Formalizing community rights to forests

In many parts of the world, forests that are managed and used by local communities and Indigenous Peoples are under increasing pressure from outside forces such as commercial plantation development, mining and logging. Also, preservationist approaches to nature conservation may threaten local people’s access to the forest resources they depend on for their livelihoods. In response, civil society organizations (CSOs) have been advocating for the formalization of community rights to forests. Although the large majority of forest lands are still owned and controlled by central governments, opportunities for local people to claim their forest rights have been increasing. Over the last couple of decades, many governments have devolved collective property rights over forested lands to local communities and Indigenous Peoples. This is known as global forest tenure transition.

This publication reflects on the experiences so far, based on a review of academic and NGO publications, and on interviews with a number of international experts. It focuses on three questions:

1) What are the expected outcomes of formalization?
2) What evidence is there to back up these expectations?
3) What are the conditions required to make formalization a success?

The goal of the publication is to provide practitioners and other interested people with an overview of existing knowledge and experiences concerning the formalization of community forest rights.