This research provides a timely reminder of the global significance of community-held lands and territories; their importance for the protection, restoration, and sustainable use of tropical forestlands across the world; and the critical gaps in the international development architecture that have so far undermined progress towards the legal recognition of such lands and territories.
If properly leveraged, natural climate solutions can contribute over 37% of cost-effective CO2 mitigation by 2030. Evidence shows Indigenous Peoples and local communities are key to achieving such outcomes. This report presents the most comprehensive assessment to date of carbon storage in documented community lands worldwide.
At a Crossroads: Consequential Trends in Recognition of Community-Based Forest Tenure from 2002-2017
This analysis reports on trends in global forest tenure from 2002-2017. It is the fourth in a series of analyses monitoring the legal recognition of forest tenure around the world.
A synthesis of an investigation of tenure risk in East, West, and Southern Africa, that shows that a majority of tenure disputes are caused by the displacement of local peoples, indicating that companies and investors are not doing enough to understand competing claims to the land they acquire or lease.
Disputes over land and resource rights create operational and reputational risks through delays, rising costs, and curtailed access to finance and markets.
An empirical picture of the causes and effects of tenure-related disputes between private sector actors and local peoples across different sub-regions and countries in Africa, this analysis details statistical evidence of key trends in tenure-related disputes, including their causes as well as the prevalence of violence, work stoppages, and regulatory interventions.
A new report quantifying the carbon stored aboveground in tropical forests that are legally owned or traditionally held by Indigenous Peoples and local communities in 37 countries across tropical America, Africa, and Asia.
This brief summarizes findings on community ownership and control of lands in 19 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.
L’objectif de cette série de cinq essais est d’informer et d’aider à structurer le plaidoyer et les actions contestant la faiblesse juridique des droits fonciers…
This five brief series, written by panelist Liz Alden Wily, analyzes the roots of African land tenure systems, recent policy trends and puts the phenomenon…
Excerpt from special issue of the Journal of Conservation and Society edited by Anne M. Larson and Ganga Ram Dahal. The issue examines cases of…
As a part of ongoing efforts by the Cameroonian Ministry of Forest and Wildlife to revise the country's forest governance laws, the RRI Coalition in…
Road map for the RRI coalition's contribution to the Cameroonian forest law reform process
This study examines the case of one FDI made by Stora Enso with International Finance Corporation support in forestland plantations in Guangxi ” China. Stora…
The Rights and Resources Initiative released the Tropical Forest Tenure Assessment in May 2009 along with the International Tropical Timber Organization. The report found that…
Lessons and findings regarding customary practices and Africa's forest tenure reform process
In recent decades there has been a shift away from government control of forest land towards increasing access and ownership for indigenous groups, communities, individuals,…
¿Podemos ser autónomos? Pueblos indígenasvs. Estado en Latinoamérica reúne dos documentos: el primero” “Dilemas y desafíos de la autonomía territorial indígena en Latinoamérica” de Pablo…
Baka” Bagyeli and Bakola forest people – together with their local support NGOs – have been conducting consultations in southern Cameroon to inform their communities…
This study examines the experience of federal countries in managing their decentralized systems of forest governance.