Securing tenure rights to communal forests in Masindi district, Uganda

Securing tenure rights to communal forests in Masindi district, Uganda
Author: Mshale, B.
Publisher: CIFOR
Total Pages: 8
Release: 2017-11-14
Genre:
ISBN:

Key messages The Participatory Prospective Analysis process in Masindi district, Uganda, brought together government, private sector, NGO and local communities stakeholders to collectively reflect on factors affecting local tenure rights, forecast future scenarios and propose actionable plans for securing forest tenure rights.Participants identified several factors threatening local forest tenure rights: lack of land ownership documentation; inadequate implementation and enforcement of forest policies, laws and programs; land use changes; gender bias against women; political interference; lack of community awareness of forest tenure rights; and inadequate financial and human resources to effectively protect local people's rights to forests and land.To identify potential barriers and drivers, three workshops were organized. With both forestry and agricultural sectors being male-dominated, a women-only workshop was organized to capture women's perspectives and compare findings with those of the mixed gender group.Four 'key driving forces' impacting forest tenure security were identified by both groups: (1) community participation in forest tenure reform implementation, particularly that of women; (2) access to financial resources to implement forest tenure reform activities; (3) the importance of outside organizations having an awareness of community, cultural and institutional norms and beliefs regarding forest tenure rights; (4) the role played by local and national government agencies and politicians in coordinating and promoting progress towards forest tenure reforms.Women stakeholders emphasized the importance of access to land for forestry activities as critical to securing their rights; they also identified that supportive men and domestic relationships can impact on women's rights to forest land. Mixed group stakeholders identified the role of oil, gas and other industrial activities as a key threat to local forest tenure security.Participants developed four scenarios to anticipate potential future situations impacting on local forest tenure rights. Desirable scenarios depicted a well-governed, well-financed forestry sector characterized by gender equality and participative forest management. Undesirable scenarios were characterized by a dominant oil and gas sector undermining forest sustainability and forest rights; a weak, underfunded and poorly-managed forest sector; forest conversion to other uses; government failure to recognize community rights and integrate communities in forest management; and disappointed, disempowered communities collectively destroying forests for survival instead of managing them sustainably.Several actions were identified to secure local forest tenure rights: (a) making district-level government more responsive to local needs and aspirations around community forest tenure reforms; (b) increasing the number of well-trained district government officers and providing adequate financial resources; (c) facilitating a faster, affordable process for community forest registration, including community incentives; (d) equipping communities with knowledge, skills and resources to enhance their participation in forest tenure reform implementation; (e) promoting environmentally and socially responsible investments to mobilize resources for protecting local people’s forest tenure rights.

Securing the customary tenure rights of forest-dependent communities in Lamwo district, northern Uganda

Securing the customary tenure rights of forest-dependent communities in Lamwo district, northern Uganda
Author: Mshale, B.
Publisher: CIFOR
Total Pages: 8
Release: 2017-11-14
Genre:
ISBN:

Key messages Lamwo district 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.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 exploring the implications of the above 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 which is not too bureaucratic; positive political influences; and 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. Undesirable scenarios are characterized by a lack of these features.Participants recommended the following 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-stakeholders share common interests in protecting the forest and land tenure rights of forestdependent communities under customary tenure systems in the 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.

Safeguarding the forest tenure rights of forest-dependent communities in Uganda

Safeguarding the forest tenure rights of forest-dependent communities in Uganda
Author: Mukasa, C.
Publisher: CIFOR
Total Pages: 8
Release: 2017-11-14
Genre:
ISBN:

