Beyond Tenure: Rights-Based Approached to Peoples and Forests: Some Lessons from the Forest Peoples Programme
Publisher: Marcus Colchester
Date: 2008
Topics: Land
Countries: Myanmar
In large parts of the world, forests remain the domain of the state in which the rights of forest-dependent peoples are denied or insecure. Efforts to restore justice to, and alleviate the poverty of, these marginalized communities have often focused on tenurial reforms. Sometimes those reforms have led to important improvements in livelihoods, mainly by stabilizing communities’ land use systems and by giving them greater security. However, these improvements have not prevented communities from suffering other forms of social exclusion and impoverishment. On the basis of a review of 17 years of programmatic 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 is to be improved. The conclusion from this review is that programs to reform tenure in forests must be based on a broader understanding of the basis for asserting rights and must take into account a far wider range of human rights than are generally considered in forest policy debates. An effective rights based approach to forestry reform to ensure justice and poverty alleviation requires attention to a much broader spectrum of rights than just the assertion of the right to property. Tenures must be appropriate to the culture and context of the communities concerned. Systems of representation require effective recognition. Communities must be able to control their lands and resources. Cultural heritage should be protected. Basic rights to health and life and to civil and political rights and freedoms need to be secured. Social, cultural, and economic rights need to be respected. Although such rights are often recognized in countries’ constitutions, in international customary law, and in nationally ratified human rights treaties, they are rarely taken into account in narrow sectoral decisionmaking about forests. Forest governance systems must secure this broader spectrum of rights if forest peoples are to benefit from forestry reforms