. At the same time, however, it must be recognized that the trend towards increased legislation of customary land Patrick Durst rights and other traditional rights of Degraded forest land in the Philippines forest-dwelling people is not the obvious solution it may at first appear – and Annalisa Savaresi Hartmann looks at some legal aspects of indeed in some cases it may even cause the rights-conservation nexus. more problems than it solves. For example, legislation may reinforce inequitable rights, benefitting only the elite and further Recognition of the relationship between of forest logging permits. At the marginalizing the weaker members of society. human rights and the environment has international level, the Inter-American been developing in recent years and many Commission has found on several occasions To date, there is no comprehensive government and civil society actors have that deforestation and logging activities may instrument specifically designed to address addressed rights abuses that can arise from impair the human rights of forest-dwelling the links between conservation and human environmental degradation. Although the communities. Along similiar lines, the UN rights. The recently adopted UNFF right to a healthy environment is absent Human Rights Committee has established Non-legally Binding Instrument on All from most international human rights that the expropriation of lands for timber Types of Forests is silent on the matter and instruments, human rights law provides development may threaten the way of life merely encourages states to promote the substantive and procedural elements and and culture of indigenous peoples (Lubicon involvement of local communities, forest institutional mechanisms that may be Lake Band v. Canada, Communication No. owners and other relevant stakeholders in utilized to address environmental concerns. 167/1984). decision-making processes. As the priorities The jurisprudence of international human of forests’ stewards may not align with the rights bodies, such as the European Court This approach, however, only benefits the ones of conservation, the rights-based of Human Rights, clearly demonstrates victims of violations of established human approach (RBA) may be a powerful this possibility. rights. If the individual applicant’s health, instrument to combine conservation private life, property or civil rights are not interests with human rights protection. The impact of forest activities on human sufficiently affected by environmental In particular, the adoption of an RBA may rights has on several occasions been damage, then he or she has no standing ensure compliance with the rights of forest sanctioned in the jurisprudence of national to claim recognition of these rights before stakeholders while ensuring the preservation and international judicial bodies. By way human rights bodies. of biodiversity and providing a frontline of example, in 1994 the Supreme Court defence against deforestation. of the Philippines ruled that the right to a Another way of addressing the linkages Contact: Annalisa Savaresi Hartmann, annalisa. balanced and healthy environment and the between conservation and human rights is [email protected]. Annalisa is a lawyer specialized right to health entitled a group of Filipino to elaborate tools to integrate human rights in human rights and environmental law, based in Cambridge. She is a member of the IUCN CEL children to stand in court on behalf of protection with conservation. IUCN has Specialist Group on Forests and a consultant to IUCN’s future generations to seek the cancellation promoted this approach by sponsoring the Environmental Law Centre.

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This article is the first of a planned series of invited ‘opinion pieces’ that will appear regularly in arborvitae. The content of these pieces does not necessarily reflect the view of IUCN. Why forest conservation is not good news for local communities

Janis Bristol Alcorn takes a critical look rights violated by forest conservation, and increasingly at what forest conservation has done for view conservation as a major threat, some even calling local people’s rights. conservation an ‘ecofascist’ activity.

