In recent years, a strong push has been underway to expand the scope and number of forest carbon market initiatives (FCMIs) to meet climate change mitigation goals set by the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC). The Cancun Safeguards of 2010 established an international policy commitment to assure that FCMIs would align with social safeguards (among other goals) to protect the rights and well-being of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IP&LCs). Despite the rapid growth of FCMIs in recent years, several studies have raised concerns about their implementation and the rights and well-being of local communities. In response to anecdotal reports of rights violations, we conducted a literature review, drawing on 94 sources, to understand the reality on the ground. An eight-principle framework was proposed for evaluating FCMIs’ impacts on the rights and well-being of IP&LCs, providing a structured approach to assess equity and effectiveness. There are two main findings. First, there have been significant violations of the rights of IP&LCs in recent years. Second, there is a widespread lack of empirical evidence on the implementation of safeguards to protect local rights. Measures are necessary to strengthen protections and transparent monitoring, reporting, and verification of the implementation of safeguarding the rights of IP&LCs. This review contributes actionable insights and a framework to inform the design and implementation of more effective and equitable FCMIs.
Tag: customary rights
Evolution of land tenure institutions and development of agroforestry: evidence from customary land areas of Sumatra
It is widely believed that land tenure insecurity under a customary tenure system leads to a socially inefficient resource allocation. This article demonstrates that the practice of granting secure individual ownership to tree planters spurs earlier tree planting, which is inefficient from the private point of view but could be efficient from the viewpoint of the global environment. Regression analysis, based on primary data collected in Sumatra, indicates that an expected increase in tenure security in fact led to early tree planting. It is also found that customary land tenure institutions have been evolving towards greater tenure security responding to increasing scarcity of land.
Lessons on land tenure and forest landscape restoration (FLR): A focus on sub-Saharan Africa
Global commitments require an increase in forest area, while agriculture land is declining in quality and there is a growing population to feed. Such commitments include: 30X30, which commits to expand forests and protected areas to 30% of the world’s land area by 2030; the Bonn Challenge, which has a goal of restoring 350 million ha of degraded and deforested land; and the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration which seeks to prevent, stop, or reverse ecosystem degradation. In this context, it is important to remember that over half of the world’s land area is under customary ownership and/or used by Indigenous Peoples and local communities – who are among some of the most marginalized populations on the planet.
REDD+ safeguards in Indonesia: Lessons from East Kalimantan
Summary
- In 2015, East Kalimantan was selected as the pilot Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) province in Indonesia. This required government agencies to comply with the World Bank’s safeguards standards, which go beyond most reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and enhancement of forest carbon stocks (REDD+) countries’ legal and policy frameworks for community rights.
- In the context of the FCPF initiative, East Kalimantan has issued regulations, published formal documents (Indigenous Peoples framework and benefit sharing plan), and implemented a regional regulation for a feedback and grievance redress mechanism integrated with the National Public Service Complaint Management System (SP4N LAPOR!).
- Customary rules and sanctions are used to regulate resource management and tenure arrangements at the community level, but the resolution of tenurial conflicts falls under government authority. A history of conflicts between communities and private companies has led to wide acceptance of the Social Forestry programme.
- Research participants perceived free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) to be the least challenging aspect of safeguards to comply with. This was due to the familiarity many non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working with communities have with FPIC. Challenges remain regarding the clarity of FPIC processes, and ensuring the participation of all communities that will be impacted by FCPF activities, and women in those communities.
- Research participants perceived the benefit sharing mechanism to be the most challenging aspect related to community engagement in the FCPF initiative. Incentives derived from results-based payments will be managed by the Environmental Fund Management Agency, and an intermediary organization has been developed to disburse incentives.
Gender analysis to inform the development of gender transformative approaches to enhance women’s land rights in Colombia
The IFAD project “Building Rural Business Capacities, Trust and Opportunity – TOP Colombia – El Campo Emprende” (henceforth TOP Colombia) aimed to address inequality and poverty in rural Colombia and promote equal access to basic services, particularly rural financial services. It was a joint effort between the Colombian Government and IFAD, implemented by Colombia’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. The project employed approaches and mechanisms effectively used in the Rural Opportunities Programme, with a focus on demand and self-management orientation. TOP Colombia built on the Rural Microenterprise Development Support Project (PADEMER), which had been approved in 1996 and completed in June 2007. The following month, in July 2007, TOP Colombia began. This project was expected to serve close to 30,000 direct beneficiaries with an investment of USD 19 million (Ministerio de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural & Ministerio de Hacienda y Crédito Público, 2011). The project initiated the Programme for the Development of Investment Opportunities and Capitalization of Rural Microenterprise Assets (RURAL OPPORTUNITIES), a six-year intervention to benefit 32,000 poor rural families and micro-enterprises. It entailed an investment of USD 30 million, of which USD 20 million were a loan from IFAD (Ministerio de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural & Ministerio de Hacienda y Crédito Público, 2011).
Examining support for the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities in the context of REDD+ in Indonesia
Summary
- This flyer presents findings on research examining ten criteria regarding the level of support for Indigenous People and local community (IPLC) rights in the context of REDD+ in Indonesia.
