Definitions

Forest tenure:	Determines who owns forestland and who uses, manages and makes decisions about forest resources. Sometimes property is used interchangeably with tenure. However, tenure is typically about the way rights are administered than about the estate itself.
Tenure rights:	A bundle of rights ranging from access and use rights to management, exclusion and alienation rights.
Access right(s):	May apply to the right to enter an area; the right to use or withdraw; the right to obtain resources, such as timber, firewood or non-timber forest products; and the right to remove products from the forest.
Management right(s):	Can include tree planting, timber management or the conversion of forestland for agricultural purposes.
Exclusion right(s):	The right to decide who can use the resource(s) and who is prevented from doing so.
Alienation:	The sale or lease of land.
De facto or customary right:	De facto rights are patterns of interactions established outside the formal statutory law. They include customary rights, a set of community rules and regulations inherited from ancestors and accepted, reinterpreted and enforced by the community, and which may or may not be recognized officially by the state.
De jure or statutory right:	De jure or statutory rights deals with a set of rules established and protected by the state (e.g. registered land titles, concession contracts, forestry laws and regulations). They also define the distribution of rights and responsibilities between the state and other actors (local communities, private sector).
Tenure security:	Tenure security refers to the degree of confidence held by people that they will not be arbitrarily deprived of their property rights, their access to resources, or the benefits they derive from their use of the forest. Security of tenure depends less on the nature of the rights individuals and groups hold and more on knowing that such rights will not be unreasonably contested and if they are wrongfully challenged, they will be recognized and supported. Tenure security is examined through the legal lens and takes into account people’s perceptions on tenure security.