Failures to support human rights in forest conservation arise The urban public generally view forest conservation from the Lucifer Effect – not because people involved in forest as an unquestionably ‘good thing’ akin to apple pie, projects are inherently bad, but because institutions do not motherhood and soccer. It is a key ‘green’ solution to provide planners and implementers with the proper guidance global climate change. Forest conservation delivers its ‘ to apply as decision-making criteria in complex situations. good news’ through various mechanisms – certified logging, Most forests are found in remote areas where the national sustainable logging, joint forest management, community- government is not protecting human rights and where there based forestry, payments for ecosystem services, forest are unclear property rights and weak judicial systems. In such reserves and protected areas – almost invariably in forests situations, the onus of duty-bearer falls square upon those who on lands claimed by local communities. are planning and implementing forest conservation. However, external organizations have been implicated again and again in The urban public does not see the displaced pygmy camps choosing to turn a blind eye or play the game with corrupt watching certified logs passing on trucks in Cameroon, governments instead of supporting human rights, choosing the uncontacted Amazonian indigenous people impacted short-term solutions over the long road of negotiating benefits by loggers who penetrate their territory to fell illegally- for local rights holders via recognition of their customary rights harvested logs to be sold as ‘certified’, or other similar scenes over forests. easily seen by outsiders who travel to remote forested areas around the world. The public living in such rural areas, on In a few countries, such as Mexico, communities successfully the other hand, describe themselves as ‘struck by the conserve their own forests, defending them because they have lightning’ by such projects: hardly good news. legal ownership of forests. Yet emergent opportunities for tenure policy-led ‘good news’ conservation in other countries Biodiversity hotspots generally overlap with poverty are too often hijacked by international organizations, as in the hotspots. While forest conservation could bring good current case in Liberia, where Conservation International (CI) news for local communities, and indeed is often touted is lobbying to, in effect, prevent communities’ forest rights as beneficial for them, these communities bear significant from being recognized, by opting for new protected areas costs and gain few benefits. The costs arise not only from and concessions instead of working with local communities opportunity costs but also from the forest conservation for recognition of customary rights. There are, nonetheless, planners’ and implementers’ failures to support the human many opportunities to improve the situation. International rights of communities and their members. NGOs have access to national decision-makers that are beyond the reach of communities and local NGOs. Bilateral, multilateral Individuals and communities are ‘rights-holders’ who hold and private donors can leverage change through global universal rights to an indivisible bundle of civil, economic, programs, such as the Global Forest and Trade Network cultural, political, property, and environmental rights. supported by IFC, USAID, Citigroup, DGIS, DFID, EU Conservation agents are ‘duty-bearers’ who have obligations and Blue Moon. In this context, donor institutions could to act to protect human rights directly and to create the review their grantees’ human rights duty-bearer compliance, conditions for others to fulfil their responsibilities, even in and develop guidance and disincentives for those who are the absence of national legislation or regulations protecting not assuming their responsibilities. human rights. Human rights abuse allegations associated with forest conservation activities include violation of due For references and further information, please see: Alcorn, process, massive forcible resettlements, extrajudicial killings, J.B. and A.G. Royo. 2007. Conservation’s engagement with destruction of property and farms, torture and other human rights: Traction, slippage, or avoidance. Policy violations of social, cultural, political and economic rights. Matters 15: 115-139. http://www.iucn.org/themes/ceesp/ Globally, over 130 million people are ‘conservation Publications/Publications.htm refugees’, having lost their homes and access to resources Contact: Janis Bristol Alcorn, [email protected]. as a result of conservation interventions. Indigenous peoples Janis is an independent consultant in Washington D.C., advisor to are particularly vulnerable to having their prior territorial The Garfield Foundation, and a Rights and Resources Fellow.

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A women’s nursery in Burundi Rights-based approaches to forest conservation Bob Fisher and Gonzalo Oviedo look at some of the issues and contradictions behind the concepts of rights in a forest conservation context.

Rights-based approaches (RBA) to conservation, including rights movement was successful in making the point that, forest conservation, are being increasingly advocated – and without a healthy environment, the whole spectrum of sometimes contested. This article unpacks some of the issues human rights would be impossible to attain. Indeed, there behind these approaches, many of which are dealt with in is a growing recognition that environmental rights are a greater detail in other articles in this issue of arborvitae. constitutive element of human rights.

There are a number of different views of rights as they apply While the notion of environmental rights is important, it has to conservation. A great deal of emphasis has been placed on its limitations from the perspective of human rights, human tenure rights – rights to access and use resources – which we wellbeing and the needs of the poor. The problem is that will look at in a moment. But first, let’s consider some more environmental rights can sometimes be interpreted in ways ‘fundamental’ rights. that undermine human rights.Some of the limitations of the environmental rights agenda are linked with two problematic Environmental rights and human rights concepts – intergenerational rights and the rights of nature. The idea of environmental rights (e.g. the right to clean Intergenerational rights may mean, in practice, that I have to water, or to a healthy environment) emerged primarily as a sacrifice my own rights (e.g. to be free from hunger) for the result of social conscience about pollution and the effects of benefit of my children’s rights but this clearly raises difficult industrial development on humans. The environmental questions. Intergenerational rights, while ethically laudable,

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...are the ‘rights of nature’ always Second, the existence of regulations limiting access to markets or unduly onerous administrative requirements consistent with human rights? regulating forest management often undermines the effectiveness of tenurial rights. In other words, tenure What about organisms such as needs to be understood in terms of the whole complex of viruses which can kill people? institutional arrangements which govern forest resource use, not narrowly in the sense of legal ownership and access rights.

