With communities in many parts of the world achieving stronger, legally recognized, collective rights over their forests and other natural resources, important questions arise regarding how communities can overcome perceived barriers to investment and deliver sustainable development. Normative economic theory posits conceptual and practical barriers to investment in commons-based enterprises. This paper considers evidence and draws on lessons from four countries –Guatemala, Mexico, Nepal, where communities have been granted rights to forests, and Namibia, where communities have significant new rights to wildlife– to better understand the pathways emerging to deliver investment in the commons. We find that investment in community-owned resources is taking place and describe a process of “investment readiness.” During a first stage, rights devolution triggers inward investment and development of community user groups and sustainable resource management plans subject to government review and approval. In a second stage, social enterprises, commonly referred to as Community Forest Enterprises (CFEs), are spawned or licensed by the community user groups. Stronger local social capital and the effective performance of local enterprises attract new forms of private investment in a third phase. Improved community capacity enables diversification and investment into new sectors, linking to value chains that adhere to global market and environmental standards. Progress from one stage to the next is in part conditional on increases in the level of assurance stakeholders have that the obligations of each party will be met. We also find that community rights have fostered investment that recognizes the social character of commons ownership, to deliver environmental and social returns, as well as profits. CFEs help drive social innovation in rural regions by solving social, economic and resource governance problems that neither the state nor the market has proved capable of addressing. CFE-based solutions remain experimental and fragile, however, and longer-term success of community-based forest enterprise depends on states and markets adopting innovations of their own that are supportive and not corrosive of community-based resource governance and development.
Tag: community forestry
Pay, talk or ‘whip’ to conserve forests: Framed field experiments in Zambia
Despite many efforts to conserve tropical forests, high rates of deforestation and forest degradation continue, threatening the products and environmental services they supply. We conducted framed field experiments (FFEs) in Zambia to test, ex-ante, the impacts of different conservation policies: community forest management (CFM), command and control (CAC), and two versions of payments for environmental services (PES). Our FFEs mimicked how local dwellers use forests in real life. Relative to open access (OA), PES to individuals reduced harvest by 15 percentage points (pp) while CFM reduced harvest rates by 8 pp. We conjecture that free and easy-riding, combined with uncertainty on how others will reciprocate, dampens the positive effects of group-based PES. Impatience and risk-loving among participants significantly increased harvest rates while pro-social behavior (altruism) was associated with more pro-conservation. We conclude that conservation outcomes might be achieved by combinations of CFM and individual PES, by which individual households receive clear material benefits that compensate for their reduced forest use.
Investing in commonly-held resources for inclusive and sustainable development: Lessons from Guatemala, Mexico, Nepal and Namibia
Key messages
- Investment in commons comes primarily from donors, governments and communities, but private sector investment is increasing.
- Commons-based investment readiness is conditional on the level of assurance stakeholders have that the obligations of each party will be met. Investment readiness develops over time and in stages, as levels of assurance increase.
- Each sector has specific roles and responsibilities for mitigating risk.
- Community rights have fostered investment that recognizes the social character of commons ownership and delivers environmental and social returns, as well as profits.
- There is a need for additional research on the origins, mechanisms, volume and direction of investment in community-managed resources that can help communities and investors alike better understand their options.
Safeguards at a glance: Are the Monitoring, Reporting, Verification, and Grievance Redress Mechanisms of voluntary standards supporting community rights in REDD+?
Key messages
- While carbon accounting has comprehensive guidelines and is a funding priority in REDD+ readiness, there is no similar emphasis on the assessment of compliance with social safeguards through a monitoring, verification and reporting (MRV) system, or for grievance and redress mechanisms (GRMs).
- Our analysis shows an absence of stakeholder involvement in the design and implementation of both MRV procedures for safeguards and the design of GRMs; meaningful local engagement is needed, particularly of Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPs and LCs).
- Most of the standards recognize gender inequalities, but fail to promote gender-responsive approaches in both safeguards MRV and GRMs; such approaches would promote equity through mechanisms that consider women’s perspectives as well as their unequal access to resources and benefits.
- Accessible GRM procedures are mentioned across various standards, but specific details regarding culturally appropriate content, dissemination and specific procedures are often lacking.
- Rigorous safeguards MRV and GRM requirements are essential for the effective implementation of REDD+ projects and programmes that aim to go beyond ‘doing no harm’; requirements should promote transparency and accountability, and include clear thresholds, indicators and consequences for non-compliance.