Key messages Using a foresighting approach known as the Participatory Prospective Analysis (PPA) methodology, stakeholders at a national-level workshop in Uganda identified several factors with strong influence on forest-dependent communities' forest tenure rights.Influencing factors identified were: forest resource governance; community capacity to sustainably manage forests and demand/defend tenure rights; the priority level of forestry and tenure security for development partners; local norms and beliefs which impact upon vulnerable groups' tenure rights; forestry sector financing in national budgetary allocations; and local communities' legal literacy regarding land/forest tenure.When analyzing the potential evolution of forest tenure security over the next 25 years, stakeholders identified certain desirable potential outcomes: forestry being prioritized in national development plans; availability of adequate financial resources; existence of capable, well-coordinated district and national-level government structures to promote community forest tenure; availability of technical staff with capacity to equip communities with knowledge and skills to enable them to exercise their tenure rights; presence of enterprising communities with skills to innovate and adopt alternatives to forestry products; and effective enforcement of gender-sensitive forestry-related laws and policies, to promote benefit-sharing equity.After analyzing potential future outcomes, both negative and positive, PPA stakeholders recommended prioritizing certain actions to safeguard forest-dependent communities' future forest tenure security. These actions were: improving coordination of key government agencies; adopting inclusive and participatory decision-making processes during tenure-related activity implementation; improving stakeholders' technical and financial capacity through traditional and emerging innovative financing mechanisms; and implementing policies and strategies designed to provide alternative livelihood sources, thus reducing local dependence on forests and forest products.

Drivers and consequences of tenure insecurity and mechanisms for enhancing tenure security: A synthesis of CGIAR research on tenure security (2013–2020)

Drivers and consequences of tenure insecurity and mechanisms for enhancing tenure security: A synthesis of CGIAR research on tenure security (2013–2020)
Author: Mclain, Rebecca
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Total Pages: 42
Release: 2023-09-25
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

Research since the 1990s highlights the importance of tenure rights for sustainable natural resource management, and for alleviating poverty and enhancing nutrition and food security for the 3.14 billion rural inhabitants of less-developed countries who rely on forests and agriculture for their livelihoods. The specific rights or combination of rights held by an individual, household, or community affects whether they have access to land and resources, as well as how those can be used and for how long. Equally important is the degree to which landholders perceive their tenure to be secure. Landowners are more likely to engage in land and resource conservation if they perceive that the likelihood of losing their land or resource rights is low. Between 2013 and 2021, the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM) supported researchers to explore the drivers of tenure insecurity and their consequences, as well as mechanisms that can enhance tenure security. Their work focused on rights held by individuals and households, as well as collectively held rights. Studies found that tenure insecurity has a variety of negative consequences for natural resource management, agricultural productivity, and poverty reduction, but the sources of tenure insecurity differ for men and women, and for individual, household, and collective lands. Statutory recognition of customary rights, multistakeholder processes (MSPs) such as for land use planning, and organized social alliances such as Indigenous peoples’ groups have emerged as important mechanisms for securing rights or enhancing access to collectively held lands. Long-term partnerships, ongoing engagement, and training for actors at multiple scales increase the likelihood of successful implementation of tenure reforms. Further research on tenure security can contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, especially by clarifying how customary tenure can provide security and how tenure affects decision-making in multistakeholder platforms.

Understanding and protecting our forest tenure rights and privileges

Understanding and protecting our forest tenure rights and privileges
Author: Nsita, S.A.
Publisher: CIFOR
Total Pages: 30
Release: 2019-12-20
Genre:
ISBN:

This guide is designed to be used primarily by local community leaders to train the communities they lead. These leaders include district and lower Local Government officials, local council members, civil society staff working at community level, and executive committee members of community institutions, among others. The guide responds to a need for the active participation of local communities in securing and guarding their forest tenure rights through pro-active and innovative actions of empowered and well-informed local community members. The need was identified in the Global Comparative Study on Securing Tenure Rights for Forest Dependent Communities carried out by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) over a period of 4 years (2015–2018). An empowered and well-informed local community would be confident about the rights they have under the law, and be prepared to defend them. And building this confidence with respect to their forest tenure rights involves equipping them with relevant knowledge. This guide is designed to provide the training needed to build this confidence.

Effects of Transaction Costs on Community Forest Management in Uganda

Effects of Transaction Costs on Community Forest Management in Uganda
Author: Joseph Wasswa-Matovu
Publisher: African Books Collective
Total Pages: 96
Release: 2010
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 9994455591

Uganda has 4.9 million hectares of forest resources, which cover 24 percent of the land area. Most of these forests resources have been controlled under customary tenure without clear management schemes. However, in recent years Collaborative Forest Management (CFM) has come to see local communities cooperating with government or its agencies in the management of gazetted forest reserves. Organized in Communal Land Associations (CLA), community members enter into a Memoranda of Understanding/Agreement with the National Forestry Authority (NFA) to manage part or whole of a gazetted forest reserve. In Budongo Sub-county in Masindi District (Western Uganda), a Community Based Organization (CBO), the Budongo Community Development Organization (BUCODO) working with the NFA has piloted CLAs as institutions through which communities can manage their forest resources. Presently little empirical evidence exists that points to the effects transaction costs in Community Forestry (CF) play in retarding the success of such initiatives. This study sought to: Examine the level of transaction costs households faced in community forestry and to gauge their effects on community forestry initiatives; and determine the distribution of community forestry transaction costs across households with diverse socio-economic characteristics and gauge their effects on community forestry initiatives.