are a problem in terms of human rights and are not There is a need for a reality check in another sense here. justiceable (i.e. cannot be enforced). The rights of nature Secure tenurial rights do not guarantee sustainable use of are even more problematic for similar reasons. For example, resources. The exploitative behaviour of some resource users IUCN still has a policy which states that ‘[e]very life form – be they big companies, individual farmers or rural warrants respect independently of its worth to people’ communities – shows that clearly. Nevertheless, sound (IUCN/UNEP/WWF (1991) Caring For the Earth: tenurial arrangements are an important incentive. A strategy for sustainable living). Yet, are the ‘rights of nature’ always consistent with human rights? What about One risk of focusing too narrowly on ‘secure’ (in the sense organisms such as viruses which can kill people? This notion of legally codified) tenurial rights is that simply recognizing of the rights to nature can be especially damaging for the rights legally may be problematic unless done carefully. poor. We would argue that the value of life forms cannot For example, recognizing communal rights over forests may be detached from their worth to people, if we are thinking undermine ‘secondary’ rights of users such as pastoralists of a comprehensive framework of rights that support who seasonally use a forest for grazing. Formalisation of human wellbeing. rights as individual private property often means the loss of rights held traditionally as common property. With these problems in mind, we feel that a new understanding is needed to address the current mismatch On a national level, insidious codification can be a serious between environmental rights and human rights. The values risk. Attempts to codify rights too early can result in loss of environmental rights (the ethics, the recognition of the (sometimes through oversimplification) of traditional rights ‘right to a healthy environment’) need to be reformulated and can lead to serious conflicts – hardly likely to contribute so that they underpin the right to human wellbeing and all to conservation. This is a particular risk where legislation human rights. Human rights related to the environment is enacted without detailed knowledge of existing local may include ‘cultural’ rights, such as the right to cultural institutions and resource use practices. practices as they relate to natural resources. Rights to what? Tenure – rights to resources The application of the concepts of rights to the field of forest The increasing emphasis on rights to access and use conservation is complicated by the fact that many official (i.e. natural resources (tenurial rights) is very important to national) forest tenure systems focus on ‘ownership’ of forest conservation. While such rights are often supported forests as essentially consisting of trees for timber or for strict on human rights grounds, they are generally discussed protection, ignoring, at least in legal terms, the existence and from a more pragmatic angle, based on the argument importance of other forest products. More nuanced notions that people will only invest money, time and effort in of rights to forest resources would empower communities conservation if they have secure rights which ensure that and other stakeholders to access forest resources. they will benefit from their investment. The incentives arising from secure access can make a significant On the other hand, where communities are granted rights to contribution to forest conservation, but the theory forest resources, these rights tend to be limited to low-value does need to be qualified in several ways. products. We now call these non-timber forest products to emphasize the diversity of forest values beyond timber, but First, the assumption that ‘secure rights’ refers to legally maybe the older term ‘minor forest products’ still makes recognized rights does not always match reality on the sense in economic terms. ground. There is evidence that people will invest (especially time and labour) to conserve and manage forests as long as Conclusions they feel confident that they will be allowed to do so, even We believe that debate about rights and forest conservation when they have no secure legal standing. For example, needs to go beyond the pragmatic and instrumentalist idea where technically illegal forest use has been tolerated by that secure property rights are a useful tool for forest authorities for a long period of time, people may feel that conservation, to recognize the need for a broader set of continued use will be tolerated and may therefore be forest rights based on notions of human rights and justice. confident enough to invest time and effort. On the other

hand, even when rights are legally recognized, a history of Contact: Bob Fisher, [email protected]. interference by forest authorities or private companies may Bob is a Senior Researcher with the Australian Mekong Resource Centre at the University of Sydney and is also a member of IUCN’s Commission on mean that legal rights are not enforceable and people will Environmental, Economic and Social Policy. Gonzalo is IUCN’s Senior Adviser lack the confidence to invest in conservation. on Social Policy.

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grassroots organizations against forest evictions, Righting the wrongs drawing in other grassroots and political bodies. Their campaign work culminated in the enactment of The Scheduled Tribes and done to India’s forest Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006. Brought into force from January 1 this year, dwellers the new law has several radical provisions. It admits the historical injustice done to India’s tribal and other traditional forest- dwelling communities due to their land and forest rights not being recognized during the consolidation of state forests. The diversity of both individual and community rights to be recognized include rights over cultivated land, ownership of NTFPs collected from forests, seasonal use of forest lands for grazing by transhumant communities, rights of pre- agricultural communities over their habitat and the right to protect, manage and conserve customary community forest resources for sustainable use. Open village assemblies, instead of government officials, are to initiate the process of receiving and verifying the FAO, Rajeev Verma FAO, claims. Village assemblies are also empowered Collecting non-timber forest products can yield an important to protect local wildlife, forests and income for India’s forest-dependent communities biodiversity and to ensure that the habitat of forest-dwelling indigenous communities is Madhu Sarin discusses how a new law is reversing some of the “preserved from any form of destructive injustices of forest management in India. practices affecting their cultural and natural habitat”. The nodal agency responsible for implementation is the Ministry of Tribal In India, large areas of ecologically diverse all protected areas has been banned since Affairs instead of the Ministry of Environment lands, performing a wide range of livelihood 2000 and in 2002, large-scale brutal evictions & Forests. This is in recognition of the fact and cultural functions, have been legally of forest dwellers from their ancestral lands that it is predominantly ancestral tribal lands classified as state ‘forests’ through unsound was ordered due to their being labelled as which have been classified as state ‘forests’, processes and have been brought under illegal “encroachers” on state forests. often without following the due legal process. centralized, top-down management. Even in those areas where customary law and The government’s flagship Joint Forest Although vehemently opposed by hardcore resource management systems are Management (JFM) programme has skirted wildlife conservationists, the law has created protected, dominant formal law has been around critical issues of tenure, the livelihood space for finally democratizing forest overriding customary systems in subtle functions of lands classified as ‘forest’, and governance in the country and restoring ways. The official conceptualization of the customary resource rights and management control over customary ‘forests’ as uni-functional land-use systems management institutions of indigenous community forests to communities. For primarily for sustained timber production, forest-dwelling communities. The JFM the most marginalized tribal communities, together with the growing attention to agreements effectively lock communities recognition of their resource rights will be environmental services and exclusionary into unequal partnerships which the forest akin to recognition of their citizenship rights conservation, have compounded the department can enforce with its legal might 60 years after independence. livelihood and survival crisis of forest- while remaining unaccountable to the dwelling communities. Urban middleclass communities. The JFM programme has Although the law is still in the very early environmentalism permeating to the Indian been used to convert settled and rotational stages of implementation in some states, and judiciary has brought the crisis to a head cultivation, and grazing/pasture lands into it remains unclear what distortions will creep through an ongoing public interest tree plantations by claiming such lands to be in during the process, there is already an litigation case. In the name of safeguarding state ‘forests’ and indeed, the evictions of evident change in the unequal distribution forests and wildlife, several court orders forest dwellers from forest lands has often of power between forest departments and have de-legitimized diverse traditional been done with the assistance of JFM communities. resource use and management systems by committees. vesting the forest bureaucracy with exclusive Contact: Madhu Sarin, [email protected]. Madhu is a development planner who has been deeply involved forest management authority. Collection of A national ‘Campaign for Survival & Dignity’ with the ongoing movement for democratizing forest non-timber forest products (NTFPs) from was spearheaded by a loose federation of governance in India.

