Reforming forest tenure. Issues, principles and process

Secure tenure is an important prerequisite for sustainable forest management. More diversified tenure systems could provide a basis for improving forest management and local livelihoods, particularly where the State has insufficient capacity to manage forests. In the past decade many countries have initiated efforts to reform their tenure arrangements for forests and forest land, devolving some degree of access and management from the State to others, mainly households, private companies and communities. This publication provides practical guidance for policy-makers and others concerned with addressing forest tenure reform. Drawing from many sources, including forest tenure assessments carried out by FAO in Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America and Central Asia, it deduces lessons about what works and what does not, and why. It formulates a set of ten principles to guide tenure reform, and proposes an adaptive process for diversifying forest tenure in a context-appropriate way. The publication emphasizes that successful tenure reform is linked with reform in associated regulatory frameworks and governance arrangements, and must be seen in the context of a wider national development agenda.