Are community forest leaders downwardly Accountable? Evidence from cameroon
With the failure of centralized system of forest governance in the 1980’s, Participatory Forest Management (PFM) was presented as a panacea that could bring about proper management of forest resources while enhancing forest dwellers’ livelihood. Previous studies, however, have reported mixed results from PFM in Cameroun, and elite capture has been said to be a major contributor. Principal – Agent theory highlights the importance of the principal’s (community) capacity to keep the agents (leaders) accountable as the best approach for controlling elite capture and produce expected results. This study assesses level of leadership accountability in community forestry in Cameroon. Using cross sectional research design, data was collected through administration of semi structured questionnaire to 204 community forest (CF) members selected on basis of willingness and availability, 31 key informant interviews, and documents review. Results indicate a low level of downward accountability of CF leaders, due to inadequate capacity of community members to provide incentive to CF leaders for effective downward accountability. This poor downward accountability was further aggravated by the total exclusion of traditional authorities from CF legal arrangement. Hence, sustainable community forestry in Cameroon requires for forestry stakeholders and the government to make more effort in enhancing community capacity to demand for accountability by ensuring that all elements of accountability mechanism (answerability and enforcement) are effectively implemented. Government institutions have a key role to play in making sure community decisions against poor leadership is strengthened and enforced; therefore, the importance of synergy between community voice and public authority.
Securing the customary tenure rights of forest-dependent communities in Lamwo district, northern Uganda: Insights from participatory prospective analysis
Key messages
- Lamwo district, which before 2009 was part of the Kitgum district in northern Uganda, provides an interesting case of a post-conflict customary forest tenure system under a situation of changing forest governance, as forest tenure reforms introduced since 2001 give local communities extensive rights to forests. This is particularly important as the region continues to recover from the conflict that ended in 2006.
- In 2015, forest stakeholders took part in a Participatory Prospective Analysis (PPA) exercise that identified the determinants of forest tenure security in the district as: forest governance; the role and capacity of key stakeholders (particularly NGOs and customary institutions); an increasing demand for forest products; and pressure to convert forest land to large-scale agriculture.
- Based on their explorations of the implications of these driving forces, the participant stakeholders developed one desirable and three undesirable future scenarios of forest tenure security.
- The desirable scenario sees: a well-informed and active local community, which is aware of its forest tenure rights; an affordable forest land registration process that is not too bureaucratic; positive political influences; and a well-funded and -staffed district government that oversees and coordinates the work of NGOs, customary leaders, politicians and other stakeholders involved in forest tenure reform implementation.
- The three undesirable scenarios share the key features of corrupt local government, disinterested NGOs, disempowered local people, weakened cultural institutions (resulting in increasing conflicts and unresolved forest and land conflicts), and an expensive, bureaucratic forest and land registration process.
- Participants recommended seven initiatives to promote forest and land tenure security under customary systems in Lamwo district: 1) formulating and implementing bylaws; 2) creating forest conservation committees for each clan, to ensure proper management of their forest areas; 3) proactive community participation in decision-making, particularly in regards to women’s rights and involvement; 4) popularizing, simplifying and translating documents into local languages, including guidelines on registration and declaration of customary forests; 5) regulating harvesting rates for forest products (especially timber), 6) improving the system for registering forest and land areas; and 7) undertaking capacity-building initiatives.
- The PPA exercise revealed state and non-state stakeholders share common interests in protecting the forest and land tenure rights of forest-dependent communities under customary tenure systems in Lamwo district. Stakeholders pledged support for improved implementation, collaboration and coordination, to achieve the shared goals of forest tenure security for rights holders in Lamwo district by 2025.
Strengthening tenure security and community participation in forest management in Kibaale district, Uganda: Insights from participatory prospective analysis
Key messages
- Participatory Prospective Analysis (PPA) proved to be effective for encouraging collective reflection to identify threats to forest tenure security and to develop ways for improving local people’s tenure security over forests in Kibaale district in Uganda’s Western Region. A PPA exercise carried out in 2015-16 brought together stakeholders from district government, civil society, local communities and the Bunyoro kingdom, as well as politicians, to discuss the past, present and future of forest tenure security in the district. As the forest and land sectors are male-dominated, a separate women-only PPA workshop was organized to gather women’s perspectives.
- While the mixed group and women-only PPA participants identified four common key influences on forest tenure security, they also each identified four unique influences. The four commonly identified influences were the role played by politicians, the implementation capacity of key stakeholders (particularly at district level), the implementation and enforcement of forest laws and policies, and population dynamics, including the influx of migrants. The four influences identified only by the women’s workshop were access to adequate funding for reform implementation, the level of security in the district, and the role of NGOs, particularly those working to advance and defend women’s forest tenure rights. Influencing factors identified only by the mixed group were the knowledge, attitudes and participation of local people in implementing forest tenure reforms, and the extent of forest tenure rights actually granted to communities.