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Guatemala: indigenous management of a protected area

their land tenure and to encourage them to respect the land demarcation of the National Park. As a result of these efforts, land rights for 90 percent of the land area have now been legalized and 50 of the 55 communities now have their land titles. In addition, there is now a good level of respect among the communities for each other’s land rights and for the boundaries of the National Park. As one community leader said “Now that the land is ours we have to take care of it for the wellbeing of our children, and most importantly take care of the Park, because now we are neighbours”. This realization by community members that they are the IUCN Photo Library © IUCN / Jeffrey McNeely IUCN Photo Library © / Jeffrey owners of the land and responsible for land Girls in Lachuá, Guatemala management was a key factor in the success of the National Park and the project as a whole. Arturo Santos and Julian Orozco of IUCN’s Regional Office for Mesoamerica outline how a protected area project involved a radical Results rethink of the role of local indigenous people in conservation. So far the project has yielded very positive results:

The Lachuá Ecoregion consists of 55,000 ha of IUCN (ORMA) and the Dutch • More than 500 families have been of high biodiversity sub-tropical rainforest in government joined forces in 1997. They integrated into the poverty reduction the Northwest region of Guatemala. The developed a project to conserve the National programs; area, which encompasses the 15,000 ha Park and involve local communities in the • Five types of sustainable production Laguna Lachuá National Park, has a population management of its natural resources. (honey, forestry, fruits, handcraft and of 11,000 indigenous Q’eqchi’ subsistence rural tourism) have led to a 50 percent farmers residing in 55 communities. The Laguna Lachuá project unites eight increase in the incomes of 500 families; government institutions with a team of • Business alliances and marketing chains Providing a better future through conservation professionals and – most have been developed for national and conservation importantly – the Mayan Q’qechi’ community international markets; Traditionally, protected areas in Guatemala members, via six local associations. Together • The deforestation rate has been reduced were established by central government and these partners have developed a model of by 45 percent and there has been a managed by understaffed state agencies, often integrated participatory land-use to achieve significant reduction in illegal logging resulting in the neglect of the rights, needs sustainable livelihoods and to address the and forest fires; and and knowledge of indigenous people. The socio-cultural, environmental, economic • Some 35 percent of the total area has a management of these protected areas focused and political needs on a regional level. The management plan. predominately on conservation and excluded primary focus of the project activities is local the subsistence needs of the local poor. empowerment and community training. During the last 10 years, the area has been declared a RAMSAR site, has been The key question was: how can local Legalizing land rights recognized as a model forest, and has won indigenous communities with high rates of The final goal of the project is that the local several national-level recognitions and prizes. poverty and political and social exclusion, communities co-manage the National Park But more importantly, the whole area is and with the deep wounds of a civil war, as part of their own property. now cooperatively managed by a third-level have an opportunity to manage their natural organization, integrating government and resources and conserve the National Park in When the project started, one of the major local leaders, that discusses and develops a sustainable, interactive way? problems was that of land tenure. There the work plan of the area and promotes the was considerable conflict, and even violence, conservation of natural resources and the To answer this question, the National between community members regarding well-being of the local people. Institute of Forestry (responsible for the land ownership. The project staff worked Contact: Arturo Santos, [email protected]. management and protection of the national with the local people and the government For more information on this project, visit www.iucn.org park), the Regional Office for Mesoamerica agencies to enable communities to legalize or www.lachua.org.

