Land tenure and farm management efficiency: The case of smallholder rubber production in customary land areas of Sumatra

This study assesses the impact of land tenure institutions on the efficiency of farm management based on a case study of rubber production in customary land areas of Sumatra, Indonesia. Using the modes of land acquisition as measures of land tenure institutions, we estimated tree planting, revenue, income, and short-run profit functions, and internal rates of return to tree planting on smallholder rubber fields. We find generally insignificant differences in the incidence of tree planting and management efficiency (defined as residual profits) of rubber production between newly emerging private ownership and customary ownership. This is consistent with our hypothesis that tree planting confers stronger individual rights, if land rights are initially weak (as in the case of family land under customary land tenure systems). On the other hand, short-term profits are higher on land that is rented through share tenancy. This result indicates that rubber trees are over-exploited under renting arrangements due partly to the short-run nature of the land tenancy contracts and partly to the difficulty landowners face in supervising tapping activities of tenants in spatially dispersed rubber fields.

Towards improved natural resource management in African agriculture

This paper draws together lessons learned as to how governments and donors might stimulate necessary investment in improved natural resource management (NRM) in African agriculture. Policy interventions to support improved NRM are presented. These policy interventions are built on 5 points: investment, incentives, information, inputs, and institutions.

The role of institutional arrangements and policy on the conservation, utilization and commercialization of indigenous fruits in Southern Africa

Food insecurity, health, especially HIV/AIDS, high levels of unemployment and poverty are some of the key development challenges facing the southern Africa region. To overcome these challenges, most governments are implementing programmes that promote sustainable economic growth to reduce poverty and unemployment. As part of these programmes, rural people are coping with food insecurity and sustaining their livelihoods by using forest products, including wild foods and indigenous fruit trees. These foods supplement their diets and are traded to provide cash income (FAO, 1989). The forests and natural woodlands support millions of livelihoods for people living within and neighbouring them. They provide direct and indirect benefits that include environmental services of soil, water and biodiversity conservation, animal habitats, beauty, tourism, a variety of wood and non-wood products, medicines, herbs and fruits. They are home to several indigenous fruit trees (IFTs) that offer various products and services to rural and urban communities in Africa (FAO, 1989). These IFT products and services have sustained rural and urban livelihoods for thousands of years. The biggest challenge to forest sectors in southern Africa is to promote self-sufficiency in forest products through sustained forest management and biodiversity conservation.

Forest (landscape) restoration governance: Institutions, interests, ideas, and their interlinked logics

Taking a critical social-constructivist perspective and highlighting the power of ideas in forest landscape restoration (FLR) governance, this historically informed contribution seeks to unpack the different rationales at play in global FLR governance. Drawing on three interlinked analytical dimensions—institutions, interests, and ideas (3Is)—the chapter elaborates on three (de)legitimizing narratives of FLR (win-win, implementation, critique) and on the underlying institutions and interests in which their discursive power rests. Based on the 3Is, we identify and critically discuss three key distinct logics that drive FLR policy and practice: (i) the global sustainability logic, (ii) the community logic, and (iii) the production logic. We conclude that if the inherent historical power structures in FLR design and implementation are not recognized and addressed, then the currently dominant FLR logics are likely to produce many “win-lose” or “lose-lose” projects.

Finding the right institutional and legal framework for community-based natural forest management: the Tanzanian case

As community involvement in natural forest management expands and matures, the need to lodge the rights and obligations of both state and community in workable and legally binding institutional frameworks becomes more pressing. This is particularly so where power and authority are being redistributed. This publication looks specifically at Tanzania, where forest-local communities are beginning to be designated as the management authority of particular woodlands and, in some cases, even their owners. Positive results are giving considerable support to community-based management as the forest management strategy of choice. Implementation has of necessity also prompted a search for accessible mechanisms through which community authority may be embedded legally. The author argues that, in this respect, Tanzania has an advantage over many sub-Saharan African states in the unusual manner of legal identity granted to rural communities, and in supporting administrative and land laws which provide for village-based control over natural resource management. Specific elements explored include the fact that rural villages in Tanzania are recognised as a formal level of government, endowed thereby with certain rights and obligations; that the rural village may attain legal corporate status allowing it, inter alia, to own and manage property in ways accountable in a court of law; and that property law provides for a modern, statutory version of communal tenure, within the bounds and accountability of a private legal person. Wily provides a step-by-step guide to the ways in which a forest-adjacent community may secure custodianship over a local natural forest, whether it be an already gazetted Forest Reserve or public land forest, and be held accountable for sound conservationary management.

Ecological criteria and indicators for tropical forest landscapes: challenges in the search for progress

In the quest for global standards, “Criteria and Indicators” (C&I) are among the foremost mechanisms for defining and promoting sustainable tropical forest management. This paper examines some challenges posed by this approach, focusing on examples that reflect the ecological aspects of tropical forests at a management-unit level and assessments such as those required in timber certification. C&I can foster better forest management. However, there are confusions and tensions to reconcile between general and local applications, between the ideal and the pragmatic, and between the scientific and the democratic. To overcome this requires a sober appraisal of what can realistically be achieved in each location and how this can best be promoted. Good judgment remains the foundation of competent management. Data can inform this judgment, but an over-reliance on data collection and top-down bureaucratic interventions can add to problems rather than solving them. These arguments stress compromise, planning, guided implementation, and threat preparedness. Importance is also placed on skills and institutions: the building blocks of effective forest management. The authors suggest some options for improving forest management. Although a wider discussion of these issues is necessary, procrastination is harmful. Action is needed.

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