In early December” RRI Partners hosted a workshop in Douala” Cameroon to review and share information on the status of tenure and rights of forest peoples in Central and West Africa. The workshop brought together 38 participants form West and Central Africa” including representatives from Burudi” Rwanda” Uganda” Burkina Faso” Mali” Ghana” Cameroon” Gabon” Congo-Brazzaville” the Democratic Republic of the Congo” and Equatorial Guinea.
Meeting participants considered the situation of forest tenure for communities and forest peoples in each of three regions within Central and West Africa: Great Lakes” Central Africa and West Africa. In particular” each breakout group considered:
-
The legal framework with regard to community tenure in forests;
-
Actual policy implementation and the situation on the ground in terms of community land use;
-
Responses of local actors” civil society” government and the judiciary; and
-
What support and strategic action will be necessary to move forward.
More information on this workshop” including proceedings of the event and an event summary” is available here.