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When rights don’t count: obstacles to community forestry in Central America

forest laws, but also a breeding ground for illegality and corruption. This is seen, for example, in the problems that the Cooperativa Agroforestal El Guayabo in Honduras has been experiencing. The cooperative has implemented a government- approved management plan and has fulfilled almost all the requirements for FSC certification. Even so, the cooperative has had one of its timber trucks, with all the necessary permits and legal waybills, detained at a checkpoint and confiscated, while a truck transporting illegal timber got through.

As a result of such unfairness, local FAO, Ronald Billings FAO, communities often wonder why they Community workers in Honduras debark logs infested with pine bark beetle should protect their forests when they lack guarantees as to their land rights and Evelyn Chaves of ACICAFOC looks at some of the barriers to when they have to jump through so many communities exercising their forest rights. administrative hoops. A large forestry company with financial resources and connections encounters no difficulties Globally, community-based forest suddenly appeared bearing a land in conducting its operations, while management (CBFM) has achieved many title dating back to colonial times. His communities have to provide assurances in successes in terms of the socio-economic land rights prevailed over those of the terms of forest management and social and and environmental benefits it has brought community despite the fight they put up environmental accountability, in addition to local communities and indigenous peoples. to get recognition of their rights over the meeting certification requirements, even in Nevertheless, the movement towards land they had so devotedly protected. the absence of economic benefits for their CBFM has been unable to effectively Fortunately, this story had a happy ending; products. They must continually stand up influence national land tenure policies – the the community’s persistence bore fruit and for their rights and beg for permits and Achilles’ heel of sustainable development. they were finally granted a forest working capital. Numerous other obstacles prevent management contract. communities from exercising their legal Despite this gloomy outlook, many rights to manage their forests and use and On top of tenure insecurity, CFEs face communities have succeeded in defending sell forest products. many other barriers. Banking institutions their rights and building successful CFEs. do not recognize forests or timber, let Some of the elements common to successful Those embarking on community forest alone non-timber forest products or experiences include: committed, visionary enterprises (CFEs) need reassurance that environmental services, as acceptable leaders who promote broad-based their efforts will reap livelihood rewards guarantees for credit access purposes. community participation; benefit-sharing for several generations. Yet no matter how The resulting lack of working capital is among all members (not just leaders); well a community manages its forest, land something that forest communities must development of in-house rules and insecurity is an ever-present threat. The contend with year after year. CFEs also regulations; and strategic partnerships. case involving the Las Marías community face a never-ending struggle against the At ACICAFOC we firmly believe that in the multiple-use zone of the Río Plátano conservation-only stance that has been support for CFEs should focus on fostering Biosphere Reserve in Honduras is a clear taken up by many decision-makers. This the individual and collective values of those example. For more than 70 years the outlook opposes forest management, involved, building local capacity and community had been protecting the ignoring the fact that CFEs have proven consolidating the people’s visions and surrounding forest against fires, pests and their ability to be environmentally dreams into a productive process. illegal tree felling. However, when the sustainable. Last but not least, the government granted logging permits for high levels of red tape surrounding the Contact: Evelyn Chaves, [email protected]. ACICAFOC (the Central American Indigenous and trees affected by pine bark beetle in a move approval processes for CFEs is not only a Peasant Coordination Association for Community to contain a major infestation, an individual discouraging factor for those who abide by Agroforestry) is a member of IUCN.

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stopped the Department over the years Indonesia: putting rights from handing out over 600 logging licences covering over 62 million ha and permitting the clearance of some 7 million ha for timber into forest conservation estates. About 30 million ha of ‘forests’ have also been permitted for conversion to palm oil and other crops. Most of these Marcus Colchester of the concessions overlap customary lands and Forest Peoples Programme have been imposed without the prior reviews the challenges of knowledge, let alone consent, of the local securing community forest landowners. This has caused a profusion of land conflicts across the archipelago, while rights in Indonesia. crackdowns by security forces brought in by concessionaires have led to serious human Indonesia’s forests are in crisis. The country rights abuses. Local people, denied justice is now among the world’s greatest emitters and legal security, are forced into illegal of greenhouse gases, largely due to the logging and land clearance to survive. uncontrolled conversion of tropical forests and draining of peatlands, cleared for oil Indonesia’s forests are palm and pulp-and-paper plantations. Annual deforestation rates are thought to in crisis. The country is exceed 3 million ha, while degradation of the remainder is being driven by excess now among the world’s processing capacity in saw, ply and pulp greatest emitters of mills, with over 60 percent of the timber for these mills coming from illegal logging. greenhouse gases.

