This letter is a response to the article The Uses of History. 

SIR – Much less known is the Charter of the Forest, which was signed in 1217, two years after the Magna Carta. It privatised large swathes of the king’s land to commoners and gave English peasants the right to access the crown’s remaining forests for food, pasture and wood for fuel.

Alas, unlike the Magna Carta, the Charter of the Forest has been slow to gain currency around the world. Central governments still claim possession of 70% of forests despite the proven benefits of local ownership. But this too is changing.

Community and private control of forests has increased by 50% in the past ten years. Because of the now evident benefits to forest conservation an international discussion on the merits of forest tenure reform is being held this month.

ANDY WHITE
Co-ordinator Rights and Resources Initiative
Washington, DC

Read the original letter here.