Upcoming Event

Information Note

Most forest areas are under the formal jurisdiction of governments and forest management has officially been a state matter – through public sector forest agencies – for more than a century in virtually all countries. Over the last 20 years, the commitment to empowering local communities, to decentralizing decision making to local government units and to increasing private sector involvement in forest management has been growing. This development is paralleled by significant shifts in forest tenure and innovative institutional arrangements that are aiming at increasing the direct involvement of stakeholders in forest management.

Understanding the impact of tenure issues and recent trends is essential for governments to promote sustainable use and to formulate effective policies. With current trends in privatization and community involvement in forest management, we are witnessing rapid changes in resource tenure patterns and increasing complexity of stakeholder relations. These changes have social, political and economic implications, which need to be monitored and assessed.

In this framework FAO, has commissioned a series of case studies, with the aim of understanding the role and impact of forest tenure trends on sustainable forest management and poverty alleviation. Case studies have been developed in the following countries: Cameroon, Gambia, Gabon, Ghana, Morocco, Mozambique, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe.

Objective of the workshop

The main objectives of the workshops are:

• presenting, discussing and reviewing the results of the case studies on the impact of forest tenure trends on sustainable forest management and sustainable livelihood;
• discuss and draw conclusions and recommendation about the main implications of forest tenure trends for policy and law development at national and regional level.

Preliminary agenda of the workshop and preliminary list of participant can be found in annex.

The result of the workshop will be presented at the FAO regional workshop Improving Tenure Security for the Rural Poor in Sub-Saharan Africa , which will take place immediately after in Nakuru from 23 to 26 October, 2006

Location

The workshop will take place in Nakuru, from 19 to 21 October.

Venue: Merica Hotel . http://www.mericagrouphotels.com/merica.php.

Partners

The workshop is sponsored by FAO, Forestry Department, in the framework of the FAO Norway PCA 2005-2006: Improving Tenure security of the poor: Support to member countries and the High Level Commission on the Legal Empowerment of the Poor.

The workshop is organized by the Resource Conflict Institute, RECONCILE. http://www.reconcile-ea.org/about.html

Contacts

Tentative Programme

Wednesday, 18 October

Arrival of participants in Kenya, transfer to Nakuru and accommodation at the Merika Hotel

Thursday, 19 October

Friday, 20 October

Saturday, 21 October

Sunday 22 October

Field excursion to xxxxx

Monday 23 to Thursday 26 October

FAO regional workshop Improving Tenure Security for the Rural Poor in Sub-Saharan Africa. Nakuru , Merica Hotel.

Friday 27

Departure

“Improving Tenure Security of the Poor”

within the FAO Corporate Strategy for Sustainable Rural Livelihoods
and More Equitable Access to Resources
(Project FNOP/INT/108/NOR)

Background

In many developing countries formal law is something for the rich, and not for the poor. The High Level Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor (HLC LEP) of the UN sets out to explore how nations can reduce poverty through reforms that expand access to legal protection and opportunities for all citizens, especially the poor.

The work of the HLC LEP scheduled for the next two years is expected to contribute to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Specific issues of tenure identified by the HLC LEP include making property rights accessible for all, especially the poor and marginalized, whether communities, groups or individuals; and ensuring that property rights of the poor and marginalized, particularly in the context of gender equity and those affected by HIV/AIDS, can function as means for economic and social empowerment, including obtaining credit and investment under conditions where they are not exploited.

There is now growing empirical evidence that giving legal recognition to informal property rights to people in urban areas brings positive results. However, a similar body of empirical evidence does not exist for the empowerment of people in rural areas; instead, the signs are mixed which results in a largely sterile and divisive debate on formalisation of rights.

Farming, forestry and fisheries contribute a major share of GDP, income and employment in most countries, and secure access to rural land, forestry and fisheries resources is essential for the sustainable livelihoods of a large portion of the population. In the absence of clearly defined property rights to land and other natural resources, these resources are becoming increasingly scarce and over-utilised because of demographic pressures and other factors, leading to increasing competition and conflicts between different groups including cultivators, herders, urban elites and foreign investors. In many places customary rules and institutions are being eroded without their replacement by appropriate new rules and institutions.

The Project

Objective

The “Improving Tenure Security of the Poor” Project (FNOP/INT/108/NOR) covers FAO activities under the Programme Cooperation Agreement (PCA) between Norway and FAO for the 2005-2006 biennium under corporate strategy A.1 “Sustainable rural livelihoods and more equitable access to resources”, objective 2: Support to member countries and the HLC LEP .

Scope

The work will focus on sub-Saharan Africa where there is the highest incidence of poor and hungry people in the world. Improving secure access to land and other natural resources is, therefore, a crucial factor in the eradication of food insecurity and rural poverty in sub-Saharan Africa.

Duration

The project has a lifespan of twelve months between 01-Apr-2006 and 31-Mar-2007.

Strategy and Approach

The work will focus on specific rural issues of formalisation in a comprehensive way that has not yet occurred and will generate new empirical material that will flow into the deliberations of the HLC LEP's working group on property rights. This would allow for new approaches to be identified, and in a way that addresses the legitimate concerns of those who criticise the formalisation of customary lands. Such an approach would allow for the creation of a strong and widespread support for the methodologies developed through activities carried out in subsequent years. While the work will focus on selected countries in sub-Saharan Africa, most findings related to customary tenure are expected to be relevant in rural areas of other parts of the world.

Work Components and Organisation

The project consists of five major thematic areas. Three of these areas, land tenure , forestry and fisheries relate to the major fields of tenure, their policy and administration, and thus contribute directly to the relevant analytical tracks of the HLC LEP. Two areas focus on critical cross-cutting aspects of the project: gender and HIV/AIDS and Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development (SARD) .

Each thematic component will be the subject of individual, but integrated activities, and will contribute to the broader integrated perspective in relation to rural areas. The work will be complemented by work carried out by the relevant units of FAO as part of its Regular Programme activities, and will draw on other complementary work by the DFID-funded LSP Sub-programme 3.1 (on access to natural resources). In order to achieve this holistic view at the country level the project will implement the five themes in parallel across a few countries in which all five of the themes will be implemented. The development of this broader integrated perspective will be a responsibility of the core administration for the project (a project coordinating unit).

The package as a whole will provide a unique, integrated perspective on property rights for rural people and will focus policy thinking and development on systematic treatment of these issues. This will be valuable both from the perspective of the HLC LEP in formulating and implementing its programme of work, and from the perspective of FAO where such integrated thinking has tended to be ad hoc in the past.

External partners will be contacted to identify interests in providing relevant research material and/or participating in the regional workshops. Potential partners include UN and other international agencies.

Outcomes and Outputs

A series of issues papers and country case studies will be prepared to identify key issues related to how the poor in Africa are losing their rights to land and other natural resources, the main constraints for protecting their rights, and examples of ways in which the rights of the poor and vulnerable, particularly women and those affected by HIV/AIDS, can be protected.

A joint regional workshop will be held in Nakuru, Kenya, between 22 and 28-Oct-2006 to provide an opportunity for participants from selected countries to review issues relating to property rights and begin to develop common strategies for improving the protection of the rights to land, forestry and fisheries resources of the rural poor. The issue papers and country case studies will be used to help focus the discussion and debate at the workshops.

The findings of the regional workshop, together with the issue papers and country case studies, will be used to prepare research papers to inform the HLC LEP and its relevant property rights working group.

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