- Stakeholders identified two desirable and three undesirable scenarios to envision the potential forest tenure security situation in Kibaale in 2025. Desirable scenarios involved participatory formulation and implementation of forest policies and plans, clear tenure rights, adequate funding for implementing forest tenure reforms, well-informed local communities, and corruption-free political leadership. Undesirable scenarios were characterized by insecure forest tenure rights due to immigration, and unfair enforcement of forest laws in favour of powerful, well-connected immigrants over indigenous peoples.
- The PPA then identified potential actions to be undertaken by various stakeholders to improve access to local forest tenure rights over the next decade. These included: the dissemination of laws, policies and technologies to communities and their political leaders; increased community involvement in resource planning and implementation (including the enforcement of rules); and the development of policies and laws to address problems caused by immigration.
- The women-only PPA workshop viewed as a major threat the prospect of men taking over trees that women have planted (due to discriminatory cultural practices that prevent women from owning land and trees). They also identified factors that could undermine forest tenure security over the next decade, including the lack of funding to invest in tree planting and for acquiring their own land, lack of access to markets, political instability, and limited NGO influence.
Forest tenure reform implementation in Uganda: Current challenges and future opportunities
Key messages
This study was carried out in the districts of Kakumiro, Kibaale, Masindi, and Lamwo in Uganda. It focused on district-level government officials involved in the implementation of forest tenure reform in Uganda, but people at the national level who were familiar with forestry and land matters were also interviewed. The study highlighted key challenges and opportunities for future improvements. Analysis of responses shows that:
- As reforms responded to a need for sustainable forest management and livelihood improvements, activities leant towards forest protection, rather than strengthening and securing community forest tenure rights.
- Progress in tenure reform implementation has been below implementers’ expectations, largely due to inadequate funding, onerous processes of registration, declaration and management of Private Natural Forests and Community Forests, or in the case of Collaborative Forest Management, negotiation of rights with Responsible Bodies.
- The main economic, social and political challenges that government officials face in implementing reforms were budgetary limitations, as well as some realities that can also affect rates of change, namely poverty levels in forest-adjacent communities, migration and socio-cultural norms. Research respondents also noted that often, politicians impeded rather than supported reform implementation processes. Some of them derived political capital out of exerting pressure on technical staff to engage in, as well as protect, illegal activities.
- The study revealed a number of technical problems that constrained the implementation of forest tenure reforms. These included the tedious processes involved in getting the rights formalized, community inability to protect and safeguard forest tenure rights, and the entrenched issue of inadequate benefits accruing to communities involved in forest management activities.
- There was no agreement among the respondents about who is responsible for safeguarding community forest tenure rights. Development partners and civil society organizations (CSOs) also undertake activities to support the securing of local tenure rights, such as capacity building, resource mobilization, awareness raising and conflict resolution. However, such support is often short-lived and localized. Although government and CSOs are both involved in reform implementation, there is limited formal coordination between them.
Main findings of the Global Comparative Study on Tenure in Uganda
Since the adoption of the 2003 National Forestry and Tree Planting Act (NFTPA) in Uganda, there have been only a few assessments of how forest tenure reform is progressing. Here we present the key findings of research undertaken as part of the Global Comparative Study (GSC) on Forest Tenure Reform in Uganda, which complements the work that has been done by generating lessons and insights for policy and practice, primarily by:
- examining how forest tenure reforms emerge, while documenting experiences and options for formally enhancing the security tenure rights for forest-adjacent communities
- identifying tenure reform impacts on the rights of women, poor men and ethnic minorities, and their access to forests and trees
- identifying factors that hinder support for reforms and their implementation
- disseminating lessons learned and knowledge generated at district, national, regional and international levels.
Strengthening women’s tenure rights and participation in community forestry in central Uganda
Although women’s rights and participation in forestry are recognized and addressed in Uganda policy and law, the actual practice on the ground still excludes women from participating in decision making and benefiting from forest and tree resources. Cultural norms, beliefs and practices constrain women’s access and control of forest and tree resources. This undermines their investments in sustainable forest use and management and further limits their participation in decision making and benefit sharing. This research explored ways in which women’s rights and access to forests could be strengthened, and mechanisms for enhancing their participation in forest resource management, decision making and benefits sharing. We present lessons from and outcomes of processes of facilitation and negotiation using an adaptive collaborative management (ACM) approach in six randomly selected communities in four districts in Central Uganda. After six years of implementing ACM activities, our findings suggest that despite being usually regarded as “sticky,” with careful facilitation and negotiation, change of gender-based customary norms can be speeded up. These processes can also help determine more just directions of cultural change thereby offering potential for enhancing gender equity over a short period of time. We have learnt that the involvement of men, the provision of safe platforms for women to express themselves, exposure through exchange programmes, leadership training (for both men and women) and support from collaborating partners are essential for enabling gender-transformative outcomes.