Forest Landscape Restoration

Forest Landscape Restoration
Author: John Stanturf
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 322
Release: 2012-11-28
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9400753268

Restoration ecology, as a scientific discipline, developed from practitioners’ efforts to restore degraded land, with interest also coming from applied ecologists attracted by the potential for restoration projects to apply and/or test developing theories on ecosystem development. Since then, forest landscape restoration (FLR) has emerged as a practical approach to forest restoration particularly in developing countries, where an approach which is both large-scale and focuses on meeting human needs is required. Yet despite increased investigation into both the biological and social aspects of FLR, there has so far been little success in systematically integrating these two complementary strands. Bringing experts in landscape studies, natural resource management and forest restoration, together with those experienced in conflict management, environmental economics and urban studies, this book bridges that gap to define the nature and potential of FLR as a truly multidisciplinary approach to a global environmental problem. The book will provide a valuable reference to graduate students and researchers interested in ecological restoration, forest ecology and management, as well as to professionals in environmental restoration, natural resource management, conservation, and environmental policy.

Governing Africa's Forests in a Globalized World

Governing Africa's Forests in a Globalized World
Author: Laura Anne German
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 435
Release: 2009-12-01
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1136545514

Many countries around the world are engaged in decentralization processes, and most African countries face serious problems with forest governance, from benefits sharing to illegality and sustainable forest management. This book summarizes experiences to date on the extent and nature of decentralization and its outcomes - most of which suggest an underperformance of governance reforms - and explores the viability of different governance instruments in the context of weak governance and expanding commercial pressures over forests. Findings are grouped into two thematic areas: decentralization, livelihoods and sustainable forest management; and international trade, finance and forest sector governance reforms. The authors examine diverse forces shaping the forest sector, including the theory and practice of decentralization, usurpation of authority, corruption and illegality, inequitable patterns of benefits capture and expansion of international trade in timber and carbon credits, and discuss related outcomes on livelihoods, forest condition and equity. The book builds on earlier volumes exploring different dimensions of decentralization and perspectives from other world regions, and distills dimensions of forest governance that are both unique to Africa and representative of broader global patterns. The authors ground their analysis in relevant theory while drawing out implications of their findings for policy and practice.

Realising REDD+

Realising REDD+
Author: Arild Angelsen
Publisher: CIFOR
Total Pages: 390
Release: 2009-01-01
Genre: Climatic changes
ISBN: 6028693030

REDD+ must be transformational. REDD+ requires broad institutional and governance reforms, such as tenure, decentralisation, and corruption control. These reforms will enable departures from business as usual, and involve communities and forest users in making and implementing policies that a ect them. Policies must go beyond forestry. REDD+ strategies must include policies outside the forestry sector narrowly de ned, such as agriculture and energy, and better coordinate across sectors to deal with non-forest drivers of deforestation and degradation. Performance-based payments are key, yet limited. Payments based on performance directly incentivise and compensate forest owners and users. But schemes such as payments for environmental services (PES) depend on conditions, such as secure tenure, solid carbon data and transparent governance, that are often lacking and take time to change. This constraint reinforces the need for broad institutional and policy reforms. We must learn from the past. Many approaches to REDD+ now being considered are similar to previous e orts to conserve and better manage forests, often with limited success. Taking on board lessons learned from past experience will improve the prospects of REDD+ e ectiveness. National circumstances and uncertainty must be factored in. Di erent country contexts will create a variety of REDD+ models with di erent institutional and policy mixes. Uncertainties about the shape of the future global REDD+ system, national readiness and political consensus require  exibility and a phased approach to REDD+ implementation.