Forests for people? Indonesia’s forests are Prospects for change. There are signs of hope. not just important in terms of conservation, Indonesian NGOs are active in proposing an climate change and economic development. alternative approach based on securing They are also home to some 60-90 million community rights, freezing the concession people. Indonesia’s extraordinary biological system and prioritizing local needs and diversity is matched by its cultural diversity. conservation over exports and industrial The country’s 12,000 islands, spread across supply. The National Legislative Assembly an arc of sea as wide as the USA, are has decreed that the legal framework must inhabited by an estimated 500 different be reformed to secure community rights ethnic groups, each with its own unique and prevent conflict. Local legislatures are language, culture and traditions. Custom authorized to secure community rights. The (adat) is respected in the Indonesian UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial constitution and orders much of people’s Discrimination has called on Indonesia to social life, especially in rural areas. However, secure indigenous rights, curb the practice of the formal legal framework and current land overriding rights in the name of the national tenure regime offer people very little security. interest and allow communities the right of Less than 40 percent of rural land holdings consent before proceeding with plantations. in Indonesia is titled, a proportion which is Private sector consortia, including major declining year on year as new holdings are pulp and paper companies and members of created faster than the national land office the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, can survey and register them. This means have committed voluntarily to respect that most lands are held under informal customary rights and communities’ right to or customary tenures, yet the unclear consent. Moreover, practical pilot projects procedures for recognizing customary have shown that community rights in forests tenures are barely applied. can be secured and the agricultural frontier stabilized by recognizing customary rights The Forestry Department is even further and supporting community forestry. A way behind in regularizing rights. To date, only forward is clear but it will require a major 16 percent of the country’s 120 million assertion of political will if the government is hectares of forests have been gazetted, to turn local successes into sweeping change. meaning it is legally unclear if these forests IUCN Photo Library © IUCN/Jeffrey McNeely IUCN Photo Library © IUCN/Jeffrey are ‘State forests’ or ‘private forests’ Contact: Marcus Colchester, [email protected] Artisanal logging in Sulawesi, Indonesia encumbered with rights. This has not or visit: www.forestpeoples.org.

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From hinterland to centre stage: forests, people

and rights Virot © WHO/P.

A young malaria patient. Some of the world’s deadliest infectious Augusta Molnar, Andy White, Arvind diseases are exacerbated by tropical deforestation Khare and William Sunderlin of the Rights and Resources Initiative reflect on increasingly intertwined. As productivity of land and local ecology change with climate shifts, forest peoples find their the importance of rights and governance livelihoods and capacity to conserve their forests at risk, as pressure grows on the world’s forests. while pressures on forest lands for agriculture and industrial use spiral out of control.

Years of committed planning towards the Millennium Forests have historically been regarded as a hinterland, Development Goals are now being overwhelmed by the subject largely to the business and development plans of more pressing political issues of ‘security’: food security, urban-based political, economic and environmental elites. national security, energy security, and ecological security, Social and economic development in forest-rich areas has including climate change and water crises. Yet these security only recently become a goal of country and forest sector crises are tightly linked to the same set of underlying programs and policies. Yet, ironically, it is precisely in the problems that gave rise to three decades of global poverty forest areas where the coming drama is being played out and environment concerns: inadequate recognition of and where many challenges have the best chance of effective human and civil rights, marginalization of rural and attention. The rapidly expanding global economy and the forest communities, widespread rural poverty, and weak, booming demand for food, fuel and wood fibre all put unrepresentative governance institutions. Unfortunately, mounting pressure on forestlands and peoples. These rather than dealing with these underlying problems, commodities also compete for the same, diminishing, governments and the development community tend to available land (IIASA estimates that there are not more leap from crisis to crisis. then 390 million hectares of land into which agriculture or biofuels could currently expand, but quadruple the demand Less well recognized is the fact that many of these challenges – see Nilsson, Sten. 2007. The Boomerang – When will the converge in the 30 percent of the Earth’s surface that is global forest sector relocate from the South to the North? considered forest. Forest areas remain chronically poor and International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis and poorly governed, and suffer from conflicts, crises and Rights and Resources Initiative). corruption, often surfacing to national and regional levels. Human, civil and political rights of indigenous peoples, The environment and development communities by and women and other marginalized groups are frequently large have not yet adjusted or rethought their approaches unrecognized. Over 30 forested countries have experienced to reflect this oncoming collision between the rights and widespread violent conflicts in the past two decades, many interests of forest owners and the growing pressure from of which are fueled by inequitable resource distribution and climate shifts and global commodity demand. As pressures ethnic tensions (see Kaimowitz, David. 2005. “Forests and on forests intensify, effective mitigation and adaptation to Conflicts.” European Tropical Forest Research Network climate change are ever more dependent on clear and strong Newsletter (43/44)). property rights to protect forest dwellers, encourage adaptive land management and provide a foundation for fair Limited rights and poor governance exacerbate other negotiation of changing interests. global challenges. UNFCCC estimates that at least 20 percent of global carbon emissions stem from deforestation, Community and social movements are more vigorously degradation and land-use change. Worse, a significant advancing their property rights and enterprises. portion of the world’s most threatening infectious diseases, Longstanding conservation and commercial models are including Ebola, Yellow Fever, Dengue, Malaria, SARS and increasingly being challenged. Forests, people and rights SIV, are exacerbated by tropical deforestation, are entering centre stage. Now that they have arrived we fragmentation, and associated land-use change (see Wilcox, need to rethink and reorganize to support them. Brett R. and Bruce A. Ellis. 2006. “Forests and emerging

infectious diseases of humans,” Unasylva (FAO) 224, Vol. Contact: Augusta Molnar, [email protected] and for more 57). The fates of forest dwellers and non-forest dwellers are information visit www.rightsandresources.org