- Indonesia has been involved in REDD+ from the outset and has developed various instruments to support its implementation, including a safeguards information system (SIS) that includes social safeguards recognizing the rights of IPLCs.
- IPLC rights are mentioned in different implementing regulations in piecemeal fashion, e.g., aspects of free, prior and informed consent in regulations on access to information or protection of human rights. In contrast, rights to land and forest tenure are much more comprehensive, e.g., through schemes under the Social Forestry programme.
- The implementation of safeguards for REDD+ and other forest-based initiatives must engage customary (adat) communities and respect their rights, knowledge and participation, as highlighted in Indonesia’s updated nationally determined contribution (NDC).
Land rights of indigenous peoples and local communities
Countries’ climate mitigation pledges rely on unrealistic amounts of land-based carbon removal, totaling 1.2 billion hectares – an area larger than the United States and four times the size of India. Reforestation is slated for just over half (633 Mhas) and restoration for the rest (551 Mhas). Importantly, most pledges also pay little attention to who is living on, using and managing these lands, much less to existing land rights of Indigenous Peoples (IPs) and local communities (LCs).
Historical precedents are not reassuring. Without an understanding of history and power relations shaping the rights of IPs and LCs to land and territory, any attempt to fulfil these climate pledges is likely to perpetuate injustices. Chapter 4 of the Land Gap Report provides a succinct summary of the evidence of IP and LC dispossession, recognition and ongoing insecurity. It also proposes that the most effective and just way forward is to ensure that indigenous peoples and local communities have legitimate and effective ownership and control of their land. They must also have a strong voice to self-represent and engage on equal terms – ultimately exercising self-determination in the search for sustainable pathways for use of their lands and territories.
For the full report, including references, please see landgap.org
Land Tenure Reform in Sub-Saharan Africa: Interventions in Benin, Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Zimbabwe
Since 2000, many African countries have introduced programs aimed at providing smallholder farmers with low-cost certificates for land held un-der customary tenure. Yet there are many contending views and debates on the impact of these land policies and this book reveals how tenure security, agricultural productivity, and social inclusion were affected by the interven-tions. It analyses the results of carefully selected, authoritative studies on in-terventions in Benin, Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Zimbabwe and applies a realist synthesis methodology to explore the socio-political and economic contexts. Drawing on these results, the book argues that inadequate attention paid to the core characteristics of rural social systems obscures the benefits of customary tenure while overlooking the scope for reforms to reduce the gaps in social status among members of customary communities. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of land manage-ment and use, land and property law, tenure security, agrarian studies, political economy, and sustainable development. It will also appeal to development professionals and policymakers involved in land governance and land policy in Africa.
Forty-year multi-scale land cover change and political ecology data reveal a dynamic and regenerative process of forests in Peruvian Indigenous Territories
This article explores deforestation and reforestation dynamics over 415,749 hectares of 25 titled Indigenous Community Lands (ICLs) in the Peruvian Amazon over forty years at three scales: total area, regions, and communities. We focus on ICLs as the territorial unit of analysis, as they are increasingly discussed regarding their importance for conservation. Additionally indigenous communities (ICs) are a too-marginalized group in the Amazon that merit more attention. Analyses of this kind are often short-term and use only large-scale Earth Observation methodologies. We use a multi-method approach linking remote sensing with ground verification, and qualitative historical political ecology work with ICs. We find that overall accumulated deforestation was low at 5%, but that when reforestation is considered, net deforestation was only 3.5%. At the community level deforestation and afforestation dynamics are complex, except for one period that indicates a macro state driver in the region. Results suggest inadequate accounting for forest regeneration in deforestation analyses and challenge the notion that presenting stakeholders with accumulated forest loss values is helpful in tropical areas where forests and people are dynamic. Furthermore, our work with communities highlights that categorizing them and their lands as pro-environment or not in general terms is unhelpful for determining fund flows to ICLs for environmental or development purposes.
Rights-Based Approaches in Climate Change, Conservation and Development Initiatives: Preliminary analysis and recommendations from a review of the scholarly literature
Rights-Based Approaches (RBAs) purposefully position the recognition of, respect for, and access to individual and collective rights as central to an initiative’s planning, design, implementation, monitoring process, and outcomes. In mainstream climate change, conservation, and development programs and policies, this means refocusing the relationship between ‘beneficiaries’ and ‘implementers’ to one of right holders and duty-bearers. RBAs hold growing discursive importance in relation to the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPs and LCs) in conservation and climate change spheres and the agendas of international agencies.
The growing interest in RBAs, and their inclusion in frameworks that will guide development, conservation, and climate projects over the next decade is laudable. However, there is a shortage of analysis of RBA experiences, both their conceptualization and practice. Such analysis would advance discussions on the impact of these approaches and provide lessons to enable transformative change.
This review is a preliminary assessment that aims to advance the ongoing conversation on RBAs. Our primary interest is the conception and implementation of RBAs in forest-based initiatives, but we reviewed the wider scholarly and gray literature on RBAs in development, conservation, and climate action initiatives. The review was complemented by interviews with a multi-actor group of specialists and advocates.