The Land and Poverty conference presents the latest research and innovations in policies and good practice on land governance around the world. This conference has become one of the largest international events on land governance, attracting over 1,500 participants from governments, academics, civil society, and the private sector.
For more information, please visit the Land and Poverty Conference website.
Gender aspects of land tenure
Gender gaps in forest tenure reforms in Peru: The impact of expectations on the household incomes of native communities
Forest tenure reforms in Peru have transferred use and management rights to indigenous peoples and local communities. In an effort to promote gender equality, the State has promoted joint land titling – that is, shared by women and men. This session discusses what happens when women and men within a household perceive that they have not equally benefitted from these reforms. Data from a 2015 survey of 526 Peruvian households indicate that such differing perceptions could lead to decreased household income. Understanding how women experience the effects of forest tenure reforms can help inform future efforts to increase equality.
Linking tenure to planning in forest land
Tenure security and forest landscape restoration: Results from exploratory research in Boeny, Madagascar
Initiatives to restore forest landscapes are likely to impact millions of hectares and people over the coming decades.
Drawing on recent fieldwork in western Madagascar, this session outlines opportunities for improving how such initiatives
are implemented. Notably, the fieldwork indicates that implementers of restoration initiatives should take care when communicating about restoration, making sure to include all nuances. While tenure security is considered essential to increase uptake of restoration practices, implementers also need to properly understand different tenure types – such as individual and collective – and their associated degree of tenure security. Developing other options for attaining tenure security – beyond formalization – could strengthen restoration initiatives.
Presentation: Tenure security and Forest Landscape Restoration in Boeny, Madagascar
Linking tenure to planning in forest land
Best-bet options for ensuring tropical forest conservation and livelihoods development: Evidence from the community forest concessions in Petén, Guatemala
The Maya Biosphere Reserve in Petén, Guatemala, is a prominent example of how both communities and forests can benefit when local communities gain forest rights. Between 1994 and 2002, 12 forest concessions were granted to communities that established community forest enterprises. A review of the enterprises revealed that when successful, they contributed to both forest conservation and livelihoods development. Join this session to learn more about the multitude of factors that determine how community forest enterprises can grow successful – or fail. These insights can be used to inform community stewardship models for tropical forests elsewhere.
Can participatory land use planning help secure tenure?
Context, power, equity and effectiveness in territorial planning multi-stakeholder commissions: A comparative analysis of two very different Brazilian States
Multi-stakeholder forums are gaining popularity as an innovative approach to land use planning, used to establish good, participatory governance. However, whether such forums are effective tools for achieving sustainable land use remains an open question. This session will explore possible answers by examining an analysis of two multi-stakeholder commissions established in the Brazilian states of Acre and Mato Grosso. The analysis highlights how the differences in context and design of the commissions influence equity and sustainability outcomes.
Recognizing women’s rights over common resources
Women’s tenure security on collective lands: Implications for measurement and policy
The growing efforts to establish tenure security for women are generally focused on individual or household-level land rights – not women’s rights under collective tenure and common property systems, such as forests and rangelands. A framework for assessing women’s tenure security on collective lands will be presented in this session. Presenters will highlight the factors that influence women’s security of land rights in these contexts and will identify the implications for policies and programs that aim to protect or strengthen women’s rights to collective resources.
Special event hosted by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), Bioversity International, Rainforest Alliance and the World Bank
Socioeconomic performance of the community forest concessions in Petén, Guatemala, and implications for community stewardship of tropical forests
This panel discussion will take its starting point from an in-depth review of 12 community forest enterprises in the Maya Biosphere Reserve in Petén, Guatemala. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, communities were granted forest concessions for an area of more than 400,000 ha. So far, most of the 12 enterprises have been widely successful in restoring forest resources and improving local livelihoods. The panel discussion will focus on the role of communities as both beneficiaries and stewards of forest conservation; the strong case made for renewing communities’ concessions once they expire; and lessons on the role of communities in forest conservation and rural development.
Implementing REDD in practice
The REDD+ frontier and the rights of indigenous peoples: Results from a systematic analysis of the scholarly literature and proposals for a way forward
Early warnings that the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) framework might violate indigenous rights are emerging. However, proponents of REDD+ argue that it can be a vehicle to achieve further recognition of indigenous rights. In response to this ongoing debate, this session presents the results of a systematic analysis of scholarly literature exploring how REDD+ projects and processes have affected – positively or negatively – the rights of indigenous peoples.
Enhancing tenure security for forest land
Multi-stakeholder forums as innovation for natural resource management? Results from a realist synthesis review of the scholarly literature
‘Realist review’ has emerged as a specific literature review approach used for explaining the outcomes of complex interventions, particularly through the emphasis on context. This session will present the results of a realist synthesis review of literature on multi-stakeholder forums (MSFs) set up to address land use and land use change at the subnational level. It is based on the finding from prior research that multi-stakeholder processes are being proposed, to some extent, as the new panacea to solve problems such as climate mitigation and land degradation. Our review assesses the role of context in the success and failure of MSFs, which is seldom studied systematically and less so comparatively. The analysis suggests that the key is not how to design initiatives better, given such different and distinct contexts. Rather, it is about how to design engagement better, to address context, whatever its distinct features, in order to develop and implement initiatives with greater chance of success.
Enhancing tenure security for forest land
Local perception of indigenous communal land titling programs in the Peruvian Amazon
What do indigenous communities in the Peruvian Amazon think of communal land-titling programs? Field research conducted in the San Martin and Ucayali regions of Peru indicates that participating indigenous people generally viewed land-titling programs positively and believed these initiatives increased property rights security. However, gaps in government support and confusion over land zoning were identified as areas of concern. This session will explore progress made by land-titling programs and their ability to provide decision makers with information that could improve tenure security and livelihood outcomes for indigenous people in these regions.
Demarcation of indigenous lands
Assessing implementers’ perspective on reform processes: Progress and challenges in formalizing the rights of native communities in Peru
Since 1974, the Peruvian government has formally recognized the collective rights of more than 1,300 native communities with titles to over 12 million ha. Despite this, claims to an estimated 20 million ha of land and forest are still outstanding. This session explores the process of formalizing native communities’ collective rights, particularly from the perspective of government agents involved in implementation procedures and activities. While it is clear that the context is complex, this session will seek to provide lessons on the specific barriers and limitations that hamper more effective progress on formalization of collective rights to forests and lands in Peru.
World Bank publication launch: Special event
Securing forest tenure rights for rural development: An analytical framework
This session is dedicated to the official presentation of the first of a series of World Bank publications on Securing Forest Tenure for Rural Development. This Analytical Framework has been developed to assist policy makers and practitioners interested in understanding and strengthening land and resource tenure in rural forest landscapes. (A short reception will follow.)
Climate change, forest landscape restoration and tenure: Catalyzing restoration from below and above
CIFOR–World Bank plenary panel
Global restoration initiatives draw attention to rapid deforestation, ecological degradation and the loss of forest and agricultural livelihoods. The Bonn Challenge recognizes that durable solutions hinge on delivering social and economic benefits to local people and ensuring that they can influence and participate in restoration initiatives. Evidence strongly suggests that communities with legally recognized statutory or customary rights to forests and other natural resources are
more likely to take ownership of restoration initiatives, and to insist that investments improve local livelihoods as well as improve environmental outcomes. This panel will bring together scientists, restoration leaders as well as representatives from donor countries and nongovernmental organizations to discuss lessons learned from implementing restoration policies that also aim to strengthen community rights to land and forests.