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ignoring the interests and needs of local Reducing Emissions communities who heavily depend on the respective forest areas, can pose an obstacle for the sustainability of carbon sequestration from Deforestation projects and therefore the goal of long-term emission reductions.

and Forest Degradation: The reason for involving local communities in, and ensuring their benefits from, market the need for a rights- processes is obvious if one recognizes that people’s livelihoods and environmental protection are interrelated, fundamental based approach goals of the global community. These linkages are multi-dimensional and reciprocal:

• Failing to avoid deforestation and forest degradation may undermine the interests of local communities whose livelihoods are heavily dependent on forests and their resources. At the same time, avoiding deforestation and forest degradation means safeguarding the main source of livelihoods of many local individuals and groups. • Failing to consult and include local individuals and groups in the REDD process or voluntary carbon projects may lead to illegal logging and therefore leakage. At the same time, respecting FAO, Roberto Faidutti FAO, local people’s forest-related rights, If not handled carefully, REDD initiatives can have negative promoting their participation in REDD impacts on local people’s rights and interests and voluntary carbon projects and ensuring equitable benefit-sharing from Nii Ashie Kotey and Paulo de Tarso de Lara Pires these activities may help to sustain people’s (Co-Chairs of the IUCN Commission on Environmental Law livelihoods and therefore create local Specialist Group on Forest) and Thomas Greiber (Legal Officer acceptance of carbon sequestration projects, leading to less infringements and at the IUCN Environmental Law Centre) reflect on the reasoning finally more effective carbon sequestration. behind a rights-based approach to REDD. The IUCN Commission on Environmental Law Specialist Group on Forest, which was Emissions from deforestation and While it is important to support both a launched at the beginning of 2008 under forest degradation are major drivers possible regime for reducing emissions from the IUCN Environmental Law Programme, of anthropogenic climate change. As deforestation and forest degradation plans to analyze the above-mentioned a consequence, the world community (REDD) under the ‘next Kyoto protocol’ linkages in greater detail in order to has become increasingly aware of the and the further growth of the emerging provide guidance on how to involve local need to create positive incentives to voluntary carbon market, great care must be communities as well as respect their formal reduce such emissions, particularly in taken not to overlook the possible negative and informal rights and social structures, developing countries where they implications for local communities and their in the development of a future REDD mostly occur. Two distinct ‘markets’ rights and interests. Each of these two regime or the voluntary carbon market. may develop such incentives: the incentive markets has the potential danger In this regard, one possible tool is the post-2012 regime under the United of favouring mainly large-scale projects application of a rights-based approach to Nations Framework Convention on which are by nature more cost-efficient conservation. This approach, however, Climate Change (UNFCCC) which is and easier to implement in the short-term. needs to be accepted and implemented by currently under discussion, and the However, such large-scale carbon all stakeholders, landowners, communities, voluntary retail offset market, which sequestration activities often fail to achieve loggers, project implementers and comprises emission reduction projects conservation with justice by applying a governments. of parties not yet bound by specific rights-based approach. An attitude focusing regulations. mainly on economic considerations, while Contact: Thomas Greiber, [email protected].

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Just conservation with appropriate support, these communities can Available end August from: www.iucn.org/law become proactive partners in the management and The forthcoming IUCN publication Conservation defence of protected areas. with Justice: A Rights-based Approach explores the linkages between conservation and the respect Good governance to protect Knuckles for internationally and nationally guaranteed human Available from: http://cmsdata.iucn.org/ rights. The aim is to promote the realization of downloads/iucn_svbc_knuckles_web.pdf conservation with justice, recognizing that activities A new report by IUCN looks at the initial progress and projects related to conservation can have a made by the Strengthening Voices, Better Choices positive or negative impact on human rights, while pilot project in Sri Lanka. The report, Improving Forest the exercise of certain human rights can reinforce Governance in Knuckles: Dialogue and development and act in synergy with conservation goals. This for better outcomes by Nathan Badenoch, documents rights-based approach (RBA) to conservation the background to the project and reflects on the parallels the international consensus on taking such factors behind the successes achieved so far. arborvitae an approach to development, forged in the context The project is seeking to repair a situation of a The next issue of arborvitae will of the 1996 World Summit for Social Development ‘conservation success but governance failure’ that be produced in September 2008 and elaborated in the Millennium Summit and the has existed since 2000 when the government of Sri (copy deadline end July) and will World Summit on Sustainable Development. Lanka declared the Knuckles Conservation Zone. The look at agricultural productivity in forest landscapes. If you have protected area was established on the basis of sound any material to send or comments The publication will be of interest to governments, scientific information, but with little or no thought please contact: the private sector, local communities and non- given to the impacts on the local stakeholders. Jennifer Rietbergen-McCracken governmental organizations, informing them of the The result was a tense situation between local 85 chemin de la ferme du château 74520 Vulbens potential contribution of RBA to conservation. The communities, private landowners and the Forest France book examines how RBA has been, and could be, Department concerning boundaries, tenure, access [email protected] applied to develop law and policy on three specific to resources and livelihood options. In less than two

