Beyond tenure: rights based approaches to peoples and forests. Some lessons from the Forest Peoples Programme

Although the historical focus on tenure reforms has resulted in some important improvements in the livelihoods of forest communities, it has not prevented them from suffering social exclusion and impoverishment. Based on a review of 17 years of work with forest peoples in Africa, Asia, and Latin America by the Forest Peoples Programme, this paper explores the complexity of rights that need recognition if community-based livelihoods in forests are to be secured and well-being further improved.The case studies used in the paper illustrate the need for recognition of some the following rights of forest peoples, which in some countries do not exist:

have free pursuit of the right to choose to market and/or commercialize forest products from their domains
be protected from slavery, debt-bondage, and other slavery-like practices
be given redress for and the restitution of illegally expropriated natural resources.

The paper ends by suggesting some steps of what forestry departments and development agencies need to do to make these rights operational. For forestry departments the recommendations include:

invest sufficient time and resources into recognising land claims and resolving land conflicts, including processes for supporting community-led mapping
ensure full transparency and public access to information in land and forest designation, licensing, and concession systems
ensure the existence of national legislation that explicitly respects rights of indigenous peoples as set out in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

For development agencies the recommendations include the following:

support inclusive reviews of the national forest sector using a rights-based approach, with the aim of identifying practical steps to secure peoples’ rights
support community-level trainings on the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
givetargeted direct support to community initiatives on forest management
support initiatives for implementation of the right to free, prior, and informed consent through for example locally developed guides and third-party verification.