RRI’s Forest Tenure data tracks forest area via 4 tenure categories, which are based on the rightsholder and strength of their rights under national law. This employs a bundle of rights approach that links RRI’s qualitative and quantitative data.

Use the key below to see which data is available for each of the 21 examined countries in Africa.

Key Findings About Women’s Rights to Community Forests in Africa
Across the regions analyzed in 2024, African countries established the greatest number of new CBTRs and passed the most legal reforms since 2016, yet the African countries analyzed exhibit the lowest degree of progress for the forest tenure rights of Indigenous and local community women at the regional level.

Despite considerable opportunities to strengthen or improve the community-based tenure rights of community women across the region, African countries analyzed reflect the smallest proportional gains for community women, including rollbacks of previously recognized rights. Of the three reviewed regions, African states demonstrate an especially marked proclivity toward gender-blind laws and reforms.

Moreover, across African CBTRs established post-2016, many of the most consequential individual forest rights for community women’s tenure are either ignored or without any gender-responsive protection. Africa is also the only region that experienced proportional declines in the extent of protections for Indigenous and local community women’s forest tenure rights between 2016 and 2024.