Communications regarding topics: forests, protected areas, and climate change. years of implementation, the project has already the arborvitae mailing list It is hoped that the publication will serve to facilitate managed to ease these tensions considerably and (subscription requests, address cooperation among the many relevant actors to build good governance mechanisms – including a changes etc.) should be sent to shape projects towards conservation, while ensuring local forum for dialogue on forest management and Sizakele Noko, [email protected] justice among the various stakeholders. a national-level forum on the wider issues of forest conservation and management policy. While these

Back issues of arborvitae can be found on: Movements in the forest signs of success are encouraging, the author points www.iucn.org/forest/av Available from: www.cifor.cgiar.org/publications/ out that several issues remain unresolved, including This newsletter has been edited by Jennifer pdf_files/OccPapers/OP-49.pdf the security of legal rights over land, and it is not Rietbergen-McCracken. Managing editor Liz Schmid, IUCN. arborvitae is funded by A new CIFOR Occasional Paper, Environmental certain that the current project activities can be DGIS. Design by millerdesign.co.uk. Governance and the Emergence of Forest-Based maintained over the long term. Social Movements by Peter Cronkleton et al., focuses on four successful cases of grassroots When tenure reform is not enough movements defending their forest-related rights. Available from: www.recoftc.org/site/fileadmin/ The cases include the Association of Forest docs/publications/Policy_brief/Whose_Forest_ Communities of the Petén in Guatemala, the Tenure_Reform_Vietnam.pdf Siuna Farmerto-Farmer exchange programme in A new policy brief from RECOFTC, Whose Forest Nicaragua, the Mamirauá Sustainable Development Tenure Reform Is It? Lessons from Case Studies in Reserve in the Brazilian state of Amazonas, and Vietnam by Nguyen Quang Tan et al., summarizes the DGIS is the Development Agency the Brazilian rubber tapper movement in Acre. The findings of a study on Vietnam’s recent forest tenure of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands paper summarizes the results of a three-year project reforms and the extent to which they have benefitted that included participatory studies by local people local people. The results are mixed: while households from the communities concerned to reflect on their have been given specific legal rights over the forest experiences with community forestry and their efforts land they have been allocated, they have generally to win legal access and management rights to their received poorer quality, degraded forests (while the forest resources (as reported in the 2007 companion government retains control over the best quality Acknowledgements Janis Bristol Alcorn (USA); Evelyn Chaves paper by Taylor et al., If You Saw It with My Eyes). forests). There is also considerable confusion over (Costa Rica); Marcus Colchester (UK); Bob Fisher (Australia); James Gordon The study reveals a similar storyline across the four the exact nature of the rights, and local people still (Switzerland); Thomas Greiber (Germany); cases: the emergence of grassroots collective action need to ask legal permission from the state authorities Stephen Kelleher (Switzerland); Arvind Khare (USA); Nii Ashie Kotey (Ghana); Stewart to defend local livelihoods following attempts by before they log any timber or cultivate on ‘their’ Maginnis (Switzerland); Augusta Molnar government institutions to counteract chaotic frontier forestland. In addition, there is little evidence that legal (USA); Julian Orozco (Costa Rica); Gonzalo Oviedo (Switzerland); Eugenia Ponce de conditions through the imposition of conservation tenure has contributed to poverty alleviation. Indeed, Leon (Colombia); Arturo Santos (Costa Rica); Madhu Sarin (India); Jeff Sayer (Switzerland); and development initiatives. The cases also share in some cases it seems that the reforms could lead to Annalisa Sevaresi Hartmann (UK); Gill a common experience of significant external increased impoverishment of the poor as the wealthier Shepherd (UK); William Sunderland (USA); Paulo de Tarso (Brazil); Andy White (USA); assistance having played an important role in or the better-connected villagers tend to capture Liz Alden Wily (Kenya). supporting the growth of the social movements. The the benefits for themselves. The brief outlines some The editors and authors are responsible authors coin a new term for these emerging actors – recommendations for addressing these problems and for their own articles. Their opinions do not necessarily represent the views of IUCN. “forest steward communities” – and conclude that, making the reforms more meaningful and pro-poor.

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