Assessing the governance of tenure for improving forests and livelihoods

A tool to support the implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure

2019

This tool is intended to help countries evaluate their forest tenure systems, particularly those that facilitate the participation of non-state actors in forestry, including co-management regimes, community forestry, smallholder forestry, large holder forestry, or company concessions granted on State lands. Many countries around the world have parallel tenure systems: statutory tenure (introduced during the colonial period and then adopted by countries upon independence), and customary tenure (based on local rules). Experience shows that statutory tenure is rarely effective, and has resulted in te loss of rights of local communities, an increase in poverty, tenure insecurity for rural communities and others, and conflict. This assessment tool uses the internationally endorsed Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests (VGGT) as its basis, and can be particularly helpful for assessing those that recognize customary tenure in forestry through various participatory forestry initiatives including collaborative forestry arrangements, community forestry, smallholder forestry, and others.

English

Food and Agriculture Organization(FAO)

Book/Monograph