Over the past two decades, growing recognition of forest-based Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPs and LCs) sparked forest tenure reforms to formalize IP and LC rights to forests and forest lands through a variety of mechanisms. Nevertheless, tenure security, an intended objective of such reforms, has received less attention, despite being integral to the life and livelihoods of IPs and LCs and important for forests. Formal rights – a title, certificate or contract – is often used as an inadequate proxy for security, though the need to understand perception has been increasingly recognized. But understanding perceptions around tenure (in)security also raises the challenge of unpacking what people mean when they say they perceive tenure to be secure or insecure. This article explores perceptions of tenure (in)security using a novel approach – Participatory Prospective Analysis (PPA), a multi-stakeholder foresight scenario-building method. The research explores tenure security scenarios in Indonesia, Peru and Uganda drawing on results from a series of workshops implemented in 2015 and 2016 primarily at subnational level, with 177 government officials, practitioners and members of community level organizations involved in forest tenure reforms. Four women-only workshops (three subnational and one national) were organized in Peru and Uganda with an additional 87 participants. The results demonstrate the immense depth and complexity of tenure security and insecurity perceptions and the interplay of multiple factors driving toward and away from desirable futures. The method also demonstrates the benefits of PPA for bringing together different perspectives and promoting mutual understanding without reducing complexity. The article contributes to efforts to find common ground not only around how tenure (in)security is defined but also how it is being assessed; and points to the need to embrace more holistic approaches in practice for the future of forest dependent communities and forest landscapes.
Tag: forest communities
Determinants of swidden communities’ land-use decision-making for different crops in Son La and Nghe An provinces, Vietnam
Conflicts of interest between forest conservation and livelihoods of swidden communities in Vietnam have been widely recognized by policy makers and scholars. However, policies and solutions to date have been based on a limited understanding of land use decisions and factors influencing these changes and strategies. This study addresses this gap by analyzing factors affecting farmers’ land use decision-making in three swidden communities in Nghe An and Son La provinces, Vietnam. Our findings show that swidden communities’ land use strategies were built on the cultural, social and economic statuses of households in response to government policies on the restriction of swidden farming, promotion of industrial forest plantations, and changes in environmental and market conditions. Our findings suggest that future policy interventions are unlikely to overcome existing conflicts between conservation and development without considering macro policies, continuous environmental and social changes, and diverse household characteristics and interests.
Response strategies of woody seedlings to shading and watering over time after topsoil translocation in dry-hot karst region of China
Translocating topsoil from an appropriate donor forest is a promising strategy to restore seriously degraded sites. However, some dominant or constructive species did not survive due to plant stress in the seedling stage, which ultimately led to a poor community structure and low similarity between new communities and donor forest. In this study, we replaced the topsoil of karst rocky desertification with forest topsoil and imposed different shading and watering treatments following quadratic saturation D-optimum design. Richness, abundance, height and base diameter of woody species (trees + shrubs) were measured yearly to construct mathematical equation between them and shade degrees (SD) and water quantity (WQ) by using multiple stepwise regression. Results displayed a positive linear relationship between richness of woody species and SD at the second year of topsoil translocation, which changed to a parabolic relationship at the fifth year with a maximum 30.8 species when SD was 37.5 %. The positive linear relationship between density of woody species, shrubs and trees and SD at the second year transformed into a parabolic relationship at the fifth year, and density reached maximum 6.3, 3.7 and 3.8 seedlings/m2 when SD were 41.7, 38.9 and 45.0%, respectively. In contrast, the density of Paliurus orientalis and Sophora viciifolia turned into a negative linear relationship with SD at the fifth year. Moreover, although the effect of SD and WQ on height of woody species increased over time, shading inhibited base diameter of shrubs and height of Quercus cocciferoides, Sapium sebiferum and Fraxinus malacophylla at the fifth year. We concluded that no-shading and heavy shading reduced species diversity, and light to moderate shading should be recommended in first 2–3 years after topsoil translocation to enhance woody species survival and accelerate similar forest community establishment providing guidance for the management, regeneration and restoration of native forest in semi-arid areas.
Lessons towards rights-responsive REDD+ safeguards from a literature review
Safeguards for REDD+ arose in response to serious concerns voiced by forest-dependent Indigenous Peoples and local communities, and non-governmental organizations, over its potential to infringe upon their rights and territories. Several institutions have also developed voluntary standards for REDD+, in addition to safeguards guidelines adopted by multilateral funding institutions. This working paper examines safeguards experiences in REDD+ and other natural resource management initiatives to understand when safeguards work, for whom, and why. It seeks to extract lessons for rights-responsive safeguards standards and guidelines to protect and support the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities, and the women within those groups. This work, carried out under CIFOR’s Global Comparative Study on REDD+, is part of a series on REDD+ safeguards, focusing on the rights and social inclusion concerns of the women and men of the Indigenous Peoples and local communities that steward the forests where climate solutions are implemented.
The growth performance of dipterocarps species and understorey diversity in the Gunung Dahu Research Forest, Leuwiliang, Bogor
Dipterocarps species is the main species composes Gunung Dahu research forest. Habitat suitability and growth performance of a species are some factors considered in the species selection for forest establishment. The understorey in a forest community serves to protect soil from erosion. This research aimed is to analyze the growth performance of various Dipterocarpaceae species and study understorey diversity in the research area. The measurement was conducted in four species trial plots contain ten Dipterocarps species consist of five individuals per species per plot or 200 individuals in total. The growth performance of Dipterocarp species was analyzed using the current annual increment (CAI) and mean annual increment (MAI) methods. The understorey diversity was analyzed using the Shannon-Wiener Index. The result showed that Shorea johorensis obtained the highest CAI, 0.95 cm year-1, and Shorea platyclados got the highest MAI, 1.78 cm/year. S. platyclados and S. leprosula were projected to reach <40 cm in diameter after they got 25 years. The Gunung Dahu research forest's understorey was classified as moderate (1.68-2.33). The dominant understorey species, namely Oldenlandia auricularia, Neprolephis biserrate, Ottochloa nodosa, and Gleichenia linearis. This study concluded that the growth performance of Dipterocarps species in the study area varied, and the understorey condition was classified as moderate, where its diversity has a positive correlation with the crown openness. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.