Complexity of land tenure rights in peatland management in Southeast Asia
Key messages
- Tenure insecurity poses a challenge for sustainable peatland management in Southeast Asia due to unclear land rights and conflicting interests, contributing to unsustainable land use, peatland fires, deforestation, and hindered conservation efforts and long-term sustainability.
- Tenure systems across the region highlight the need for effective policy frameworks to ensure tenure security and sustainable peatland management at the national and regional level (e.g., the ASEAN Peatland Management Strategy).
- Efforts to strengthen tenure rights through social forestry schemes and community-based forest management in the region are ongoing with mixed results. But challenges persist in the implementation of tenure reforms and securing community rights.
- Promoting sustainable peatland management requires governments and stakeholders to strengthen community rights, enhance stakeholder engagement, build community capacity, implement Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC), and integrate policy on land and tenure security with climate mitigation strategies.
Publication year
2025
