This presentation was delivered by Anne Larson at the Workshop on Securing Community Rights, Forest Protection and Climate Mitigation at Scale in Oslo. It provides the history and context of community rights initiatives, and suggests lessons from experiences in Brazil and China.

1. Lessons learned from government initiatives
to implement community rights in forests
Workshop on Securing Community Rights, Forest Protection
and Climate Mitigation at Scale
Anne M Larson
5-6 May, Oslo, Norway

2. Outline
 A short history
 Changing context
• Why forest tenure reform?
 Examples of reform
 Challenges
 Lessons for government

3. History: From agrarian reform to
forest tenure reforms
 Land reforms/ agrarian reforms
• Many different types, often emerging to quiet unrest (less radical) or after
revolutions (usu. more radical elimination of landlord class)
• Goals primarily related to addressing land concentration, improving
agricultural production, livelihoods
• 20th century: Mexico, Chile, Peru, Nicaragua, South Korea, China,
Ethiopia…
 Lessons:
• difficulty of implementing without deep government commitment (Gillis et al)
• land reform (redistribution of land) v agrarian reform (credit, extension,
training...)
 Most of these not about forests, though they may include forests
 Colonization programs: goal was to turn “unproductive” and
“uninhabited” forests into productive lands

4. Forest tenure reforms (1)
Characteristics of reform:
 Forests should be maintained or restored
 Rights are for multiple users and collective or communal
 Alienation rights are not granted: land is not commodity

5. THINKING beyond the canopy
Forest tenure reform (2)
Rights:
 International indigenous movement: recognition of
customary/ ancestral rights in international law (ILO
169, court cases, UNDRIP)
Forests:
 Expansion of conservation concerns
 Failure of the state to maintain forests
 30 years of community forestry (Nepal, India…)
 Scholarship on the commons…

7. Legal arenas of reform: entry points*
 Conservation
• Extractive reserves, sustainable development reserves (Br)
• Community based protected areas (Ph)
• Communal reserves (Peru)
 Customary focus (rights recognition)
• Indigenous lands, quilombola lands (Br)
• Ancestral domain lands (Ph)
• Uncontacted peoples territorial reserves (Peru)
 Regulatory use and exploitation of land and NR
• Community based management (Ph)
• Collectively owned forests (Ch)
• Community forests (Cameroon)
• Community concessions (DRC, Guatemala)
*Ribeiro de Almeida (2015): review of 200 legal instruments in 28 countries
Barry et al. (2010), RRI (2012), Pacheco and Benatti (2015), Xu et al. (2010)

8. China
Evolution of China’s Forest Cover
Year Population
(million)
Percentage Area
(Million
Ha)
1840 413 17%
1940 541 11% 109
1970 830 13% 121
1998 1,247 18% 158
2008 1,328 21% 197*
• Fifth largest forest area in
the world
• Largest timber importer and
processor in the world
• Largest area of
afforestation/forest
restoration in history
Source: He et al., 2011 in Robins and Harrell, 2014
Source: Shi et al 2011
based on sixth forest inventory (1999–2003)
Forest distribution map of China
Forest Tenure: Dual System
• State owned forest land
• Collectively owned forest land
RRI (2013): China collective ownership
with household property rights to forest
lands 119.52 Million Ha

9. Brazil
• Largest tropical forest in the
world, second largest forest
area (520 million has)
• Largest annual net loss of
forest in the world 1990-2010
• Brazil Legal Amazon (60% of
total):
• 47% in indigenous lands or
protected areas
• 70% decline in average
annual deforestation rate
from 2005 to 2013
Brazil
Source: RAISG 2012
Forest tenure: public and private
RRI (2013 – millions of has):
• State land administered by state 150.13
• State land designated for communities 35.61
• Owned by IPs and communities 110.81
• Owned by individuals and firms 99.89
Sources: FAO 2010, Nepstad et al. 2014, Duchelle et al. 2014, RRI 2013

10. Deforestation rate
From: Nepstad et al. 2014

11. Common challenges
(1) Resistance, threats, opposition: the norm, getting
support for reform, threaten long term security.
(2) Formalization for whom? In many experiences
throughout the world, there is a history of formalization as
expropriation.
(3) Tenure security is not guaranteed by certifying,
registering or titling; this is just one factor that may
increase security.
(4) What happens in practice / implementation depends
on the role of state, and social mobilization, both for and
against reforms.

12. Nature of reform
Reform
Implementation
Outcome
Adjustment
Opposition
context
history Actor coalitions
conflict
Threats to
tenure security
Appropriation

13. Lessons for government:
getting started
Goal of reform: rights, livelihoods, forest production,
conservation?
• Intl law supports indigenous rights, regardless of other concerns
• Integrated approaches can meet multiple goals
Leadership, to unite across sectors, strong champion –
overcoming opposition, maintaining political will
Know the context for design: potential conflicts, challenges, risks
and unintended consequences of reform
• Multistakeholder participation: those affected by the process
need to be an integral part of it (intended beneficiaries)
• Research (pilots?)

14. Lessons for government:
implementation
Clear roadmap and guidelines for implementation: strong
leadership
• Benefits to those intended
• Protection of weakest, those with less voice - eg migrants, lower
caste or class, women
Monitoring progress: regular feedback to process, adjustments
Formal rights/ recognition is just the beginning
• Formal recognition does not guarantee tenure security: recognize
and support the other factors (collectives, solidarity); ongoing
opposition to reforms
• Recognition alone may not be enough to improve livelihoods or
guarantee forest sustainability

15. Where have reforms progressed
(some preliminary ideas)
Is the reform seen fundamentally as aligning with or in
contradiction to the dominant development strategy for the
country?
Aligning with:
- Progressive, left or populist governments
- End of authoritarian regimes, return to democracy
- Forest restoration, scarcity
Even if in contradiction (in some ways):
- Social unrest, justice – strength of social movements
- Strategic political alliances
- Serious env problems or concerns